(AltAssets (Actis)) , AltAssets (Gramercy) Private equity firms Actis and Gramercy have made strategic hires in Latin America, strengthening their teams in the market.

Brandao – who is joining from Rio Bravo Investimentos, where he was partner and co-fund manager – will serve as a director focusing on the energy sector of Latin America.

He has also worked at Skanska, Unocal, the AES Corporation and at Royal Dutch Shell in the US, UK, the Netherlands and Brunei.

Brandao will be based in Actis’ Sao Paulo office, where it currently has a team of 12 investment professionals focusing on the consumer, financial services and energy sectors.

Actis, which is focused on emerging markets, has recently made a number of investments in the Latin American energy sector.

Its current investments include the largest wind energy company in Central America and a distributor of electricity to over 1.4 million customers in Guatemala.

Michael Till, partner and co-head of energy at Actis, said, “Sergio is a well-recognised figure in the Brazilian energy market.

“He is highly attuned to seeking out prospects both in Brazil and further afield and his recruitment to Actis is indicative of our growing presence in the region.”

Actis’ other private equity investments in Brazil include supermarket chain CSD, retail brokerage XP Investimentos, cleaning products maker Gtex and higher education college, University Cruzeiro do Sul Educacional.

The firm currently has funds under management of $5.2bn.

Actis has recently expanded its senior team in South East Asia, appointing Arjun Oberoi as global healthcare sector head and Ivy Santoso as Indonesian country head.

In January this year Actis gathered about $750m towards its latest global fund, putting it more than a third of the way towards its reported $2.2bn target.