The private sector in Latin America is dominated by private, family-owned businesses, which often lack the basic elements of financial transparency, appropriate ownership structures or a board of directors. These are the businesses that make up the landscape of target companies for private equity and venture capital firms, and for many managers, improving corporate governance is a major theme in their investment strategies — not out of good will, but because it is the key to generating long-term value.

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As part of its core mandate to support best practices and standards, and in response to expressed demand from Latin American fund managers, LAVCA has developed a Corporate Governance Toolkit for Privately Owned Companies. The purpose of this web-based, interactive tool is to support business owners and fund managers in assessing weaknesses and charting a path for improvements.

A team of Latin American corporate governance experts from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Peru contributed to the content and design of the LAVCA Toolkit. Funding and technical input were provided by Corporación Andina de Fomento and the Latin American Coordinating Committee of Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young, KPMG, BDO International and Grant Thornton.

The LAVCA Toolkit was piloted at a series of technical seminars with fund managers and business owners throughout Latin America in 2009. A Spanish-language version of the Toolkit will be made available to LAVCA member firms, and to a wider audience through partner organizations, in mid-2010.

To access LAVCA’s 2008 Survey of Fund Managers on Corporate Governance in Family Businesses, click here. For more information on this project, please contact us.