Few people know the name Luiz Eduardo Tarquínio Monteiro da Costa. He has no public social media presence and almost no photos circulating online. Yet he has been at the center of two billion-real transactions that reshaped parts of Brazilian business.
The first came in 2013. His family sold Companhia Fluminense de Refrigerantes to Coca-Cola FEMSA, the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, for US$ 448 million. The company was one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the state of Rio de Janeiro, moving tens of millions of cases a year.
The family’s fortune did not start with that factory. It was built in Porto Real, in the interior of Rio de Janeiro state. From a regional beverage operation, the group expanded into fuel stations, rural property, and finance. Out of that diversification came Banco Porto Real — a small, extremely discreet bank that almost nobody outside regulatory circles had heard of.
In 2026, that bank suddenly mattered. Nubank announced it would acquire Banco Porto Real. The goal was not customers or a loan book. Nubank wanted the institution’s banking licenses — the regulatory permissions required by Brazil’s Central Bank so the fintech can keep operating and expanding as a full bank.
Nubank is now one of the most recognized financial brands in Latin America, with more than 100 million customers in Brazil alone. Almost no one knew the businessman behind the tiny bank it needed. Costa was there anyway: first in a landmark bottling sale to Coca-Cola FEMSA, then in a licensing deal that helped a digital giant lock in its banking status.
The largest deals are sometimes made by people who almost never appear.
Sources: Forbes Brasil, G1, Coca-Cola FEMSA, Nubank, Banco Central do Brasil.
