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Darby Overseas Investments is the private equity arm of Franklin Templeton Investments. The Honorable Nicholas F. Brady, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Chairman of Dillon Read & Co. Inc., established Darby in 1994 and serves as its Chairman. The firm manages several different investment funds and 12 offices in 11 countries in Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and more. In 2001 Darby, together with Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA), created the Darby-BBVA Latin American Private Equity Fund, LP. In June 2001 Darby assumed the management of ProBa, LP (ProBanco), a specialized private equity fund that targets Central American financial institutions. In 1999, Darby closed the first mezzanine finance fund dedicated to Latin America, with total resources of approximately $225 million. Darby's Latin American mezzanine fund concentrates primarily on the infrastructure sector, including power, telecommunications, transportation, and water, sanitation and other utilities. In March 2002, Darby acquired Hong Kong based Prumerica Asia Infrastructure Investors from Prudential Financial. Renamed Darby Asia Investors, the company advises and manages the $246 million Asia Infrastructure Mezzanine Capital Fund. Darby recently announced it had completed fund-raising for its Brazil Mezzanine Infrastructure Fund (BMIF) with total capital commitments of R$387.5 million (US$236 million). BMIF was raised from leading institutional investors and will be targeted at Brazilian infrastructure projects that are either new or expansions of existing, medium-sized infrastructure assets.
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