Private Equity in Brazil: Industry Overview and Regulatory Environment

Abstract

The overall goal of this note is to paint a picture of the current state of the private equity industry in Brazil and the existing regulations which must be obeyed to participate as a private equity investor. Part II of this note provides a brief history of the private equity industry in Brazil, discusses recent investor interest in the growing area, and introduces the main regulatory bodies in Brazil. Part III explains several specific rules that govern a private equity investment by breaking down the “life” of a private equity investment into four stages: (1) setting up the private equity fund, (2) investing in a targeted company, (3) managing the targeted company, and (4) exiting the investment. At each of these stages, the focus is on explaining the general ground rules that a private equity investor must abide by, with the goal of introducing practitioners to the regulations governing an investment in Brazil throughout the investment’s life cycle. In a complementary note, which will be published in Issue 2 of this Journal, I will build on this introduction to Brazil’s private equity industry and main regulators and provide a critical analysis of the underlying policy choices inherent in Brazil’s regulatory regime, and provide modest suggestions for future reforms.