Santiago de Chile, June 20, 2018: Ardian, a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$71bn managed or advised, today announced the opening of an office in Santiago, Chile. The new office, serving Ardian’s growing base of investors and investments in Latin America (LatAm), demonstrates Ardian’s long-term commitment to both Chile and the LatAm region. This will be Ardian’s 14th office in its global network.

Ardian will work closely with its LPs – pension funds, insurance companies and family offices — to share knowledge and strengthen relationships. Currently, Ardian’s LatAm 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.

In addition, Ardian has become increasingly active since it first entered the region in 2010 after it began acquiring LatAm businesses as build-ups for European portfolio companies. Over the last eight years, Ardian has supported portfolio companies acquiring nine LatAm build-ups with specific exposure to Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador.

In 2016, Ardian Infrastructure made its first LatAm direct investment when it acquired 81 percent stake from Solarpack in four solar PV 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 LatAm infrastructure assets.

Nicolas Gazitua will lead the new Chilean office supported by a dedicated team based in Santiago in coordination with the NYC office co-headed by Mark Benedetti and Vladimir Colas. Ardian will continue to build out the Chilean team and provide additional resources over the coming years.

Benoît Verbrugghe, Member of the Executive Committee, Head of Ardian US said: “The Latin American region is very important to Ardian and this office will allow us to focus on building closer relationships with our LPs and other institutional investors in the region. Our growing international footprint highlights our commitment to a truly global, multi-local approach. We prioritize the deep knowledge and relationships that can only come from an on-the-ground perspective, allowing us to understand the needs of our investors and portfolio companies on a granular level.”

“Furthermore, the Chilean office is an important step forward in our continued efforts to provide our global investor base with opportunities in high quality LatAm investments and superior returns. We will also use the office to source secondary deals from potential LatAm sellers” said Mr. Verbrugghe.

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$71bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base.

Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian’s activities fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world.

Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 500 employees working from fourteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo). It manages funds on behalf of around 700 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Funds of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.