PineBridge hires Merrill Lynch exec

PineBridge Investments has hired former Merrill Lynch Private Equity veteran Guido Padovano to head the firm’s Latin America alternative investments team.

Padovano will oversee all private equity operations and manage PineBridge’s investments in the region. He will lead a team of approximately 10 investment professionals based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Padovano joins the firm from Merrill Lynch, where he was head of private equity in Latin America. He was also responsible for managing European private equity operations from 2003 to 2007.

PineBridge’s Latin American practice is part of the firm’s emerging markets strategy that has $11.2 billion in assets under management as of 30 June 2010.

Guido Padovano

Latin America has witnessed a surge of investment activity in 2010 from private equity firms. In September, The Blackstone Group announced it was planning to purchase a 40 percent stake in Sao Paulo-based Patria Investments, one of Brazil’s largest private equity and asset management firms, for $200 million. Also last month, Madrid-based Mercapital announced the opening of its Sao Paulo office, as well as plans to open another office in Latin America before the end of the year.

On 21 September, Silver Lake Sumeru, the mid-market affiliate of Silver Lake Partners, made its first investment in Latin America by acquiring a minority stake in Brazilian computing company Locaweb.

PineBridge manages assets for institutional and individual clients in private equity, listed equity, fixed income, and hedge funds. The firm has more than $78 billion in assets under management as of 30 June 2010.