The 2014 All-Brazil Research Team: Chemicals & Oil, No. 2: Gustavo Gattass

Gustavo Gattass BTG Pactual First-place appearances: 5

Total appearances: 9

Team debut: 2006

Gustavo Gattassfalls from first place to the No. 2 position he most recently held in 2010. The BTG Pactual analyst, who works out of Rio de Janeiro, “has great insight, not only into the companies but also into the macro situation in Brazil,” says one admirer, who also highlights Gattass’s “consistently written, well-thought-out research pieces.” Oil stocks in the sector have performed well this year, Gattass notes, but chemicals names have fared poorly. Indeed, over the first seven months of 2014, Brazil’s oil companies gained 8.9 percent, while its chemicals players plummeted 33.2 percent; over the same period the country’s broad market climbed 5.2 percent. He is not optimistic going forward. “The combination of a potential turnaround in investor expectations for Brazil’s elections and a potential slowdown in Brazil’s economy in 2015 make us see QGEP [Participações] as the only interesting name in our coverage universe now,” explains Gattass. The Rio de Janeiro–based oil and natural gas provider boasts a strong managment team, he says, and in February announced positive results from production tests in the Santos Basin Atlanta field off the coast of Rio. That site “has not been recognized properly by investors,” he adds, “but could be in a few years’ time.”