Mexico’s PE trade body names president

The Mexican Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital (Amexcap) appointed Antonio Ruiz Galindo as president, according to a spokesperson from the group.

A founding member of Amexcap, Ruiz Galindo replaces former president Arturo Saval, and previously served as the group’s president from 2003 to 2005. Ruiz Galindo is the founding chairman and chief executive officer of Grupo IGS, which manages several industrial investment and real estate funds, and became the president of Amexcap’s institutional relations committee in 2013. The committee develops relationships with the government and other institutions that support private equity growth,

In his new role, Ruiz Salindo aims to attract more foreign investors to Mexico’s private equity market by working with authorities to develop more competitive tax structures and regulations, he told PEM.

Saval become president of Amexcap in 2011 and will continue to serve as an advisor to the group, according to media reports. He is a senior managing director at Mexico City-based Nexxus Capital, which has raised six funds in the past 16 years. Its most recent fund closed on $550 million in 2013 and was nearly double the size of Nexxus’ prior vehicle. Saval waspreviously an executive at Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico.

Regulations allow Mexican pensions to invest up to 20 percent of their assets in Mexican companies and infrastructure projects through publicly-listed investment vehicles called Certificados de Capital de Desarrollo.

Founded in 2002 with four private equity funds totaling $1.5 billion of assets, Amexcap has 85 fund members managing a combined $21.6 billion of assets, according to Ruiz Galindo.Roughly 48 percent of the funds are real estate-focused, followed by 33 percent in private equity and 12 percent focused on infrastructure. Roughly 4 percent are venture capital funds, with 3 percent structured as fund of funds.