Colony Capital agreed to acquire Abraaj Group's private equity platform in Latin America, the firm announced in a news release Wednesday.
The acquisition, the terms of which are not being disclosed, is expected to close later in the first quarter. Abraaj's Latin American private equity business, which has more than $500 million in assets under management, will be renamed as Colony Latam Partners.
Provisional liquidators Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers assisted in the transaction. The liquidators have been attempting to settle more than $1 billion of debt owed by Abraaj, once one of the most influential emerging market investors until its collapse in 2018 following allegations of misused funds.
The future Colony Latam Partners is focused on middle-market growth equity investments throughout the Pacific Alliance, which is a trade bloc consisting of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Partners Miguel Angel Olea Sisniega, Hector Martinez Fry, Gerardo Mendoza Llanes and Eduardo Cortina Murrieta will continue to lead the business, the news release said.
Multiple hedge funds and private equity firms have been involved in the bidding processes for Abraaj Group's businesses, including Cerberus Capital, which walked away from an offer for Abraaj's asset management platform in July, as well as Colony itself, which had originally announced in June 2018 that it would be purchasing the group's Latin American, North African, sub-Saharan African and Turkey funds management before that deal also fell through.
A spokeswoman for Colony Capital declined to comment.
