American Hannah
Regional opportunities: private equity deals in Central America
After a decade of steady growth in Central America is weathering the global financial crisis relatively well- and continues to provide regional opportunities for private equity. Historically, this small, diversified region suffered from armed conflict, political instability, weak institutions and a lack of legal frameworks and enforcement. However, stable democratic governments linked to a disciplined fiscal policy brought unprecedented period of growth in recent ten years with steady growth rates averaged over 5%. According to IMF figures from Central America to 2006 5.5% real GDP growth was second only to Latin America and the Caribbean by 5.9%. Through interviews with some of the key players in the region of Latin Alternative Investor has found that in addition to the countries of Central American nations such as Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador are increasingly important for private equity investors looking for more region-wide play, as opposed to focus on a particular country. Peru Colombia have been and are two countries that have demonstrated stability in the fiscal conditions for Peru and internal security issues in Colombia.
The nature of Central America dictates that small countries with small or regional private equity investments to attract the most interest. Mark Bishop of The Provident Group believes that the conditions investors waited now a reality "Initially, back in our past we have much work in Central America ourselves. We were early in the game there. We thought there was a lot more consolidation regionally. It looks like it still a lot more interesting now. "When asked by the Latin Alternative Provident investor if the group would now focus on the region Mark Bishop is optimistic but cautious "the problem with Central America was and remains very fragmented economies, small markets and a lack of experience with legal transparency it makes putting capital is just harder. At the end of the day people are cherry picking – there is some selective opportunities, but its still a tough market to your arms to get. "
Aureos Latin America Fund is the largest private equity fund in the region with over U.S. $ 200 million under management between three funds. They are mainly a provider of capital for companies looking to expand or funds for management buy-outs. Most of their investments in the $ 5million dollar mark and Erik Peterson Regional Managing Partner Aureos Latin America said they see a greater regional integration as key to their strategy, "We have a strong preference for companies that has the potential regional players to be having. As you know, there is a lot of cross-border activity within the region, which is one of the reasons why we chose this region. There are free trade issued by the U.S. and within these regions. And so you have quite a flow of capital, between Colombia, Peru and the southern end of the north end of Central America Mexico and south in the Central American region.
Mergers and acquisitions have seen heavy activity in recent years but are now in a downward cycle that opportunities presented by Juan Carlos Rojas from Mesoamerica. Following are located in the region for more than ten years, Central America is mainly involved with a group of 15 private business groups in the region. Rojas says after the initial operation of a general fund, they have refined their strategy for the region "We have moved into industry-specific SPVs instead of managing a general fund. And this was mainly because we started on the provision enormous opportunities in specific sectors. We launched an investment in the telecommunications, raising approximately U.S. $ 200 million in commitments from our investors and has a joint venture with Telefonica to telecom development in Central America. We leave that to in 2003. We created Mesoamerica Energy, which is a company that develops and operates wind power plants in Central America. Basically, our strategy is that we do not management of a fund. We have no real need or pressure to diversify and invest – Commitment of resources. We are very picky about the possibilities – it has certain types of industries and opportunities that some type of scale. We look to invest U.S. $ 50-100 million or more per deal. "
The M & A sector in Central America has seen extensive activity with Citi Bank, HSBC and GE money move in regional banking and Telefonica, Telmex and Cable & Wireless now active in Central American telecommunications. Up to 30 billion U.S. dollars spent by corporations on M & A in the region, but many now want to protect their core business in the current climate. Rojas such doubts activity will continue in the near future so distressed opportunities "I think that in our region, many multinational companies will face the next one or two years, the decision in principle spin-off its operations in Central America – and that is able to invest in corporate bonds orphans. Spiders from their Central American operations creates a great opportunity for local groups to buy and then once the economy picks up you'll see them come back in. "
Venture Capital and the equity markets in the Central American region to play little or no role in attracting private equity. According to a 2008 IMF report "Several Central American stock markets are highly underdeveloped. There are no equity in four of the seven countries (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic), and markets are small and shrinking in the other three (El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama). At the end of 2006 there are 88 issues listed shares in the Central American region. "Roberto Zeleya, partner at Batalla & Asociados in Costa Rica, said there are attempts to address this gap in the private equity market "We have a vacancy in venture capital, because there are no funds to invest in start-ups or new projects. What we have is a number of attempts to try to establish an angel investor community here in Costa Rica. These are institutional efforts that were initially funded by Tamis, which is a multi-lateral development fund of the Inter-American Development Bank and the CAD, the Corporation Developmento Andino. It financed the first phase of Link inversions that In reality, a web of angel investors in Costa Rica trying to invest in new companies. "
While the lack of venture capital is an important real challenge for growing companies in the region, funds focused on SMEs (small and medium enterprises) make an offer to focus on smaller investments in a region Zeleya says has seen strong activity "SMEs – who invest up to $ 3,000,000, many of the investments in the past few years. They engaged in transactions $ 500,000 to $ 3,000,000 and there are two such funds in the region. One of these resources is Emerge Central America Growth Fund managed by Aureos Capital and other Two is CASEIS Corporation Limited. This is a second generation fund managed by Lafis Investment Management, based in Nicaragua. "
Central American pension funds have a negligible effect on private equity, although the recent amendments to the regulations in Colombia and Peru, which increased activity. Many pension funds in the region are limited in terms of where they can invest, or unable to invest in private equities or only allowed to invest only in their own region. However, Aureos Latin America Latin Alternative financing reported investor regulatory changes slowly opening up opportunities in Colombia and Peru "They've recently turned their regulations that would Allow to invest outside. In the case of Colombia is the Colombian a fund to invest outside the region of Colombia. And in the case of Peru, they have recently authorized Peruvian pension funds to invest outside the region as long as they basically qualified and registered private equity funds. "
Foreign direct investment in Central America is dominated by U.S. capital, according to the Latin Alternative sources Investor interviewed. Rojas notes that while the U.S. is the largest part of DFI's offering has been new trends "We are very tied to the U.S. and I would say that most foreign direct investment – 60 to 70% comes from the U.S.. Nevertheless, more and more foreign direct investment Mexico coming in. His backyard in Mexico and Colombia investments are now a backup. The Spanish Telefonica to invest, although the Spanish banks are not. For example, the First, the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia. Europeans somewhat but not so much. "Bishop also noted some interest from the Middle East, but with more of a focus on Latin America as a whole "Where we see interest is certainly not in the hydrocarbons and the farm sector. The issue of food security in a number of groups have targeted growth of crops and livestock operations. "In more focused on Central America, Aureos attracted a diverse group of investors" We have a strong mix of development financial institutions and multi-lateral institutions, so we have a lot of well known institutions in general are looking to provide capital and investing in emerging markets, especially in medium and the S & B segment of the emerging markets. With this fund, we have some capital from private investors – private American investors -. and more recently we have funds made available from some Colombian pension funds and insurance companies "
Regional stability and growth of new countries like Colombia and Peru seems that the most important points for making private equity investors to Central America in the future. Erik Peterson from Aureos sees Central America maintain a steady, though not spectacular course in the next ten years "CA countries are quite small, so they tend to fall into the margins of the places that investors seeking to invest Yet inches at the same time they are seen as relatively stable locations, with some exceptions. I would expect this trend going forward and not to a central point for investors , right at the same time the region as a whole is a relatively stable region logging "While groups like Aureos and Central America right now dominate private equity investing Mark Bishop and in the region believe there is an opening for competitors' Id say that even more space. The things that people focus on some of its oil and gas plays there are the financial services and housing plays plays. Apart from that there are not many sectors that are so interesting. There is still room for a few of the resources. I think Aureos what did they have already been moving to a more regional approach, so it is basically Central America, Colombia and Peru as well, so I think people realize that – people are more a account for regional rather than Central American focus. "Although the current crisis has not hit Central America to the level of other regions still Zeleya of Roberto Batalla & Asociados, believes if the right direction is taken they will be stronger "are such small economies we depend on foreign trade for growth. Foreign demand for export would be a very important conditioning factor or element in our recovery. I would say that we could navigate through this relatively unscathed, if there is creativity in business in the region to find alternative markets or our own internal market. If we continue to rely on traditional markets like the U.S. or Europe to some extent – we'll be linked to them ".
About the Author
The Alternative Latin Investor staff is comprised of finance and journalism professionals who create articles through a process of research, data gathering, and industry interviews in order to provide unique content regarding alternative asset investment within the Latin American region. For more information visit us at www.alternativelatininvestor.com
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