Owner Of Colombian Swimwear Co. OndadeMar Launches $750M PE Fund
In just five years, Luc Gerard’s Colombian private equity firm, Tribeca Asset Management, has built a $420 million portfolio of investments in companies that include swimwear maker OndadeMar, miner Brexia Resources and medical services provider Groupo Emi. Gerard was in New York last week to raise money for Tribeca’s new $750 million fund and to interview placement agents. Like Tribeca’s first five funds, Tribeca General Fund VI would be earmarked to invest mainly in Colombian companies, focusing on healthcare, natural resources, power generation and consumer goods. Unlike the firm’s first five funds, however, the new fund is Tribeca’s first to seek investors outside of Colombia. Gerard, a native of Congo who has lived in Colombia eight years, says he’s comfortable with the $750 million target, saying that several placement agents have told him the goal was reasonable given the firm’s track record. He’s aiming to have more than $500 million come from outside the country and Tribeca’s main LPs, Colombian pension funds.
