OPIC Board Approves $100 Million Investment in Paladin Realty's 4th Latin American Fund

(OPIC) First-time home buyers to benefit with new affordable housing

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) recently approved a new financing commitment of up to $100 million to Paladin Realty Latin America Investors IV LP, a new investment fund sponsored by Paladin Realty Partners, LLC, a leading institutional real estate fund manager focused on Latin America. The fund, which held its initial closing earlier this year at $75 million and has a target capitalization of $400 million to 600 million, aims to build thousands of affordable housing units throughout Latin America.

“This new fund will continue Paladin Realty’s 15-year strategy of supporting affordable homeownership in Latin America and the growth of its housing industry,” said OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth L. Littlefield. “We are thrilled to partner with this innovative U.S. investment firm to bring these development-stage projects to realization.”

A primary focus of the Latam IV fund’s investment strategy will be to finance the development of new housing for the region’s growing workforce. The fund aims to build approximately 12,000 affordable housing units throughout Latin America. By creating an asset base for first-time homebuyers, Paladin’s Latam IV fund will support the growth of local housing markets – and with them construction and related industries – where there is pent-up demand and growing deficit of supply. More than half of the families in 41 of Latin America’s biggest cities cannot afford to buy a proper formal dwelling using their own means, according to a 2012 study by the Inter-American Development Bank.

OPIC, which is one of the largest sponsors of private equity funds in emerging markets, has previously supported two Paladin Realty investment funds focused on Latin America. Pension Consulting Alliance performed due diligence on the fund and Paladin Realty on OPIC’s behalf.