So far, four companies -- investment bank BTG Pactual SA; car rental company Cia. de Locação das Américas, known as Locamerica; furniture maker Unicasa Industria de Móveis SA; and oil driller Seabras Serviços de Petróleo SA -- have unveiled plans for IPOs this month that could raise up to a total 6 billion reais ($3.3 billion). Locamerica and BTG are private equity backed.

If successful, these will be the first to list on the Bovespa since July, when Abril Educação SA, an education and publishing company, raised R$371.1 million.

Bovespa CEO Edemir Pinto has stated publicly that he expects between 40 and 45 offerings this year, including both initial public offerings and follow-ons.

"Pinto's optimistic views may very well have a positive impact on investors' appetite and encourage more companies to go public," said a São Paulo-based banker who requested anonymity. "The offerings in April will test market appetite."

Brazil's equity market is on an upward swing. The Bovespa index is up 15% so far this year, buoyed by recent interest rate cuts by the central bank to 9.75%, from 11%

Not only are foreign inflows very strong, interest rates are also expected to continue on a downward trend, said Bernardo Mariano, an analyst at New York-based Equity Research Desk.

Locamerica, backed by BV Empreendimentos e Participações SA, the private equity arm of Banco Votorantim, is expected to go first, with shares due to price on April 18. The company, which BV Empreendimentos bought in 2008, expects to raise about $314 million from the sale of at least 30.3 million shares. Its target price range is between R$11 and R$14.

BV plans to sell 12.15 million common shares, according to the prospectus. At the midpoint of 12.50 reais, their shares would be worth R$151.9 million ($83 million).

BTG Pactual, which recently merged with Chile's Celfin Capital SA to create perhaps Latin America's largest investment group, said it expects to price shares on April 24. The IPO could raise as much as $1.9 billion.

An investor group, including New York private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC and the sovereign wealth funds of China, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, owns an 18.6% stake in BTG, which manages more than $70 billion of assets, including private equity holdings.

Unicasa plans to raise as much as $402 million in its IPO, scheduled for April 25.

Sources in Brazil told The Deal that several private equity firms are waiting to see how these offers fare before making moves to take portfolio companies public.

"It is not necessary to take companies public right now, even if the markets are performing well. It is better to wait until the second half of the year, when we have a clear picture of what the market appetite is like," one São Paulo source said.

It also depends on the quality of the companies selling shares, said a private equity executive in Rio de Janeiro. "Sizable, financially strong companies with Ebitda levels around $150 million to $200 million or more are more likely to be successful," he added.

A major deterrent has been investors' lack of confidence in the companies that planned to go public earlier this year.

On Feb. 8, Brasil Travel Turismo e Participações SA shelved IPO plans. It said potential investors wanted company's owners to retain shares equal to 50% of the offering, as opposed to a proposed 15%. The company had expected to sell up to 859,100 shares at a price ranging between R$1,250 and R$1,650.

However, according to source not involved in the process, the IPO was pulled because the business is not well known. "It's just a bunch of travel agencies bundled together," he said. The company is the product of 35 mergers that took place over the past year, he added.

A few others, such as Seabras, postponed IPOs. In putting off the IPO Jan. 29, Seabras, the Brazilian unit of Oslo-based offshore oil drilling company Seadrill Ltd., said it had to make certain changes to its corporate structure. The company expects to go public in the last week of this month, targeting up to $700 million in proceeds.

Meanwhile private equity-backed health insurer Grupo Qualicorp SA, which Washington's Carlyle Group took public in June, plans to go ahead with a secondary share sale of 34 million shares on April 17.

This will be the first time the majority shareholders, Carlyle and founded Jose Seripieri Jr., will unload shares since the IPO, though filings have not yet disclosed details.

Its stock, which debuted at R$13 apiece, closed down 0.31% at R$15.60 Monday. At current prices, the sale should raise about $335 million.