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Minerva Selected to Participate in U.S. Commerce Certified Nordic Trade Mission, May 12-15

Minerva Capital Group to discuss with Nordic institutional investors about private debt investing opportunities in Mexico.

Minerva Selected to Participate in U.S. Commerce Certified Nordic Trade Mission, May 12-15

Minerva Capital Group to discuss with Nordic institutional investors about private debt investing opportunities in Mexico.

Published 04-17-14

Submitted by Minerva Capital Group

 Minerva Capital Group, a Miami-based impact investment firm, will take part in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s second U.S. Impact & Sustainable Certified Trade Mission, May 12-15, 2014. The mission will focus on the Nordic region, hosting meetings in Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki with those countries’ pension funds, asset managers and investment firms. The purpose of the trade mission is education and there will be no offers to sell securities or solicitations of offers.

In these meetings, the Minerva Capital Group will present to Nordic institutional investors its Mexico Debt capabilities. The fund’s expertise focuses on portfolios with fewer than 25 leading small and medium-size companies that are determined to be leaders in their markets with strong management teams and large, predictable cash flows.

“Our Minerva Mexico Debt team will share its expertise with Nordic investors on structures that put their capital to work in companies that, through rigorous due diligence, we have found can generate measurable social and environmental impacts, as well as substantial financial returns,” says Jocelyn Cortez-Young, founding partner and CEO of the Minerva Capital Group and one of the fund’s managing partners. “We appreciate the opportunity to join this important trade mission of the U.S. Commerce Department.”

Cortez-Young explains that the Minerva Mexico Debt team is unique in focusing on investing in the private debt of a select few of the country’s market leaders instead of their equity. “Private debt as an asset class has historically outperformed public debt by significant margins,” she says. “The focus of our Minerva Mexico Debt team is to drive this increase in performance by our ability to leverage return drivers that are much different from those of other asset classes, including traditional equity investing.”

Examples of those return drivers are:

  • Helping portfolio companies move from traditional hierarchical decision-making processes to faster, more collaborative ones—thereby improving their abilities to execute, especially in volatile economic environments with rapid business cycles, like Latin America.

  • Increasing their management diversity, thereby enriching their overall strategic perspectives, problem solving, and improving their tactical execution with faster, more insightful solutions to day-to-day operating challenges.

  • Crystallizing their corporate governance around a formal, disciplined framework of first principles grounded in accountable behavior—thereby building a more powerful and differentiated brand, to best showcase a company that makes all its decisions with a keen consideration of their social and environmental consequences on the interests of all stakeholders, not just owners but also employees, suppliers, customers and the community at large.

Impact investing is an emerging investment strategy that Minerva Capital has helped pioneer, with a special focus on Latin America, where its partners have substantial experience. The upcoming U.S. Impact & Sustainable Certified Trade Mission, led by the Watershed Capital Group, an impact investment-consulting firm, follows a similar and successful trade mission to Amsterdam, London and Zurich last year.

About Minerva Capital Group
Founded in 2009, Minerva Capital Group is a double bottom-lined impact investment firm, focused on identifying unique, socially impactful investment opportunities in select emerging markets. It seeks to transform small and medium enterprises in these markets by applying its capital, expertise and guidance to their decision-making and management structures. The cornerstone of its investment philosophy is the firm belief that positive investment returns and constructive social, environmental and financial impacts are all strongly linked.

About Impact & Sustainable Private Equity Certified Trade Mission
The trade mission organized by Watershed Capital Group in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce, features U.S.-based private equity and venture capital firms representing the United States as a compelling destination for foreign alternative investments. U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service supports the goals of this event, but does not endorse the specific products or views of the participating organizations. The government of the United States, particularly the United States Department of Commerce and U.S. Embassies, are not involved in selecting or recruiting for this mission. Such selection and recruitment is strictly left to the mission organizer.

About Impact Investing
Impact Investing is an emerging investment strategy that seeks to generate positive financial, environmental and social returns. JP Morgan’s survey indicates a growing market for impact investing, with respondents planning to commit USD 9 billion to impact investing in 2013, up from a total commitment of USD 8 billion in 2012.

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Minerva Capital Group

Minerva Capital Group

Minerva Capital Group is a double bottom-lined impact investment firm focused on identifying unique, socially impactful investments in select emerging markets. We are a team of innovative investment professionals that leverage our extensive relationships, experience and expertise to seize opportunities that produce strong returns and create long-term value for investors.

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