Yesterday the board of directors of Ideiasnet, a company with interest in technology and internet businesses, elected the new CEO of the company. The board members went far to find the ideal candidate: he is Luis Alberto Monteiro Lobato Reátegui, which was born in Peru, but lived in Rio de Janeiro most of his life, where he earned a degree in industrial engineering from PUC-RJ. "I consider Rio my hometown. It only takes two minutes for me to get used to it again", Reátegui plays.

 

Monteiro Lobato Reátegui takes over

Ideiasnet with the goal of pursuing

new opportunities and leaving mature businesses

 

The approach started in February, by means of some board members Reátegui knew from the time he worked for a bank. Reátegui's father, who is already dead, was a Peruvian diplomat. His mother, as the executive's family name  shows, is related to the family of writer Monteiro Lobato. "We are from Minas, while he was from Taubaté, in the countryside of São Paulo", says the executive.

Reátegui held several positions at Banco Bozano, Simonsen between 1993 and 1999. He was responsible for the operations in London, where he lived for two years, and in New York, where he lived for almost the same period of time. At the beginning of the decade, he joined Santander, which had acquired Bozano, Simonsen, before he went to study in the United States and, later, he went to Peru. 

To take over the management of Ideiasnet, Reátegui will leave two own businesses in Peru, of which he is the partner, under the supervision of other executives: Valora Autos, a franchise of the car rental company Localiza, and Latam Traders, which trades hydrobiological and agricultural products, such as fish flour. 

"It is this profile, which gathers the experience of a businessman and the operation in the financial market, we consider essential for somebody who will take over Ideiasnet in its current phase", says George Ellis, founder and vice chairman of the board of Ideiasnet.

The coming of Reátegui is one more step towards the route of professionalization recently started at Ideiasnet, jointly with a process to improve the business and attract investors. 

"The role of Reátegui will be to pursue higher investments and with a higher margin for shareholders and prepare the leaving of Ideiasnet from more mature companies, such as Officer (distributor of technology products) and Padtec (manufacturer of equipment for communication networks)", says Carlos Aquinaga, chairman of the board of Ideiasnet.

The coming of Aquinaga to the company, in February, was one step towards the professionalization, which gave room to the round of investment which marked the coming of the businessman Eike Batista to the company, in May. 

EBX, the holding company of the businessman, acquired 47% of the lot of 15 million new shares issued by Ideiasnet, in the amount of R$100.5 million. The rest was bought by older shareholders, who exercised their preemptive right, says Reátegui.

Currently Batista holds around 7% of the capital of Ideiasnet.

The format by which the company will leave businesses considered mature is not closed and may include a public offering of shares or not, says Reátegui. "All possibilities will be considered". 

The new investment opportunities may also vary in relation to the size of the company and its operation area, but the strategy is to search for complementary companies to the already existing portfolio. That would facilitate the plan of Ideiasnet of becoming a strength in the consolidation of technology businesses. 

The idea of increasing the interest of foreign investors was not left out, but, with the coming of EBX, the company is not searching for new financial resources, says Reátegui.

The effort of Ideiasnet to become more attractive started in May last year, with a capital increase of R$20 million at Padtec, which allowed Ideiasnet to increase its interest in the business from 22.5% to 34.2%. Two months later, Ideiasnet acquired 100% of the shares of Officer, of which it held half of the securities, in an operation of R$ 42.5 million.

One week later, Ideiasnet acquired the control of more three companies. At Softcorp, which resells equipment and software, the interest increased from 42% to 97%; at Bolsa de Mulher, which manages a portal and a news agency for women, the total was increased from 27% to 93%; and at Addcomm, a digital marketing agency, the percentage grew from 23% to 54%.

In addition, Ideiasnet invested in iMusica, which sells download of musical files, in which the interest increased from 75% to 93%. Currently, the holding company has the control of eight from 18 companies. 

At the end of December, Ideiasnet announced a new primary offering of shares, but it gave up in January due to the crisis of the US real estate market. The capitalization came with EBX. Now Reátegui will be responsible for conducting the new phase of the company.