Itaúsa - Who we are

Itaúsa was founded to centralize the financial and strategic decisions of a group of companies and give them better conditions to expand. It is currently the second-largest private Brazilian group in terms of revenues. Itaúsa operates in the financial and industrial areas and also manages large institutions of a social nature.

The history of the Group began with the first investment bank to be founded in Brazil. It was called Banco Federal Itaú de Investimentos S.A. and was created on May 6, 1965, shortly after the Brazilian Central Bank gave permission for this kind of activity. It was a limited liability listed company which would take stakes or make loans in the medium and long term to provide fixed or variable capital by investing its own resources, as well as in the raising, intermediation and investment of resources of third parties, and other activities which the monetary authorities had given approval to.

In November 1970, it changed its official name to Banco Itaú de Investimento S.A. and in May 1973 to Banco Itaú Português de Investimento S.A. It expanded its operations into the specific areas of investment banking. At the same time it accumulated a large equity portfolio and became a substantial shareholder in a number of Itaú´s financing institutions. As these institutions grew, it became a complex task for Banco Itaú Português de Investimento S.A. to maintain its bipolar approach to its operations, both as the holding company of the group and as an investment bank.

As a result, it reformulated its objectives and ceased its investment bank activities in order to become the leading company within the Instituições Financeiras Itaú, a holding company which at that time grouped more than 50 companies. Approval was given at the General Meeting held on December 9, 1974 for the name to be changed to Investimentos Itaú S.A. The business objective was to provide support to private Brazilian companies in which it had a capital share.

At a General Meeting held on April 30, 1991, the official name was changed to Itaúsa - Investimentos Itaú S.A. The name Itaúsa - Investimentos Itaú was adopted from 1991, thereby incorporating the "Itaúsa" tag which the market valued.

Itaúsa is currently one of the biggest corporate groups in the world. It was ranked in 288th place by Fortune magazine in a list published in July 2007, 127 positions higher than the previous year´s ranking. It is the second-largest privately-owned group in Brazil in terms of the volume of revenues.

The main companies which Itaúsa controls are leaders in their business areas: Itaú Unibanco Banco Múltiplo S.A. and its subsidiaries Itaú Unibanco and Banco Itaú BBA in the financial segment and Duratex, Itautec and Elekeiroz, leaders in their respective industrial areas.

As a listed pure holding company, Itaúsa concentrates all its financial and strategic decisions on providing the companies within the Group with the best condition to operate and expand their business. As a result, the subsidiaries have achieved high levels of productivity, employee training and technological breakthroughs to constantly improve the products and services they offer to the market.

This model also ensures that the principles which guide the holding company are also practiced by the Group companies. Appreciating human capital, ethics in business and value creation for the shareholders are the unquestionable values which direct the work of more than 108,000 employees of Itaúsa and its subsidiaries.

The way in which Itaúsa develops and manages each of its businesses was reflected once again in the excellent results the Group obtained in 2009. January to September of 2009, shareholders´ equity amounted to R$ 55.9 billion and it had assets of R$ 619.9 billion. Net income in the year came to R$ 8.2 billion with a return on average shareholders´ equity of 20.9%.

On November 3, 2008, Itaú and Unibanco signed the agreement for the merger of their financial operations. It was the formal beginning of the building of the largest conglomerate in the Southern Hemisphere, with a market value among the 20 largest financial institutions in the world.

The integration of Unibanco branches into Itaú’s platform started in August 2009. After the pilot project, which involved four branches and one service center, the expectation is that this process will continue until the end of 2010. In the third quarter, the employees training program aimed at integrating Itaú and Unibanco operations focused on the Companies, Individuals, Wealth Management Services, Operational Risk and Efficiency, and Audit areas. 65,590 training hours were provided to the 3,705 employees who attended it.

As one of the integration benefits, the customers of Itaú Unibanco started to count on an even more intricate service structure all over the country, and with new options of easier access to credit and financial services. Behind the expansion of the service structure, there are also deep changes in progress, with the adoption of the best management and business practices and the integration of talents from both institutions.