South-South Cooperation: Africa's largest bank to move its headquarters to Sao Paulo, Brazil

Standard Bank Group Ltd., the Johannesburg-based bank has hired Eduardo Centola from Goldman Sachs Inc. to head it's headquarters in Brazil, which will represent the bank in the greater region of the America's.

In this bloomberg article president of Banco Standard de Investimentos, the Brazilian unit of the bank stated: “The epicenter for the Americas needs to be a country like Brazil, which is the most promising emerging country in the region. Our plan in Brazil is for the long term.”

Standard Bank Group will form a private equity fund of about $250 million to invest in Brazil. Very interesting to see Africa and South America "brushing shoulders."

Since the start of this site, I don't think I've once stumbled on a story of Africa making a investment in South America. I've had many posts about leaders from the two regions meeting with one another, but never about a African bank entering a South American market as a new investor.

It will be interesting to see what form South American-African Economic Cooperation will take in the future. With the global economy as it is today it is inevitable, two continents which lie at opposite ends of the ocean from one another (like the US with Europe and Asia) shouldn't have a open exchange.

At the moment however, the two areas have a similar niche in the global economy as commodity producers. However, as the investment above shows, there is room for each region to help each other in its respective development.

Creating a fund for investing in Brazilian companies is a perfect example. This particular bank from South Africa will be earning returns (hopfully) from investing in Brazilian companies that need cash and have aspirations to grow into bigger and more profitable entities.

Very nice. Very nice indeed.