Washington, D.C./New York, NY September 8, 2014
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, provided $10 million to AMERRA Latin America Finance, LLC (ALAF) to increase its lending to enterprises operating in Latin America’s agricultural commodity supply chain, which have limited access to long-term finance. In 2013, IFC provided $50 million to ALAF, bringing total support to $60 million. ALAF is managed by AMERRA Capital Management, LLC (AMERRA), an investment manager headquartered in New York with about US$ 1.1 billion of assets under management.
AMERRA invests across Latin America, including Brazil and Mexico, supporting companies that produce, process and trade agricultural commodities. IFC’s financing will help AMERRA expand its reach to new clients and to countries such as Paraguay, where AMERRA has developed an active portfolio.
While Latin America is a highly urbanized region, poverty is disproportionately more prevalent in rural areas where 122 million people live. For the vast majority of these people, agriculture is the dominant economic activity and opportunity to escape poverty. During the last two decades, agriculture has played an increasingly critical role and today exports of agricultural products make up about a quarter of the region’s total exports.
“IFC’s financing strengthens AMERRA’s capacity to provide creative financial solutions to our clients. Working with IFC gives us a competitive advantage in identifying projects that contribute to agricultural development in the countries where we operate,” said Craig Tashjian, a founding principal of AMERRA.
“With this financing, IFC is supporting the expansion of an innovative asset manager such as AMERRA whose business model connects capital from institutional investors in North America with agribusiness companies in Latin America. This is consistent with our focus on helping develop sustainable agribusiness projects in the region”, said Irene Arias, IFC Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
IFC’s strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean focuses on promoting inclusive growth, competitiveness and innovation, regional and global integration, and mitigation and adaptation to climate change. For more information about IFC in Latin America and the Caribbean, visit
www.ifc.org/lac
.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in about 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. In FY14, we provided more than $22 billion in financing to improve lives in developing countries and tackle the most urgent challenges of development. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
About AMERRA
AMERRA Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser managing funds and separate accounts offering customized agriculture finance solutions. Backed by long-term institutional capital, AMERRA provides a full spectrum of financial products, fully encompassing the balance sheet needs of their client base. Ranging from senior secured debt to private equity investments, AMERRA’s offerings include various forms of working capital such as inventory finance, pre-export/pre-crop financing and trade financing, land transformation financing, acquisition finance, capital expenditure programs and project finance. Portfolio companies consist of producers, processors, traders/distributors and logistics companies operating across upstream and midstream agricultural markets throughout the Americas.
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