From Latin Finance
January 18 2010
BR Partners Raises PE Fund

As former Citi banking chief Ricardo Lacerda builds up a new banking and trading shop called BR Partners, the initial strategy centers around managing a new private equity fund, he tells LatinFinance. “We raised BRL250m exclusively from wealthy Brazilian families to make minority investments in high-growth companies,” he says. Unlike many typical PE funds that have lockups and divestment periods, the equity raised for investment has few restrictions on what can be done with the money and how it must return to investors, says Lacerda. The fund will focus exclusively on Brazilian companies with high growth potential, in a variety of sectors. The banker worked with private and public companies, notably Hypermarcas, in his former role as a senior banker at Citi. In M&A advisory, Lacerda says he plans to take on any and all Brazil-focused players, albeit initially with smaller staff. In December, BRP advised Hypermarcas in the acquisition of Neo Quimica for BRL1.4bn