In a move aimed at rebuilding its business in Brazil, Sweden’s biggest bank, UBS AG, said Friday that it’s planning to start an investment in the Latin American state. In the move, aimed at tapping into Latin America’s biggest economy and the fastest growing as well, UBS AG said it’s undertaking the investment after raising funds from the sale of its unit in the country in 2009.

From the letter of intent the Swedish giant filled to the Brazilian Central Bank, the investment bank to be opened will have an initial capital of 46 million reals. The bank will be called UBS Brasil Banco de Investimento SA and will be run by UBS AG via a holding firm. Oswald Gruebel, UBS AG’s chief executive recently said that the Swedish firm was targeting generation of considerable revenues from emerging markets and the Brazil move comes in line with that strategy.

UBS AG is based in Zurich and had gone into an agreement for the purchase of another Brazilian firm, Link Investimentos, back in April in order to get licenses for undertaking business in Brazil. Link Investimentos is a Brazilian brokerage firm, and according to Gruebel, the investments are crucial in maintaining UBS AG’s foothold in Brazil given the forecasted future growth that is expected to come from Asia and Latin America.

Analysts said the company might be keen on taking advantage of the expected growth in Latin America, given the fact that it already has a considerable presence in the Asian continent. Projections have placed Brazil’s economic growth at 7.2% this year, based on what the country’s Central Bank established in a survey published recently.

The Swedish banking giant is number 13th amongst underwriters of equity and equity related offerings made by Brazilian firms in 2010. Even so, analysts are not so upbeat over the firm’s re-entry plans, reiterating that it will have to overcome some hurdles.

UBS sold its Pactual operations in Brazil to Andre Esteves for an estimated $2.5 billion last year in a bid to gain licenses for doing business in the country. UBS AG now faces competition from its sold unit, Pactual, and other rivals in the Brazilian banking industry. Even so, UBS reiterated that the Brazilian market was a hard one to re-enter but regardless, the company’s strategy of buying small units and incorporating their employees into its line of business, management and operations will work for it.