Aureos launches Latin American fund

Aureos Capital, an emerging markets private equity fund manager, has launched a $300 million (€223 million) Latin America fund.

The pan-regional Aureos Latin America Fund has a target internal rate of return of 20 percent for investment in Mexico, the Central American Region and the Andean Region.

Sev Vettivetpillai, chief executive of London-based Aureos’s advisory arm, said the countries targeted by the fund were relatively stable economies with high growth expectations and low inflation. He added the markets should benefit from regional consolidation and free trade agreements.

Erik Peterson, the current manager of Aureos’s $36 million Central America Fund, will also manage the Latin America fund. It will target a full range of sectors.

Aureos will open new offices in Mexico, Colombia and Peru to complement its existing offices in Costa Rica and El Salvador.

Aureos was formed in July 2001 to manage 14 funds originally sponsored by CDC Group, a UK government-funded investment agency. It now manages nearly $600 million across 19 emerging market funds, and plans to double this in the next 2 years by launching funds in Latin America, Central Asia and Pan Africa. The firm specialises in sub-$10 million deals.