This week, Vinci Partners Investments, the Brazilian alternative investments platform with R$46 billion (about $8.2 billion) in assets under management announced that it has successfully closed R$256 million (about $46 million) in commitments for its “Vinci Infraestrutura Água e Saneamento Fundo de Participações em Infraestrutura” fund, more succinctly known as VIAS. The VIAS fund will be managed by Vinci Partners’ Infrastructure team.
The capital raise marks the beginning of a new strategy for Vinci Partners’ Infrastructure division that will focus on investing in the privatization of state-owned companies that provide water and sewage services for the Brazilian population. The firm is aiming for a target raise of R$1.0 billion (about $180 million)
“We are very pleased with our first capital raise for VIAS, as it sets the start for a new investment strategy within the Infrastructure segment,” said José Guilherme Souza, partner and Head of Infrastructure for Vinci Partners, in a statement provided by the firm. “We are seeing a robust pipeline of opportunities, aligned with the sector’s new regulatory framework, which set universal goals of coverage and quality for water and sewage services rendered in Brazil.
“The Brazilian landscape is currently dominated by state-owned companies, with a relevant privatization and public services concessions agenda from the government, and very few private players with proven track record in the field that are able to invest in all these opportunities,” he said.
Vinci Partners practices an infrastructure core plus strategy, which has exposure to real assets related to physical infrastructure, primarily by investing in equity and debt instruments across several sectors, including power generation and transmission, transportation and logistics and water and sewage. Their investments target control or control-oriented positions in brownfield assets as well as opportunities for consolidation in fragmented industries, where it engages actively in the hands-on management of assets and operations.
Yes, logistics also
Last week, Vinci Partners announced that it has successfully closed R$381 million (about $68 million) in commitments for “Vinci Fulwood Desenvolvimento Logístico FII”, or “VFDL,” a fund to be managed by Vinci Partners Real Estate, which normally invests in REITs.
VFDL is the vehicle for a new strategy that will focus on the development of greenfield industrial properties in Brazil, and is aiming for R$800 million (about $143 million) in target capital. Fulwood Empreendimentos Logísticos, one of the largest industrial real estate developers in Brazil, will act as the fund’s development partner through a joint venture with Vinci Partners.
“We have seen great demand for this type of product inside the real estate asset class, with the increasing demand for high-quality industrial assets combined with the mitigation of risk due to a shorter investment cycle,” Vinci Partners’ Head of Real Estate Leandro Bousquet said.
Established in 2009, Vinci Partners–whose shares are Nasdaq-listed in the United States–today invests across private equity, public equities, real estate, credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, and other investment products in Brazil. The company also has a financial advisory business, focusing mostly on pre-IPO and M&A advisory services for Brazilian middle-market companies.
