Vision in Brazilian direct secondaries deal

Vision Capital has acquired Brazilian film packaging company Vitopel from funds advised by DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and JP Morgan Partners, the firm announced in a statement. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

JP Morgan and DLJ have owned Vitopel for some time, having acquired the company and Brazilian film manufacturer Koppol for $87 million in 2000. Investment capital from DLJ’s $3 billion 1996 vintage was used in the deal.

Vision began scouting this deal when it purchased hospitality outsourcing company The Service Companies last year, according to a market source. DLJ is also an investor in The Service Companies.

Vision will use Vitopel as the foundation of a Latin American film packaging platform, a spokesperson for the firm told Private Equity International. The firm completed a debt restructuring of the company led by existing creditors Credit Suisse (which owns DLJ) and Santander.

Vision specialises in direct secondaries, targeting package deals for portfolio companies of other private equity firms. Brazil’s secondary market has grown substantially recently, according to sources, as many of those who invested in the region in the early 2000s are now unloading assets as they attempt to reenter the market or invest in new funds.

“A lot of these guys have gotten themselves into a situation where, although the allocation to private equity represents 5 percent of their portfolio, they’re actually spending 70 percent of their time in that 5 percent of the portfolio,” Hamilton Lane vice president Filipe Caldas told Private Equity International earlier this year. “It’s 10 years. It’s a marriage, and it’s a lot of work.”