- Hedge Funds
- Private Equity
- Forex
- Case Studies
- Agribusiness
- Renewable Energy
- Real Estate
- Technical Analysis
- Philanthropy
- Regulation
- Art
- Wine
- Commodities
- Emerging Markets
- Mining
- Ventures
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Hedge Funds
Merlin Securities on Best Practices for Latin American Fund Managers
JULY, 2010 Over the past decade, several factors have converged to make Latin America one of the most exciting regions for hedge fund managers and investors. These factors include a large and growing population of high-net-worth and institutional investors, increasingly talented managers and an ...<read full article>
The Latin American Trust
JULY, 2010 Project finance has been the solution for financing infrastructure needs across the world for many years now and Latin America has been no exception. The vast amount of debt and capital needed coupled with the risk involved in large-scale projects makes this technique one of the few al...<read full article>
Infrastructure Funds in Latin America
MAY, 2010 Countries in Latin America are expected to invest U$S D 450 billion in infrastructure assets between the years 2011 and 2015. These long-life assets are usually characterized by high development costs (design and construction) but low marginal costs of production and little to no compe...<read full article>
LatAm Hedge Fund Outlook 2010
NOV, 2009 Latin American Hedge Funds: Review and Outlook Alternative Latin Investor recently spoke with two high profile hedge fund players in Latin America, Otávio Vieira, Portfolio Manager at Safdié and Carlos Rojas Perla, Chief Investment Officer at Compass Group. We were privileg...<read full article>
Hedge Argentina
SEPT, 2009 While the majority of hedge funds in the region have their operations located in the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, Argentina, despite the political and economic uncertainty that continues to affect the country, has attracted its share of funds as well. Almost all funds...<read full article>
The Local Edge
JULY, 2009 In the real estate world the mantra is “position, position, position”. The same may be said for hedge funds based in Latin America. Proximity to the real action gives local managers an advantage over funds managed at a distance. We would not have said this in the mid-1990s ...<read full article>
Attracting Middle Eastern Investment
JULY, 2009 Cash needy investors are hitting the hedge fund industry hard and many managers are expecting significant redemptions, at least for the first half of 2009. In exclusive interviews with Alternative Latin Investor, Brazilian fund managers have spoken about their concerns about surviving t...<read full article>
Private Equity
Challenges for Successful Private Equity Investments in Brazil
By Zack Henry & Eric Saucedo Download Full Article Someone forgot to tell Brazil that we’re in the middle of the worst global recession in history. Brazil is quickly becoming a political and economic leader in Latin America and the world. As with the rest of the global economy, Brazil ente...<read full article>
Steady in the storm with regional opportunites
After a decade of steady growth Central America is weathering the global financial downturn comparatively well and continues to offer regional opportunities for private equity. Historically, this small, diversified region has suffered from armed conflict, political instability, weak institutions ...<read full article>
Facing Challenges of Brazilian Private Equity: Part II
By Zack Henry & Eric Saucedo Financial Transparency This is perhaps the mother of all issues when considering the more common challenges in successfully raising private equity capital. And it’s not an issue solely relevant to Brazil and/or Latin America, as it is an issue facing any early-sta...<read full article>
Forex
"Special FX": Forex themes as 2009 draws to a close
Our last article focused on the widespread impact of change engineered by ongoing challenges to conventional wisdom and considered various trading styles that have subsequently evolved due to increased volatility and price turbulence within FX markets. Not much has altered since although it's fai...<read full article>
So far, so good for USD and LatAm currencies in 2010
Contrary to popular opinion, the USD has continued to strengthen against most major currencies in the first four months of 2010. The main reason for this seems to be the sudden risk-aversion towards the Eurozone as the “PIIGS” (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) crisis dominate...<read full article>
Forex: The World Cup Effect
By Kevin Sollitt When the last issue of ALI was released market conditions warranted a pause for those involved in FX markets. A timely respite has been provided by the World Cup soccer tournament, evidenced in part by a drop in implied volatility from 19 percent to 14 percent over the first co...<read full article>
Investment Analysts Try their Luck with the World Cup
By Marc Rogers The run up to the World Cup is full of excitement, anxiety, and predictions. In this article, we highlight the analysis by financial companies of the seven Latin American teams that qualified for South Africa—Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Honduras. ...<read full article>
Alternatives for executing Foreign Exchange for Institutional Investors.
By Francisco J. Heredia | Boston Global Associates This piece is intended as a primer for institutional investors new to the foreign exchange market. This market is very complex and its participants and their needs substantially differ from one another. For most institutional investors (other than ...<read full article>
Whats behind the moves in Foreign Exchange markets?
Since August 2007, sporadic volatility and price turbulence witnessed by FX markets in the ‘established’ global market place have seen conventional wisdom & perceptions consistently challenged in unpredictable fashion, with wild swings in daily currency trading ranges raising questions ...<read full article>
First Quarter Outlook for Real, Argentine and Mexican Peso
Our last article reviewed the roller coaster that was 2009 and many of the core themes that influenced FX market pricing and movements throughout the year. Based on further observations our analysis to date indicates that thematic overtones such as liquidity, behavioral unpredictability of the &lsqu...<read full article>
Case Studies
Brazil Iowa Farms Case Study
History Brazil Iowa Farms, LLC is an integrated agribusiness company headquarted in Royal, Iowa that owned and operated 22,550 acres of producing farmland and a cotton gin in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Grupo Iowa, as the company is known as in Brazil, was created in 2002 to provide U. S. agricul...<read full article>
Venture Capital in Argentina
Introduction Venture capital in Argentina, particularly at an early stage, requires an active participation in the running of portfolio companies. One can argue that VCs practically play the role of entrepreneurs. In other words, there is no room for “dumb money”. Venture capital, for v...<read full article>
Agribusiness
Agave & Tequila
A Case Study in the Evolution of Opportunity In 1974 Mexico’s government established the Appellation of Origin Tequila (DOT) to establish guidelines for agave production. The agave grower’s cycle from planting through harvest takes about a decade. This is one reason tequila is so expens...<read full article>
Cacao: Ready For Investment
By Stephen Kaczor Can a case be made for the investment potential of cacao trees in Latin America, where they originated? Presently, half of the global supply of chocolate comes from Africa’s Ivory Coast. Asia produces less than Africa. Both origins provide logistical advantages for processi...<read full article>
Vanilla
By Stephen Kaczor Vanilla has been one of the world’s favorite fragrances and flavors since arriving in Europe from Mexico. It is the second most expensive spice after saffron. Today, the food industry uses mostly imitation vanilla flavoring, but there is nothing like real vanilla beans f...<read full article>
Agribusiness Opportunity in Latin America
By Stephen Kaczor Latin America is home to hundreds of farming cooperatives and small regional growers associations. Often these cooperatives and associations are home to as much competition as cooperation. This represents a challenge when growers seek access to export markets for their produce....<read full article>
Panamanian Coffee Production
Overview Coffee is one of the world’s biggest export commodities, the top agricultural export for a dozen countries and one of the world's ten largest legal agricultural exports by value. (Source: FAO Statistics Division.) According to John Talbot of the University of the West Indies, &ldqu...<read full article>
Renewable Energy
Wind Power Investment Blowing Towards Chile
The combination of pro-renewable energy legislation, economic stability and industrial demand are fuelling a vibrant wind power sector in Chile. The Latin American nation has limited indigenous energy resources, with the exception of hydropower. As a result, the country must import the bulk of its ...<read full article>
Concentrating Energy in the Atacama
The Atacama Desert is one of the driest, warmest and sunniest places on earth, analogous to the sunbelt of the US. Despite its excellent conditions for developing solar technologies, this movement has yet to take hold in the region. To better understand the Chilean reality in the solar market and...<read full article>
The Alternative Energy Powerhouse
As home to the world’s last major tropical rainforest, one of the largest renewable reserves of fresh water, the planet’s most diverse stock of biodiversity, the best energy matrix of any of the top economies and the most successful industrial-scale production of bio-fuels, Brazil stand...<read full article>
Argentine Wind Power
By Melanie Davis Argentina has some of the world's most favorable environmental and geological conditions for wind energy generation, although to date this market position is yet to be fully utilized. At a time when renewable energy sources are proven and have demonstrated their investment potenti...<read full article>
Real Estate
The Times They are a Changing for Panama Real Estate
In the new century, Panama has established itself as a player in international real estate investment. The country’s economy continues to grow year on year. Foreign Direct Investment is still coming in. There are a variety of potential moneymaking real estate sectors. In short, Panama is more...<read full article>
Nordeste Invest; Coming to terms with a New Reality
By Mark McHughInvest in Brazil on Google Groups During early May, Natal hosted Nordeste Invest, a landmark forum for international investment in Northeast Brazil. Leading real estate investors and developers exchanged views and provided many vital insights into the evolution of this dynamic mark...<read full article>
Lending Opportunities in Mexican Affordable Housing
By Lawrence McDaniel The collapse of foreign investment in the Mexican affordable housing sector has created a significant opportunity for debt capital in search of compelling risk-adjusted returns on construction lending. Our confidence in this market is underpinned by continued strong fundamen...<read full article>
Real Estate Indexing in Latin America
The new global paradigm of lower returns, less leverage and reduced risk, has made us very interested in looking at listed equities as a proxy for private equity real estate investing in Latin America. This analysis focuses on how theoretical real estate indices would have performed over the p...<read full article>
Colombia Heating Up
For over twenty years increasing numbers of investors from outside the region have been looking for opportunities in Latin American real estate markets, but only the convergence of various positive factors in the last few years look to have firmly established this exciting and bountiful investment ...<read full article>
Real Estate Limited Partnerships in Latin America
Real Estate investment for Limited Partners (LPs) in Latin America can really be seen as a tale of two countries, namely Mexico and Brazil, and recent experiences there offer important contrasts between each country’s different market practices leading up to the global recession, some of the ...<read full article>
Economic Revival In Chile
by Nathaniel Parish Flannery New construction at Chile’s stalled Costanera Center, the unfinished 984 foot tall tower in the heart of Santiago’s gleaming financial district, is a highly visible reminder that even though the country‘s economy was rocked off course by the 2009 globa...<read full article>
Technical Analysis
Latam Index Analysis
Msci Brazil (EWZ) recently raised above the main bearish resistance line at $51.00 switching officially to bullish mode. Since May 08 double top at $102.00 prices started declining sharply until the breakthrough of the main bullish support line at $86.50 on early June 08 changed the overall outlook...<read full article>
Philanthropy
Ultra-high Net Worth Individual's Philanthropic Moves
The current relative stability, the growing importance of the region to the global economy, and the wealth of opportunities for impact make LatAm an intriguing and attractive region for philanthropic investments. Once virtually non-existent, LatAm’s philanthropic infrastructure is emerging w...<read full article>
Top Aid: Who's Helping Rebuild Chile
By Tiffany Joy Swenson In the wake of the most recent natural disaster in Chile, organizations from around the world are working overtime to attend to the many needs of those affected. The 8.8 earthquake struck central Chile on February 27th, 2010 and has been ranked as the 5th most powerful eart...<read full article>
Global Learning: A Worthy Cause
By: Tiffany Joy Swenson In our first issue, Alternative Latin Investor profiled the contributing habits of Ultra High Net Worth Philanthropists; in our follow up issue, we would like to take an opportunity to shine a spotlight on one of the many nonprofit organizations that we deem worthy of such...<read full article>
Regulation
Business Focus: Argentina, Panama and Mexico
Investing in Onshore Latin American Assets Comparisons of Corporate Requirements and Banking Practices Compared Brought to you by Carl B. McCarthy, Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C., (New York) Clara Vela, Marval, O’Farrell & Mairal (Argentina) Luis Gerardo Ramirez, Galicia Abogados, S.C. (Mexico) Estif...<read full article>
Brazils improving Corporate Governance
From the mid 1990’s until 2000 the Brazilian equity market was characterized by poor corporate governance, weak enforcement, little minority investor protection, shallow liquidity and low valuations. This challenging situation provoked de-listings and forced a migration of companies seeking t...<read full article>
Multimercado:Funds Go Global
Hedge fund regulations in Brazil provide local funds with global access As Brazilian hedge fund managers prepared to take advantage of the long-awaited issue of a resolution that would allow them to access offshore markets in 2008, the global financial crisis hit just in time to set back their hope...<read full article>
Finding Your Financial Freedom in Latin America
When checking out investments in Latin America, don't miss intangible benefits that might not contribute directly to the bottom line, but that could make you freer, wealthier and happier as a person. Peter Macfarlane investigates the hidden benefits of Latin Investing such as tax benefits, asset pr...<read full article>
Art
Latin American Art Growing in Popularity
A new generation of Latin American artists are ensuring that works from the region are attracting international buyers in increasing numbers. Up until thirty years ago the majority of works coming out of the region were purchased by wealthy Latin American families who would often build their collec...<read full article>
The Cuban Art Revolution
Cuban Art has been increasing in value over the past decades. In the following article, ALI speaks with both Cuban-born artist Jake Fernandez as well as Jorge Moya, Curator at the Cuba Art NY foundation. Both parties give their take on why Cuban Art seems to have such alluring investment potentia...<read full article>
Christies Latin Art Sale Breaks $20 Million
By Tiffany Joy Swenson With the world slowly crawling out of the crisis depths, there has been an ignited interest in Latin American fine art investment seen by this year’s Latin Art Sale at Christie’s New York. The sale totaled over $20 million dollars, greatly surpassing last year...<read full article>
Brazilian Urban Art: From Street to Chic
Tiffany Joy Swenson There has always been something fascinating about the allure of Brazilian culture that has caused people from around the world to want to latch on to its magic. From Carnival to Bossa Nova to Victoria’s Secret models—the world wants what Brazil has. When it comes to ...<read full article>
Alternative Latin Investor speaks with Latin American Art Museum of Amersfoort
LAKMA started with a foundation dedicated to the Spanish artist José Gausachs. Gausachs was an artist who emigrated from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, before the Second World War. For many, Gausachs is an unknown name; however, he is of great importance to Latin America's art history...<read full article>
Wine
Wine Investment from a Latin American Perspective
In today’s market, despite these times of crisis, there is a lot of money looking for a safe home. Given low global interest rates, depressed stock markets, and collapsing property values, fine wine is undoubtedly an interesting investment, and as the top “New World” (Chile, Argen...<read full article>
Argentine Wine Harvest: 2010
Argentina, due to its terroir, is known for only having good years and great years. The consistencies of the climate - dry, high altitude, porous soil, and fresh run-off water, make Argentina the workhorse of the wine world. With that being said, 2009 was not such a good year for wine production,...<read full article>
Fine Wine Investors Thank Latin America for a Healthy Profit
By Charlie Martin Prices for the world’s most famous wines are rocketing, particularly those from the famous French Estates, providing investors with a relatively new and lucrative way of diversifying a portfolio’s asset base. Only fifteen years ago the Fine Wine Market was still seen a...<read full article>
A Truly Personal Investment in Argentina and Wine
On November 3, 2004, only 36 hours after stepping off a plane from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, Daniel Karlin met the girl he was going to marry. They just got married in July. In the interim, Karlin, with the help of his wife Lourdes, started Anuva Wines, a company that sources, imports, distrib...<read full article>
Torrontes: The Next Malbec
By Dan Karlin Since 2004 no other country has seen the meteoric rise in volume, value and market share figures that Argentina has in the import segment of fine wine to the U.S. Over the last two years, while all other segments of imported wine have been down in both value and volume—except fo...<read full article>
Commodities
Chavez And The Diminishing Return - Part One
Since coming to power in 1998, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has not only transformed the political landscape of his own country and influenced the populist movement of South America, but he has also dramatically impacted investment and its outlook. Chavez’s power base has made the prospect of i...<read full article>
Chinese Boycott of Argentina Soybean Oil
By Bernard Lapointe In early April China’s Ministry of Commerce banned imports of soybean oil from Argentina as a part of a wider trade dispute. The dispute initially stemmed from Argentina’s move to place a trade barrier on imports from China, which then spiraled into China taking re...<read full article>
Chinese Brazilian Trade Ties Continue to Grow
By Bernard Lapointe In April, China and Brazil signed various trade agreements with the objective of boosting two-way trade between the two countries. In particular Presidents Hu and Da Silva signed a 5-year action plan to increase trade and energy cooperation. Since China joined the World Trad...<read full article>
Pre-salt: What now?
This event marked an important moment for the Brazilian oil industry, because recent discoveries in the world oil scene have been rare and also because Brazil has always carried the title of eternal latecomer in the race for oil. The Brazilian oil industry was, until then, a classic case of sudden ...<read full article>
Emerging Markets
Paradise Lost, Paraguay Found
The hit of the global economic crisis coupled with the harsh and extended drought has transformed the once-vulnerable Paraguay, with its rich agricultural industry and extensive hydro-electricity resources, into an attraction for foreign investors Canadian entrepreneurs and investors Neal De Florio...<read full article>
Building A Bridge to the Middle East
In 1973, Ibrahim Oweiss, a professor at Georgetown University, created the word "petrodollar" to describe the huge amounts of foreign currency being generated by the oil producing countries (OPEC), which in turn were largely invested in the economies of other nations. Since then, the countries of t...<read full article>
A Week in the Life of Canning House
Canning House, London, was founded in 1943 to promote understanding and exchange between Britain, Spain, Portugal and Latin America. Honouring the name of – to this day – Britain’s only foreign minister to devote a great amount of his energies towards the affairs of Latin America,...<read full article>
Cuba: return to capitalism?
By Vonnell I. Martinez The day is coming when not another paddle will touch the water held by a Cuban who risks drowning in a desperate attempt to cross the Florida straits while searching for freedom from the asphyxiating grip of a regime whose only achievement has been the vicious oppression of...<read full article>
A New Era for Investment in Argentina
By Javier Canosa After the fall of Lehman Brothers and the crash of the stock market in 2008, Latin American countries have managed to live through and survive the world crisis very much unscathed. Although the majority of the Latin American countries have endured the crisis, in the rest of the w...<read full article>
Mexico, Superstar Player of the Emerging Economies
By Tessa Albrecht Mexico: Latin America’s newest investment beacon and slightly less-publicised regional superstar. With the highest level of FDI in the region and a more stable political environment than ever before, Mexico is an investment destination prime for the picking and one that is...<read full article>
The Future of Brazilian Energy Intigration with Peru
November 11th, 2009, Brazil experienced one of its worst blackouts in history. Due to the fall of a transmission line that connects the giant Itaipu Power Plant (the largest operational hydroelectric power plant in the world) to the Brazilian electrical system, the major states of the country had n...<read full article>
Rio 2016: Opportunities and Responsibilities
Rio 2016: Opportunities and Responsibilities Eternally lain on a splendid cradle, by the sound of the sea and the light of the deep sky, thou shinest, O Brazil, garland of America, illuminated by the sun of the New World! Hino Nacional Brasileiro (Brazilian National Anthem) Brazil certainly has ...<read full article>
Gold
Precious Things in Peru
Peru is an interesting country in that it has been forged by the Conquistadors, brought into modern times by the Japanese (including a famous Peruvian leader with Japanese DNA) and may fall into the orbit of Mainland China. Peru, like many Latin American countries, can indeed be seen as a natural r...<read full article>
Cuba Mining
by Christopher Ecclestone Cuba has a history of mining extending over a period of three hundred years. During the period 1900 to 2002, mining was a permanent activity, and during WWII the mining of manganese, some copper, and nickel was most important. The nickel resource comes from extensive later...<read full article>
Ventures
VivaReal: LatAm Real Estate Moves Online
Trends: In the United States 90% of home buyers start their search online according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). There is no concrete data available to compare this with Latin America, but internet penetration in the region has been growing at over 850% (Internet World Stats) sin...<read full article>
Business In LatAm Made Easy
Golcio – Business with LatAm Made Easy In 2008, BusinessWeek magazine featured Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Costa Rica in the World’s Top 25 outsourcing destinations. A year later, the Direction for Trade Statistics of the IMF reported that the size of the Latin American import and export ...<read full article>
