PRINT THIS PAGE Advent International closes third Latin American fund on $375m27/10/2005. Source: AltAssets. 
 Advent International has closed its latest fund, Latin American Private Equity Fund III, on the hard cap of $375m. The original target capitalisation for the fund was $300m.
LAPEF III will focus on buy-outs of growth companies, with a particular emphasis on service businesses, including business outsourcing, travel and airport-related services, and financial services. The fund will target the three largest economies in Latin America: Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.
The fund has attracted a high level of investor interest well beyond the cap, according to Advent. The firm said that virtually all of the LAPEF II investors have returned and have been joined by a range of new investors, who have provided roughly half the fund's capital.
Investors include public pension funds (43 per cent), funds of funds (15 per cent), corporate pension funds (13 per cent), banks (12 per cent), insurance companies (nine per cent) and government institutions (six per cent).
A total of 53 per cent of the capital has been raised from North American investors, with 36 per cent coming from Europe and 11 per cent from the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Some of the largest North American investors in the fund are California Public Employees' Retirement System, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. Among the European investors are AlpInvest Partners, DEG and FMO.
Ernest Bachrach, chief executive of Advent Latin America, said, 'Latin America is an attractive market offering significant opportunities for private equity fund managers who know the region well and have a proven investment strategy.
'With the large flow of capital into the US, Europe and most recently Asia, institutional investors are increasingly finding Latin America an interesting alternative, with fewer competing sources of capital and more compelling relative valuations,' Bachrach continued.
LAPEF III has already made its first two investments: the acquisition (subject to approval) of Nuevo Banco Comercial, one of Uruguay's largest commercial banks, and the purchase of a majority stake in Hipotecaria Casa Mexicana, a specialised mortgage lending institution in Mexico. Advent expects to close a third investment by the end of the year.
Over the past decade, Advent has invested in 28 Latin American companies with a combined enterprise value exceeding $1.3bn. Eight of these companies have been acquired by strategic or financial buyers.
LAPEF I was formed in 1996 with capital of $230m, and LAPEF II in 2002 with capital of $265m.
The new fund brings Advent's total capital managed in Latin America to $870m.
Advent closed GPE V, a €2.5bn fund investing in mid to large-market buy-outs in Western Europe and North America, and ACEE III, a €330m fund investing in mid-market buy-outs in Central and Eastern Europe, in April 2005.
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