Quality in Emerging Markets: Brasil Bolsa Balcão

B3’s vertically integrated infrastructure and regulatory position make it a high-quality emerging-market company with diversified growth and resilient revenues.

• B3 combines Brazil’s stock exchange, derivatives exchange, clearinghouse, depository and trade-repository functions after the integration of Bovespa, BM&F and Cetip.
• Its Markets segment covers equities, derivatives and commodities, and B3 was the world’s largest derivatives exchange by volume in 2025 after overtaking India’s NSE, helped by smaller high-frequency contracts used by retail investors.
• As Brazil’s sole mandated trade repository, B3 earns fees on OTC transactions regardless of market conditions, while its Data Analytics Solutions segment grew 23% in Q1 2025.
• Acquisitions of Neoway and Neurotech support the Trillia data-analytics business, while B3’s 62% stake in Shipay expands its payments exposure; Shipay handles around 7 million transactions per month.
• Brazil’s expanding financial system supports further growth: Pix brought around 71.5 million previously unbanked people into the financial system, foreign investors represented 62% of B3’s cash-equity trading in 2025, and three 25-basis-point Selic cuts brought the rate to 14.25% by June 2026.

Takeaway: Guinness views B3’s monopoly, network effects, vertical integration and diversification as a buffer against equity-market cyclicality and a source of durable growth, although the investment remains exposed to Brazilian market, currency and macroeconomic risks.