 |
|
|
|
|
Dynamic Equity Venture Fund starts with $ 33 millionThe Dynamic Equity Venture Fund started operations yesterday with $33 million in commitments from investors. The Fund can now provide venture capital or private equity to medium sized businesses and is the largest fund of its kind dedicated exclusively to companies in Trinidad & Tobago. Lead investors are Guardian Life of the Caribbean Limited, a member of the Guardian Holdings Group, and the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank. Agreements for $33 million in available financing were formally signed during a short ceremony at the offices of De Nobriga, Inniss & Co. Guardian Life President Douglas Camacho expressed Guardian's firm belief in the high demand for this type of long-term and patient capital for businesses. "We also hope that growth by the Fund's investee companies will lead to more development of our capital markets in the future." William Robinson, Country Representative of the Inter-American Development Bank, said "the investment by the Multilateral Investment Fund is a strong vote of confidence in the potential of Trinidad & Tobago's economy and is intended to support the increasingly active role that institutional investors are playing in the private equity field, both in Trinidad & Tobago and in the wider Caribbean." He noted that "increasingly it is small and medium sized private sector businesses that will provide employment and growth in the economy." The emphasis of the Dynamic Equity Venture Fund is to make investments that support expansion of existing private companies. The Fund is not focussing on any particular technology or economic sector. Instead, it will build a diversified portfolio following a European-style private equity strategy. The Fund can make investments with a minimum size of around $400,000, but the average investment size is expected to be a few million dollars per company. The Fund is the first of its kind that has been approved by Trinidad & Tobago's Supervisor of Insurance for investment of statutory funds by institutional investors. The Fund does not fall under the Venture Capital Act of Trinidad and Tobago, but it is registered as a Reporting Issuer with the T&T Securities and Exchange Commission. The first investment by the Fund is expected to be made by September. Several proposals have already been presented to Dynamic Equity, which manages the Fund. Managing Director Jelle Sjoerdsma indicated Dynamic Equity's eagerness to make investments since January this year, when the company co-sponsored the VenturePoint 2001 conference. "Preparing all the financing and legal arrangements for the Fund took longer than we anticipated. This is the first time anything on this scale has been done in Trinidad & Tobago. Now everything is in place, we plan to make a flying start."
|
|
|
