Who is Mesoamerica?  

Mesoamerica began in 1996 as a private equity fund, and then added investment banking and strategic consulting practices in 1998. The founding partners had previously worked with Bain & Company and the group continues to have very close ties with both Bain & Company and Bain Capital.

In recent years, Mesoamerica has been the regional leader in mergers & acquisitions. Examples of transactions in which Mesoamerica has acted as advisor include:

• Sale of Banco Salvadoreño to Banistmo
  
• Sale of minority position of Banco Cuscatlán (2nd largest bank Central America) to Banco Popular
  
• Sale of minority position of Cementos Progreso (largest cement company in Guatemala) to HolCim
  
• Sale of ENITEL (privatized Nicaraguan telecommunications company) to América Móvil
  
• Sale of MEGATEL (Honduran wireless provider) to América Móvil
  
• Merger of El Salvadoran and Honduran breweries and Coca-Cola bottlers, as well as sale of majority stake
  
• of this merged entity to SAB-Miller
  
• Sale of BGA (largest Honduran bank) to Banistmo
  
• Sale of Panabank to Banco Cuscatlán
  
• Acquisition by Siman Family of La Curacao's Central American assets
  
• Acquisition by Unión Fenosa of Guatemalan rural electricity distribution companies
  

Private Equity Experience

In private equity, Mesoamerica is focused on making large-scale investments in a variety of business sectors throughout the region.

An example of Mesoamerica's private equity experience prior to the launch of Mesoamerica Energy was its participation with Telefónica of Spain in the telecommunications sector. In 1998 Mesoamerica raised $200 million of committed funds from a group of Central American investors (generally the same group as Mesoamerica Energy), of which $120 million was ultimately invested. Mesoamerica Telecom partnered with Telefónica to create Telefónica Centroamérica, a company that invested in new wireless ventures in El Salvador and Guatemala. In 2001, Mesoamerica Telecom negotiated the exchange of its stake in Telefónica Centroamérica for Telefónica Móviles' publicly traded shares, which Mesoamerica Telecom sold in 2003.

At the end of 2003, Mesoamerica re-launched its private equity practice via the creation of Mesoamerica Capital Partners (MCP). MCP is structured not as a fund, but rather a private equity initiative whereby Mesoamerica seeks investment opportunities for its group of investors. Mesoamerica identifies a sector of interest (in this case energy) and forms a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to execute the strategy for the initiative. The SPV is structured as a corporation whereby the investors actively participate in the Board of Directors.

For more information on Mesoamerica, go to www.mesoamerica.com