Carlyle May Pay $250 Million for Brazil’s CVC Turismo

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – U.S.-based buyout firm Carlyle Group may pay around $250 million for about 60 percent of CVC Turismo, Brazil’s largest tourism agency, a source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Tuesday.

Sao Paulo-based CVC, majority owned by entrepreneur Guilherme Paulus, and Carlyle are in exclusive talks for the transaction, but there is still no timetable for the purchase, said the source, who declined to be named because the transaction is still in the works.

A Carlyle spokesman based in Washington, D.C., declined to comment. Calls made to CVC offices in Sao Paulo and messages left with the company’s media relations advisers were not immediately returned.

Buyout giants like Carlyle and KKR are scouring for deals in emerging market economies, where the impact of the global recession was minimized by consumer spending and other factors. Private equity firms have struggled in developed economies during the past two years.

Brazilian analysts expect private equity investment to soar next year as the country’s growth prospects and declining interest rates draw a new class of investors.

Carlyle is about to seal two or three deals in Brazil that could run into the “hundred million dollar area,” co-founder David Rubinstein said in Sao Paulo on Dec. 2.

He declined to elaborate at the time on possible targets.

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal
(Additional reporting by Aluisio Alves, Cesar Bianconi and Luciana Lopez in Sao Paulo)