The Pacific Alliance: a new Latin American superpower

The ‘Pacific Alliance’ has brought together four of Latin America’s most dynamic economies - and opened up huge opportunities for investors. James McKeigue looks at the best way to play the continent’s new economic superpower.

Times are tough for the former richest man in Brazil. Flamboyant Eike Batista made a name for himself by creating a string of billion-dollar commodity and infrastructure companies. But in the last year he saw a stunning $25bn wiped off his net worth. So where did it all gone wrong?

At his peak, Batista was a stock market darling, feted by investors for his ability to build exciting companies from mundane projects. And in the last few years he launched some of the biggest IPOs in Brazilian history. Batista's meteoric rise made him a symbol of the Brazilian boom as investors came to love the companies he founded. Spotting one of his creations is easy. They're normally huge, based around massive infrastructure or commodity projects, and all bear Batista's signature X in the name energy firm MPX, oil firm OGX, shipping firm SBX you get the picture. In total he created five publicly-listed companies in the past six years. Men like Batista made Brazil a Latin American superpower.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.