In pandemic-battered Brazil, 3G Capital founders hunt for real estate deals

Firms linked to billionaires target office, retail and long-term rentals

Sao Carlos CFO Fabio Itikawa. (Getty, YouTube via Levante Investimentos)
Sao Carlos CFO Fabio Itikawa. (Getty, YouTube via Levante Investimentos)

Firms linked to the billionaire founders of 3G Capital are on the hunt for real estate deals in pandemic-battered Brazil.

The companies — tied to Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira — are looking to buy discount properties, with a focus on strip malls, office space and long-term rental apartments, according to Bloomberg.

One of the firms, Sao Carlos, specializes in office flips and has closed two deals worth about $14 million, and has another $125 million available for future acquisitions, according to the report.

“The next 18 months will be very challenging for commercial real estate and that’s the time to make purchases, because sellers tend to get more flexible on prices,” said Sao Carlos CFO Fabio Itikawa.

The Brazilian government has struggled to combat the coronavirus over the last year. Daily cases and deaths are on the rise, with the spread of a Covid-19 variant. Nearly 4,200 deaths were recorded on Tuesday, marking the first day with more than 4,000 deaths in the country of 212 million.

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Telles and one of Lemann’s children, Jorge Felipe Lemann, are looking for deals in the residential space, and developing rental buildings in some of Sao Paolo’s pricier neighborhoods via JFL Holdings.

They aren’t the only ones hoping to capitalize on the pandemic climate. Distressed debts funds raised billions of dollars over the last year, although some have had trouble finding opportunities to deploy that money.

Many firms keep collecting funds, however. Cerberus recently raised $2.8 billion for an opportunistic real estate fund, beating its $2 billion target.

[Bloomberg] — Dennis Lynch