Advent takes top deal honors in LAVCA’s inaugural PE awards

Advent International’s investment in Brazilian financial services company Cetip took top deal honors in the first-ever Latin American Private Equity Awards Wednesday.

The awards were launched by The Latin American Private Equity & Venture Capital Association and accounting giant EY.

Advent invested in Cetip in 2009, kicking in $112 million for a 32 percent stake, according to a case study of the investment provided by LACVA.

To get the investment done, Advent had to communicate its offer to more than 600 Cetip shareholders. The firm and Cetip accomplished this first by setting up call centers and having senior managers contact each shareholder and eventually hosted a meeting in a hotel auditorium where shareholders could vote on the offer.

Advent exited the company in stages, selling 43 percent of its holdings in the IPO and another 21 percent in early 2011. The firm fully exited the company in late 2011.

Other awards included Southern Cross Group and Chilean energy firm GasAtacama, which grabbed the 2016 Environmental Responsibility Private Equity Deal while LIV Capital snagged the 2016 Social Responsibility Private Equity Deal for its work with Mexican telecommunications company Red IT.

Also, Riverwood Capital scored the 2016 Governance Private Equity Deal for its investment in pan-regional IT firm Globant.

Honorable mentions were given to DGF Investimentos/Softway and Darby/Laboratorios Kendrick in the category of 2016 Private Equity Deal; Aqua Capital/Comfrio for 2016 Environmental Responsibility Private Equity Deal; Actis/Companhia Sulamericana for 2016 Social Responsibility Private Equity Deal; and Stratus/Maestro Locadora de Frotas for 2016 Governance Private Equity Deal.

Latin American, U.S. and international institutional investors that included development banks, insurance firms and trusts, comprised the judging panel.

The award ceremony was held December 9 at the American Society/Council of the Americas in New York.

Photo of trophy courtesy of Shutterstock

Chris Witkowsky contributed to this report