Hamilton Lane to open in Brazil

Hamilton Lane, the US consultant and investment manager that added a real estate practice this year, is branching out by opening an office in Brazil.

The company, established in 1991 and based in Pennsylvania, operates from several US cities as well as London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It said it was planning to open an office in Rio de Janeiro in a move is designed to deliver ”local” services to clients including institutions and investors based in Brazil, across Latin America and the globe.
 
In order to make the move, Hamilton Lane has hired Ricardo Fernandez Silva and Filipe Caldas as vice presidents.

They both join from Switzerland-headquartered Capital Dynamics where they were also VPs. In the case of Fernandez Silva, he also used to head of illiquid investments at a multi-family office in Brazil and at Santander Private Equity.  

Mario Giannini, chief executive officer, said of Brazil: “As the country’s private equity environment continues to grow in investment opportunities, liquidity events, and the amount of capital ready to deploy, it is important for us to have a presence.”

Hamilton Lane has both discretionary and non-discretionary investment clients. Accordong to the firm's website, it has $17 billion of assets under management and advises on a further $93 million. It provides customised strategies, separate accounts and advisory services, fund of funds, secondary funds, co-investment funds, and fund administration services.

Significantly, in March this year it also branched out from mainstream private equity into real estate via the hiring on Jerome Gates as managing director. The real estate practice would identifying managers with a “strong track record” in real estate, it said at the time, and would look to establish joint ventures with operators, plus offer reporting services.

Gates was previously at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney where he was managing director in alternative investments and head of global real estate investments. He also worked at Citigroup for 30 years, most recently as managing director of global wealth management, leading the global real estate investments business.