Venture Equity Latin America’s 2007 Year-End Report Announced

Fund raising and private equity investment in Latin America set new records in 2007, according to the just released Venture Equity Latin America’s 2007 Year-End Report.

Fundraising for the region reached a total of $4.4 billion in 2007, showing the ongoing confidence that investors have in the region. The report documents deals of $7.4 billion, and exits worth $5.4 billion.

In many sectors including fuel production, real estate and energy, private equity investments were on the rise, but it was the fuel production and distribution sector, which dominated and had the biggest investments, mainly due to the global demand for fuel.

One growing trend in the region has been investments in sugar and ethanol and also the construction of ethanol mills. Much of this activity was in Brazil as sugar-cane based ethanol production and related projects had investment totals of around $1.435 billion.

In total Brazil had private equity investments of $5.1 billion in 2007 as compared to $1.3 billion in 2006.

Areas attracting large investments in Mexico during the year included the transportation, finance services and productions sectors, where investments focused on steel production and chemical and industrial manufacturing. Investments in Mexico increased from $388 million in 2006 to $717 million in 2007.

By the end of 2007, there had been 29 fund closings with much of the fundraising activities centered in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.

The report details which fund managers have successfully raised new capital and provides details on deals and exits. More