(PEI) March 12, 2010 – Brazil is back on the map for Warburg Pincus, which is putting the finishing touches on a new office in Sao Paolo. Leading the firm’s invigorated Latin American investment effort from Sao Paulo will be Alain Belda, who joined Warburg in mid-2009 as a managing director. Belda was chief executive officer of aluminium giant Alcoa from 2001 to 2008.

This is the second go-round for Warburg in Brazil. The firm first established a presence in the country in 1998 under the leadership of Gary Nusbaum. During that time the firm backed Brazilian e-commerce company Submarino (which went public in 2005) and invested some $35 million in eBX Express Brasil, a logistics conglomerate and part of the prominent Brazilian investor Eike Batista’s EBX platform. Nusbaum left Warburg Pincus in 2002 to join Aetos Capital, and later Palladium Equity Partners.

Belda will “lead investment activities in Latin America and provide strategic counsel across the firm’s portfolio”, according to a press release. An office location had not yet been secured by the firm at press time for PEI’s recently released Annual Review, which first carried this news story.

— David Snow, Private Equity International