Safra closes the purchase of another bank from the heirs of Aloysio Faria

Less than a week after announcing the purchase of Alfa bank in Brazil for R$ 1 billion, the J. Safra Group closed an agreement to acquire another asset from the heirs of banker Aloysio de Andrade Faria, the Delta National Bank, headquartered in New York .

The deal reinforces the conglomerate’s appetite for wealthy Latin American customers amid the offensive of Brazilian banks in the United States, focusing on the high-income public. The financial value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The operation was already being negotiated between the Safra and Faria families in parallel with the sale of the Alfa bank in Brazil, Estadão/Broadcast found out. Although they are different institutions, with operations in their respective countries, there was an understanding that the buyer of the business in the country would also sell the asset in the USA.

Founded in 1986, Delta National Bank focuses on the Private segment. At the time, the owners of the then Banco Real obtained two licenses to operate in the North American market and created the Delta National Bank and Trust Company of New York and the Delta National Bank and Trust Company of Florida.

Years later, the businesses were consolidated and gave rise to the Delta National Bank and Trust Company, with headquarters in New York and a branch in Miami.

The US business was maintained by the former owners of Banco Real, as was the wholesale operation in Brazil, focusing on companies and high-income customers, despite the sale of retail banking – incorporated by ABN and later sold to Santander Brazil, in the past.

Now, the bank in NY will change hands to Safra, following the same fate as the conglomerate in Brazil.

Offensive

The transaction takes place amid the offensive of Brazilian banks in the US in recent years. Bradesco recently announced an investment of over US$ 230 million (about R$ 1.2 billion) to accelerate its growth in North American territory, two years after buying BAC Florida, headquartered in Miami and which became call Bradesco Bank.

At the same time, rival Itaú Unibanco also centralized its North American business in the region, in search of greater expansion, while Banco do Brasil gave up on disposing of its operation in the USA.

For the chairman of the board of directors of Safra National Bank of New York, Jacob J. Safra, Delta “fits perfectly” with the bank’s business and is a strategic step for the group to grow in the United States and Latin America. “This transaction highlights the importance of the Latin American market for the J.Safra Group and represents an attractive opportunity to expand our position in the region”, he said, in a press release.

The deal also reinforces the “strength” of the Safra name in the Private segment around the world, in the opinion of the CEO of Safra National Bank of New York, Simoni Morato. According to her, the deal involves not only Delta customers, but also the entire team at the bank based in New York.

The president of the Delta National Bank and Trust Company, Guillermo Sefair, highlighted the similarity between buyer and seller, both being from traditional Brazilian banking families. “We are fully committed to this new chapter,” he said.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023, depending on approvals from the responsible regulatory bodies. With US$300 billion in assets, the J. Safra Group has units in São Paulo, Brazil, New York, USA, and Basel, Switzerland.