Ardian, a private investment house with over 71 billion dollars in assets managed or advised, announced the opening of an office in Santiago, Chile. The new office, serving Ardian’s growing base of investors and investments in Latin America (LatAm), demonstrates Ardian’s long-term commitment to both Chile and the LatAm region. This will be Ardian’s 14th office in its global network.
Ardian will work closely with its LPs – pension funds, insurance companies and family offices — to share knowledge and strengthen relationships. Currently, Ardian’s LatAm investor base, mainly within Chile, Colombia and Peru, has leveraged a diversified range of strategies on Ardian’s platform including Private Equity Secondaries, European Direct Buyouts, Infrastructure Secondaries, European Real Estate and Global Co-Investments. Ardian sees continued investor demand in the region, as well as particular interest from LPs within Brazil and Mexico, which are looking to diversify their holdings outside of LatAm.
In addition, Ardian has become increasingly active since it first entered the region in 2010 after it began acquiring LatAm businesses as build-ups for European portfolio companies. Over the last eight years, Ardian has supported portfolio companies acquiring nine LatAm build-ups with specific exposure to Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador.
In 2016, Ardian Infrastructure made its first LatAm direct investment when it acquired an 81 percent stake in Solarpack, which manages solar PV plants in Chile and Peru. It will continue to target mid-market essential infrastructure assets in the energy and transport sectors to provide Ardian’s global investor base with increased opportunities to invest in high-quality LatAm infrastructure assets.
Nicolas Gazitua will lead the new Chilean office supported by a dedicated team based in Santiago in coordination with the NYC office co-headed by Mark Benedetti and Vladimir Colas. Ardian will continue to build out the Chilean team and provide additional resources over the coming years.
Benoît Verbrugghe, Member of the Executive Committee, Head of Ardian US said: “The Latin American region is very important to Ardian and this office will allow us to focus on building closer relationships with our LPs and other institutional investors in the region. Our growing international footprint highlights our commitment to a truly global, multi-local approach. We prioritize the deep knowledge and relationships that can only come from an on-the-ground perspective, allowing us to understand the needs of our investors and portfolio companies on a granular level.”
“Furthermore, the Chilean office is an important step forward in our continued efforts to provide our global investor base with opportunities in high quality LatAm investments and superior returns. We will also use the office to source secondary deals from potential LatAm sellers” concluded Verbrugghe.
Por Funds Society, Madrid