Day 4 - Unico and the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange

The hotel is gorgeous and the fish ponds are a personal favorite. Ran was all over the coconut water at the breakfast buffet for its cleansing and health factors.




Sao Paulo is a city of extremes. We saw luxury car dealerships down the street from street vendors. $275,000 watches at the mall and beggers on the streets.



Before our meeting, Rob was interviewed by a local reporter about why we were there, a little about the program and what Canada has to offer in the bio-fuel field.

Unico is a company that deals with the ethanol production in Brazil by the manufacture and harvest of sugarcane. We were greeted with a wonderful presentation of the facts and figures of the company, the market and the future of ethanol based fuels both in Brazil and the world.




It was a eye opening experience to see the development and sufistication of the industry in Brazil. They have been developing biofuels with sugarcane for 30 years and now that they have it vertually perfected and the legislation to back them up, the world is now coming to them for the answers.

Flex-Fuel is a popular option in North America but at least 25% of all fuels in Brazil must be ethanol based. Some fuels are 100% bio fuel. Sugarcane is the most effective type of bio fuel which is why Brazil is leading the world in the industry.



We had lunch at the mall across the street and shopped till we dropped. Well some us. Brian got a couple of suits.

This clock above in the main court area is filled with green fluid and has a pertepual motion pendulum that keeps time by filling and draining the hour containers and then minute containers. It was pretty ingenius.

We took the tour bus across town to the financial district downtown to see the old and new Brazil stock exchange.

The old exchange is set up now as tourist spot until it will be taken down in July of this year. We watched a theatre style 3-D movie of the stock market and where it is going. Seemed like an odd place for a 3-D movie but it was well done and informative. They are a very suffisticated stock market and the largest in Latin America. It was interesting to have taken Corporate Finance last semester as the information shared during the presenation was certainly better understood. After we headed to the current market floor and watched the trading live it was fun to watch the hand signals and codes used to trade commodities.



We then headed to the old bank building which is the 2nd tallest in the city. We went out on the observation deck with only had a 5 ft wall between us and the ground, so with the wind it was a little intense but worth it for the view!




After leaving the financial district and going back to the hotel, the group relaxed, shopped, refreshed and whatever else until dinner.




Most of the group headed to a small pub and restaurant, The Ritz and had a great meal and a few drinks before hitting the sack for another great adventure!