G City Ltd (GCT)

Gazit Globe - Dancing the Samba with two left feet. It is amazing the international companies felt compelled to enter Brazil, of one the most promising economies among the BRICK the nations, with the argument that they were attracted to Brazil because it was had a democratic political system, had a rule of law, had a free press, and the scandals that it had were readily exposed to society. Nonetheless, these same attributes came around to bite those global international companies which were not so prepared for such advancements towards a free market. Take Gazit-Globe for instance, since entering Brazil in 1997, it failed to make any significant progress in the country. Mostly because, the Mogul mentality of its founding member, Mr. Chaim Katzman was not able to adapt to an evolving economy. In it nearly 6 years of operations in the country, the Group, under the direction of Mr. Chaim Katzman has been able to achieve merely nothing. Two years ago, Mr. Katzaman hired a new CEO by the name of Mordejay Goldenberg, with the task of multiply the asset base by six times in two years. Needless, to days that very little has been done in that front. In the two years that has passed, Mr. Goldenberg has only been able to acquire one asset, that was already in the pipeline of the company for over 4 years, “Shopping Prado” for US$20MM or less than 10% of asset base of the company in the country. How he will achieve the remaining 590% growth in less than 9 months is hard to imagine. Not only that, but rather than building a team in Brazil, Mr. Katzman has been firing the few personnel it had in first place. This past Friday, March 15 2013, the rumors are the 7 employees in a team of 20 had their head chopped, and were show the outside door. In order to resolve apparent conflicts between himself and Mr. Mordejai associated with the stagnant growth and personnel problems, Mr. Katzman deployed its secretary on a full time assignment to Brazil to do the job. Ms. Mia Start, Mr.Katzman personal assistant, will be now based in São Paulo Brazil, resolving the matters the Mr. Katzman was unable to resolve. As it stands, Gazit Brasil Ltda has hit a wall since Mr. Mordejai took over as CEO of the subsidiary, and the prospects are not good. Growth out of Brazil is not likely to materialize for Gazit Group in years to come. The inexperience of Ms. Stark, now Chief Assistant Office, and the inability of Mr. Mordejai to deliver results is likely to bring to operations to a halt. The myriad legal claims that Gazit-Globe has accumulated over the past few months in Brazil: from illegal labor practices, fraud, falsification of documents among other, make it difficult to image that the Group will have any further future in the country. That is what we call in Brazil: dancing the samba with two left feet.

Gazit Globe - Dancing the Samba with two left feet. It is amazing the international companies felt compelled to enter Brazil, of one the most promising economies among the BRICK the nations, with the argument that they were attracted to Brazil because it was had a democratic political system, had a rule of law, had a free press, and the scandals that it had were readily exposed to society. Nonetheless, these same attributes came around to bite those global international companies which were not so prepared for such advancements towards a free market. Take Gazit-Globe for instance, since entering Brazil in 1997, it failed to make any significant progress in the country. Mostly because, the Mogul mentality of its founding member, Mr. Chaim Katzman was not able to adapt to an evolving economy. In it nearly 6 years of operations in the country, the Group, under the direction of Mr. Chaim Katzman has been able to achieve merely nothing. Two years ago, Mr. Katzaman hired a new CEO by the name of Mordejay Goldenberg, with the task of multiply the asset base by six times in two years. Needless, to days that very little has been done in that front. In the two years that has passed, Mr. Goldenberg has only been able to acquire one asset, that was already in the pipeline of the company for over 4 years, “Shopping Prado” for US$20MM or less than 10% of asset base of the company in the country. How he will achieve the remaining 590% growth in less than 9 months is hard to imagine. Not only that, but rather than building a team in Brazil, Mr. Katzman has been firing the few personnel it had in first place. This past Friday, March 15 2013, the rumors are the 7 employees in a team of 20 had their head chopped, and were show the outside door. In order to resolve apparent conflicts between himself and Mr. Mordejai associated with the stagnant growth and personnel problems, Mr. Katzman deployed its secretary on a full time assignment to Brazil to do the job. Ms. Mia Start, Mr.Katzman personal assistant, will be now based in São Paulo Brazil, resolving the matters the Mr. Katzman was unable to resolve. As it stands, Gazit Brasil Ltda has hit a wall since Mr. Mordejai took over as CEO of the subsidiary, and the prospects are not good. Growth out of Brazil is not likely to materialize for Gazit Group in years to come. The inexperience of Ms. Stark, now Chief Assistant Office, and the inability of Mr. Mordejai to deliver results is likely to bring to operations to a halt. The myriad legal claims that Gazit-Globe has accumulated over the past few months in Brazil: from illegal labor practices, fraud, falsification of documents among other, make it difficult to image that the Group will have any further future in the country. That is what we call in Brazil: dancing the samba with two left feet.