SAO PAULO, March 24 (Reuters) – Brazilian financial services platform XP Inc will launch an electricity trading unit later this year, aiming to transform itself into a leading name in the domestic unregulated electricity market over the next few years, an executive told Reuters . Wednesday.
XP’s trading power will take advantage of the company’s broad portfolio of corporate clients while seeking to invest in technology as a way to have an edge over competitors, said unit head Cristian Nogueira.
The unregulated power market, which allows companies that consume electricity to negotiate contracts and prices with suppliers, has been booming in Brazil due to rising tariffs from power companies.
Banks such as BTG Pactual, Itaú Unibanco, Santander Brasil and Macquarie Australia have created electricity trading units in Latin America’s largest country. Energy companies, including the local branches of European utilities Enel, Engie, EDP and Iberdrola, are also on the market.
“XP is used to improve people’s lives by offering innovative products and education. With energy you can do the same. We will do it in the first place using our extensive customer network, ”said Nogueira.
“We usually offer our customers several hedging options: hedging for exchange rates, interest rates, inflation. Electricity will become another product. “
The executive said that XP could trade annual energy contracts for 3 billion reais ($ 530 million) in the next two or three years.
“We have goals, dreams that are big and ambitious. That in three years, anyone who thinks about the electricity trade in Brazil will have XP as a reference, “added Nogueira. ($ 1 = 5,6211 reais) (Reporting by Luciano Costa; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)