(Bloomberg) September 8, 2010 – Axxon Group Private Equity, a Brazilian buyout firm, plans to raise as much as 500 million reais ($290 million) to speed up purchases of local companies linked to consumer growth in Latin America’s biggest economy.

Axxon Group, which was started in 2001 to manage private- equity funds for Natexis Banques Populaires, is in talks to buy assets in the health-care, education, retail and cosmetics industries, said Nick Wollak, who manages the company’s funds. The money will be raised from institutional investors in the U.S. and Europe, he said.

Brazil’s economy will expand 7.3 percent this year, according to a central bank survey published Sept. 6. Axxon Group, which manages 300 million reais in private equity, has invested in companies such as Lupatech SA, an oil-service provider, taking advantage of growth in the industry as state- controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA spends $224 billion to develop offshore fields.

“Our focus is on small and medium-sized companies,” Wollak said in an Aug. 27 interview in Sao Paulo. Those companies should be “acquirers, have strong fundamentals and the potential to sell shares to the market. Industries linked to domestic demand are more heated today and attract foreign investors.”

Axxon Group, which has offices in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, has invested $200 million in Brazil to buy stakes in nine companies, including Lupatech and Mills Estruturas e Servicos de Engenharia SA, a provider of scaffolding and concrete forms for Brazil’s oil, shipbuilding and construction industries.

By Joao Oliveira