Caterpillar Inc. Tuesday announced its plans for expansion in Brazil to meet the growing Latin America market. In this regard, the company will increase its Brazilian manufacturing operations presence to enhance its position and enable it meet the burgeoning customer demand in Latin America.

The Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, Lafico, (a sovereign Libyan fund), reported that it is currently seeking investment opportunities in Brazil. The fund’s envoys have made previous investment study visits to the country, analyzing partnerships in the production of food in irrigated areas in the North East of the country.

The Brazilian government yesterday confirmed that property investors in the country may be banned from owning land. In the announcement, foreign real estate investors interested in owning land in the Brazil might face tougher restrictions as the Brazilian government clamps down on land ownership over food security concerns.

Petrobras announced that its Board had successfully approved the company’s planned five-year $224 billion investment strategy. The state owned oil giant’s investment budget is way above the $200 billion to $220 billion the company had released earlier this year as its planned investment spending fund. In its five-year plan covering 2009/2013, Petrobras had released a figure of $174.4 billion in the previous financial year, 2008/2009.  

According to a reliable source, JPMorgan Chase is in a quest to acquire a mega Brazilian alternative investment fund manager. Sources confirmed that the banking conglomerate is currently in talks to acquire Gavea Investimentos, an alternative investment fund manager in the country, in spite of a looming clampdown on banks with such operations in the Brazil.

Canadian mining company, Stronghold Metals Inc. announced it has bought Mineracao Vale do Sonho Ltd, a Brazilian mining company, by buying all of its issued and outstanding quotas from the company’s quotaholders.  This follows a May press release the Canadian miner had issued detailing the investment deal when it was first entered with the Brazilian company.

Mafrig Foods, a Brazilian meat packer, announced Tuesday that it had concluded an agreement that allows it to purchase Keystone Foods, a US distributor, for $1.26 billion. Keystone Foods serves over 28,000 restaurants in thirteen countries across the globe and boasts pioneering the development of boneless chicken nugget. In 2009, the company had net revenue of $6.4 billion from its food and distribution business.

Petrobas, Brazil’s state-run oil giant, announced Monday, its readiness for a planned share sale to raise a capital of $25 billion to be used in the funding of development of Brazil’s numerous subsalt oil reserves. However, the details of the rights issue are yet to be disclosed but a share placing is expected early and would allow the company to raise the targeted capital minus harming its investment grade credit rating.

HCL Technologies, an IT services firm, announced that it plans to focus on expansion in the Brazilian market for IT and ITES services. Currently, the Brazilian market for IT and ITES is estimated at about $15 billion and HCL’s plan is aimed at expanding and strengthening its infrastructure services availability in the country. Alone, the Brazilian IT market is estimated to be worth $3 billion. The company announced its plans at the Gartner Outsourcing Summit 2010 that is currently ongoing in Sao Paolo state.

In a record funding for the Agricultural sector, the Brazilian government said it will offer finance of $54 billion for the coming farming season in the country. According to a statement from the country’s Ministry for Agriculture, this new funding presents an 8% increase from the 2009 funding. In the fund, about $33 billion is meant for loans with below-market interest rates for farmers.

The Brazilian Innovation Body, FINEP, and the country’s National Development Bank, BNDES, agreed on a new investment partnership meant to promote ethanol development in the country. The two agencies which are long time primary support sources for innovation in the country; FINEP and BNDES established a blueprint that will offer sums of about US$540 million in funding for the country’s biofuels industry.