| "The availability of private equity capital in Latin America continues to be limited relative to similarly sized economies in other emerging markets worldwide" Juan Carlos Torres, Advent International |
Ocroma Alternative Investments, an independent investment management firm based in São Paulo in Brazil, has set up the first private equity fund of funds focused on Brazil and other Latin American countries. The fund aims to raise $150 million and has already secured one-third of that amount. The firm invests $5 million to $15 million for each transaction and tries to diversify its investments by financing companies at different stages of development, including growth capital and buyout. It can also undertake co-investment opportunities with selected funds.
Leonardo Ribeiro, a managing partner at Ocroma, says: "We are the pioneers in private equity funds of funds in Brazil. There are a lot of investors who want to allocate to private equity but do not do so as they don’t know the market well enough. That is where we help. They also might not have enough capital to do so but we bring together a pool of investors."
Up to now most private equity funds of funds, including those run by Partners Group, a Swiss private equity manager, and HarbourVest, a US private equity manager, have invested in the emerging markets generally, with a small proportion destined for Brazil.