Colombia Proteccion Private Equity

Colombia’s Proteccion Investing $1.3 bil in Private Equity

In a tough (to put it mildly) time for private equity fundraising, a major commitment from an international pension fund is encouraging news.  Proteccion SA, Columbia’s second-biggest pension fund, has announced plans to up its private equity allocations to roughly $1.3 billion over the next two years.  The fund is boosting its allocation from less than 1% to 10% of its 24 trillion pesos in assets.

…Juan Luis Escobar, the fund’s chief financial officer, said in an interview from his office in Medellin yesterday. Proteccion plans to stop buying stocks after they grew to 40 percent of its holdings, the maximum allowed, following a 53 percent gain for Colombia’s IGBC Index last year.

Colombian pension funds are boosting private equity investments to take advantage of a surge in government infrastructure spending aimed at helping pull the South American country out of its first recession in a decade. Buyout funds from Darby Overseas Investments Ltd and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. are moving into the country and the government said a year ago that it would set up a $500 million fund.

“We can’t buy more stocks so private equity is the most exciting thing right now,” said Escobar, 45. “We are looking at infrastructure funds that invest in highways, water treatment, waste and airports.”  Source

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Tags: Colombia Proteccion Private Equity, Colombia private equity, buyouts in Colombia, Colombian private equity, private equity Proteccion pension fund investments, institutional investors, Proteccion pension fund allocation

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