MILAN – Canadian public servants are investing in the Brazilian coffee industry. The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), one of Canada’s largest pension funds, has recently acquired a minority stake in in Grupo Montesanto Tavares (GMT), a coffee company based in Belo Horizonte.
PSP has also agreed to inject as much as 1.5 billion reais ($381 million) into the group with the goal of making it a leading coffee producer in Brazil, according to people familiar with the deal.
Thanks to the capital injection, GMT plans to quintuple annual production to 500,000 bags over the next 10 years.
PSP, which invest funds for the pension plans of the Canadian public service, the armed forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, had C$153 billion ($118 billion) in net assets at the end of March
GMT, as the Brazilian company is known, sells high-grade beans to specialty coffee chains and roasters including Starbucks. The group controls exporters Atlantica Coffee and Cafebras and importer Ally Coffee, which operates in the U.S. and Europe.
It has five farms located in highlands of Minas Gerais and Bahia states. About 40 percent of GMT’s production is dedicated to the top-quality beans.
