Founding Partner Francisco Laranja is a founding partner of Maxifinance. Maxifinance is a management and financial consulting firm that helps its clients identify good business opportunities and optimize their investment in them.Beside offering the services of traditional investment banks and financing boutiques, Maxifinance also creates business opportunities, always seeking high potential for growth and return on investment.The Maxifinance team has at its disposal all the financing tools of a traditional M&A division of a financial institution, including the ability to seek investors inside and outside Brazil.Most recently, Maxifinance has worked in the areas of real estate, energy, expansion into new markets, agribusiness etc.

AssociateAt Aria Capital, Mr. Laranja was the head of the Technical Department, responsible for conducting financial and economic analyses, feasibility studies, and more.The most significant efforts Mr. Laranja supported were financial structuring, capital attraction, economic valuation, etc.Aria Capital was, at the time, a start-up financial boutique.

Financial Analyst in Strategic PlanningAt BED, Mr. Laranja was responsible for the technical economic and financial analyses that determined the feasibility of a project, as well as for studies that underpinned the company's IPO, which raised approximately $380 MM. BED was the first Brazilian company to go public in the biofuels industry. Additionally, on the basis of the financial analyses already conducted, BED launched its strategic planning initiative. Mr. Laranja was responsible for modeling the biodiesel auction results at the time when BED won 100% of the rights it competed for, earning itself a market share of approximately 67% of the domestic biodiesel marketAt Grupo ARBI, Mr. Laranja worked on technical studies for companies including Aurizônia Petroleum and its partners, which successfully raised more than $25 MM before even having discovered any oil fields.

Independent AdviserMr. Laranja worked as an independent consultant for numerous companies and projects of varying industries and sizes.An example of such activities is his participation in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s School of Economics team, which advised ANEEL in the rate-setting process for Escelsa (Electric Distribution Company). Additionally, Mr. Laranja was a consultant to CS Participações, in the state of Bahia, in its negotiation of the purchase of a thermal generating station from El Paso, as well as financial analyses of the natural gas distribution company in the Amazon, of which CS Participações was a shareholder.Mr. Laranja also conducted several studies for start-up companies and projects, always striving to assess the economic and financial feasibility, as well as capital planning and company valuations.

Financial AnalystAt the Petros Foundation, Mr. Laranja participated in a variety of activities, including financial analysis of long-term investments that Petros held in several companies, as well as preparation of studies and reports for the Board of Directors. Mr. Laranja also analyzed new investment opportunities that were presented to Petros and prepared financial studies and reports for the committees that had recommended the new opportunities. In addition, Mr. Laranja utilized Asset/Liability Management tools to optimize resource allocation for Petros.

Financial CoordinatorPDE was a start-up company of Globo Organizations.The concept was a partnership between the Club of 13 (the 20 top football clubs in the country) and Globo Organizations, whereby the Club of 13 would grant to PDE all rights to broadcast its games over the Internet, while Globo Organizations would be responsible for all other aspects of the joint project.As PDE’s Financial Coordinator, Mr. Laranja was responsible for developing economic and financial studies, shareholder reports, analyses of new business opportunities etc.

Financial AnalystAt Banco Primus, Mr. Laranja worked in the Technical Department, participating in M&A projects, feasibility studies, and debt and equity capital attraction.During this time, Mr. Laranja worked on projects for clients in various industries, such as the hospitality industry (e.g., raising capital for the construction of an eco-resort), the Internet radio industry, retail, and others.

Financial analystEnergy Partners was a start-up company developing natural-gas-fired energy cogeneration. The concept was distributed power generation, where generation is located close to the consumer and there is a significant reduction in the level of line losses.The Company was the local representative of a joint venture between GE and Jenbacher, the latter being a renowned Austrian manufacturer of co-gen engines. GE later acquired Jenbacher, and the two remain merged today.Mr. Laranja was responsible for developing complex economic and financial models to analyze the feasibility of implementing cogeneration for each case study, as well as analyzing various partnership scenarios under which SPCs would be created for each project under review.

PartnerTECSA was a start-up company in the area of Internet / Telecommunications.It’s purpose was to provide a data communication network and content for self-employed professionals.Mr. Laranja’s role was to develop financial models and feasibility studies in order to attract financing that would make the project viable.

Intern / Financial AnalystMr. Laranja began his career at Banco Brascan as an intern in M&A and was later hired as a financial analyst.He participated in several privatization processes, developed several economic and financial feasibility studies and associated financial models, and he performed company and project-specific valuations, using the Discounted Cash Flow and other modeling techniques, aimed at raising financing and attracting equity partners.Additionally, Mr. Laranja consistently sought to identify promising business opportunities for the Bank in order to attract new customers.