Ardian, a private investment house, has opened an office in Santiago, Chile. The new office, serving Ardian’s growing base of investors and investments in Latin America, demonstrates Ardian’s long-term commitment to both Chile and the LatAm region. This will be Ardian’s 14th office in its global network. Nicolas Gazitua will lead the new Chilean office.
Ardian will work closely with pension funds, insurance companies and family offices to share knowledge and strengthen relationships. Currently, Ardian’s Latin America investor base, mainly within Chile, Colombia and Peru, has leveraged a diversified range of strategies on Ardian’s platform including private equity secondaries, European direct buyouts, infrastructure secondaries, European real estate and global co-investments. Ardian sees continued investor demand in the region, as well as particular interest from LPs within Brazil and Mexico, which are looking to diversify their holdings outside of LatAm.
Ardian first entered the region in 2010 after it began acquiring Latin America businesses as build-ups for European portfolio companies. During the past eight years, Ardian has supported portfolio companies, acquiring nine Latin America build-ups with specific exposure to Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador.
In 2016, Ardian Infrastructure made its first Latin America direct investment when it acquired an 81 percent stake in Solarpack, which manages solar photovoltaic plants in Chile and Peru. It will continue to target mid-market essential infrastructure assets in the energy and transport sectors to provide Ardian’s global investor base with increased opportunities to invest in high-quality Latin America infrastructure assets.
