VBI — the real estate fund manager controlled by Pátria — said today that it bought four FIIs that belonged to Blue Macaw, the manager founded by Marcelo Fedak, the former head of real estate assets at Blackstone in Brazil.
The four target funds of the transaction are BLMO11 and BLCA11, both from corporate slabs; the BLMR11, a fund of funds; and BLMC11, a fund that invests in CRIs.
Together, the four FIIs have BRL 400 million in assets under management.
In addition to the four funds, Blue Macaw has just one more FII — the BLMG11 — of logistics warehouses. In October, Oaktree invested BRL 235 million in this fund, helping to reduce its leverage, one of the major concerns of shareholders.
As part of the transaction, Fedak is becoming a partner at Pátria, leading the vertical of real estatewhile the other three partners at Blue Macaw — Ariel Almeida, Tadeu Ferreira Jorge and Manuela Aguiar — are leaving the manager, but should continue to be involved in the assets of BLMG11. For now, Blue Macaw will continue to exist as the manager of BLMG11, with Fedak managing the fund in parallel with his functions at Pátria.
In recent months, some partners seniors from Blue Macaw had already left the firm: Celina Vaz, the IR director, left for Paladin Realty, while Caroline Ebel, the CFO, left for another manager.
Founded in 2019, Blue Macaw was born when Blackstone decided to close its operation in Brazil. At the time, Fedak set up Blue Macaw bringing practically his entire team from Blackstone, and agreed with the American manager to receive a fee to manage and liquidate the assets it had in the country.
At first, Blue Macaw’s idea was to raise a fund focused on opportunistic transactions — but it didn’t get the capital, and ended up entering the FII market. In 2020, XP bought a stake of around 30% in the manager.
“The big problem is that the market closed before they might scale the deal,” says an industry source. “With that, they were left with a large structure, with a senior team, and with little revenue to face it.”
With the business stagnant, Blue Macaw began to lose partners and Fedak tried to sell the manager a few times. According to sources, Capitânia and HSI even made offers for the company and Jive almost took the deal. Negotiations ended up not going forward due to price issues.
For VBI, the transaction is opportunistic and will help the manager grow at a complex time for the real estate fund market.
“To grow in this market, you either raise a new fund, or make new issues or do M&As,” said a source close to the manager. “And today the window for new funding is completely closed.”
VBI has eight other funds listed, with BRL 6.5 billion in assets under management.
The manager said that there is a great synergy between the four acquired funds and the VBI portfolio, which also has FIIs in the segments of corporate slabs and CRIs.
Last year, Pátria bought 50% of VBI with an option to buy 100% of the capital in three years.
Peter Arbex
