Jorge Horacio Brito (23 July 195220 November 2020) was an Argentine banker and businessman. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He was one of the main shareholders and the CEO of Argentina's largest bank, Banco Macro. He held this position until 2018, and returned to the role in 2020. He also served as president and chairman of the Argentine Banking Association (ADEBA) from 2003 to 2016.
Brito owned approximately one-sixth of Banco MacroâÂÂs shares. His investments spanned real estate (through the firm Vizora), agriculture and livestock (through Inversora Juramento S.A., FrigorÃÂfico Bermejo and Cabaña Juramento), and the energy sector through Genneia S.A.
In 2016, he received the Fortuna Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the Argentine business community.
In 2017, Forbes ranked him 1,567th on its global list of billionaires, making him the seventh richest person in Argentina at the time.
In 2018, Forbes placed his net worth at 1.3 billion on The World's Billionaires list, ranking him tenth in Argentina with an estimated fortune of US$1.5 billion. In 2019, he fell to 21st place with an estimated net worth of US$690 million.
Brito died in a helicopter crash on November 20, 2020, while traveling in Salta Province, Argentina.
Jorge Horacio Brito was born to an upper-class family in Buenos Aires in 1952. After the death of his father in 1962, he was raised by his mother.
He founded Anglia, a brokerage firm, in 1976, together with his partner Jorge Ezequiel DelfÃÂn Carballo, using an initial loan of $10,000 provided by his mother. In 1976, he also created Macro CompañÃÂa Financiera S.A., which operated alongside the consulting firm Econométrica, whose members included José MarÃÂa Dagnino Pastore, Mario Brodersohn, Alieto Guadagni and Alfredo Concepción.
In the mid-1980s, Brito and his partners acquired a competing brokerage, Financiera Macro, forming Macro Bank (Banco Macro). One of its owners was Brodersohn, then Secretary of the Treasury under President Raúl AlfonsÃÂn. He was named chairman of the board of directors in June 1988, after receiving authorization from the Central Bank of Argentina to operate as Banco Macro.
Macro Bank grew steadily with the acquisition of numerous provincial banks privatized during the 1990s, including Banco de Salta, Banco de Misiones, Banco del Noroeste, Banco de Jujuy, and Banco de Tucumán S.A.
After the 2001 crisis, between 2002 and 2010, Brito expanded further through acquisitions including Bansud, 35% of Scotiabank Argentina, Nuevo Banco SuquÃÂa, Banco Empresario de Tucumán, Nuevo Banco Bisel, Banco de Tucumán, and Banco Privado de Inversiones. The Banco Macro holding came to include Macro Securities S.A., Macro Fiducia S.A., Banco Privado de Inversiones S.A., and Macro Fondos S.A., among other entities. Macro Bank grew to become one of the largest private banks in Argentina. Brito also opened an offshore branch of the bank in the Bahamas, known as Macro Bank Limited.
Brito was the chairman of Macro Bank's board of directors, its chief executive officer, and a member of its executive and senior credit committees.
Brito became chairman of the Argentine Banking Association (ADEBA) on April 8, 2003, and held this position until 2016, when he took a leave of absence and was succeeded by Daniel LlambÃÂas. In 2017, this position was taken by his son Jorge Pablo Brito.
Between 2012 and 2014, Brito served as president of the Latin American Federation of Banks (FELABAN), a non-profit organization aimed at promoting cooperation among financial institutions in Latin America.
Brito invested in real estate through Vizora Developers; its core business is real estate development and marketing, and it has been actively engaged in the real estate development of the district of Puerto Madero, in Buenos Aires, where it had built Remeros Beach, Link Towers, Madero Walk, Madero Walk Eventos and Zen City. He has similarly invested in local luxury hotels, country clubs, and other upmarket real estate, including Central Tucumano (San Miguel de Tucumán), Arboris (Las Lomas and La Horqueta, at San Isidro), and the new and sustainable building of the Macro Bank at Catalinas Norte, Buenos Aires City.
Macro Bank participated in the construction of Madero Center, a luxury mixed use development building located in the neighbourhood of Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires.
Brito's farming and cattle raising investments involved cattle breeding, meat industrialization, and agricultural commodities, mainly in soy. Inversora Juramento Inc. is in charge of cattle breeding. FrigorÃÂficos Bermejo cold storage is engaged in industrial slaughtering and meat industrialization that reaches the consumer through Cabañas Juramento Inc. butcher shops, which operates stores and online delivery services.
Inversora Juramento Inc., founded in 1990, is one of the leading farming-cattle companies in the Argentine Northern Region. It is located in the town of JoaquÃÂn V. González, Salta, where it owns 67,000 hectares of field and 54,000 head of cattle. Its core activity is the manufacture and trading of beef. In addition, the company sows around 12,600 hectares per year. 8,000 hectares are soya fields. It also sows sorghum, alfalfa and corn, which are used to feed the cattle.
FrigorÃÂficos Bermejo Inc. is a cold storage located in Pichanal, Salta. It owns a model industrial slaughtering and meat industrialization beef plant. The factory can monthly slaughter 10,000 head of cattle. Wholesale and retail sales of FrigorÃÂficos Bermejo Inc. are carried out in Salta and Jujuy by their own butcher shops and sales teams. The company also exports to Chile and the European Union, which are markets that had approved their industrial processes.
In 2016, he won the Fortuna Lifetime Achievements Awards for his contributions to the Argentinian business community.
Brito married Marcela Carballo and had six children. He and his pilot died in a helicopter accident in Cabra Corral, in the province of Salta, on November 20, 2020. He was 68.