Infrastructure in Latin America: Closing the Gap with Private Capital and the Rise of Family-Led Platforms
An Aerial Shot of a Cargo Shipping Port by David Vives. Source: Pexels.
For decades, Latin America’s infrastructure lagged behind its economic potential. Insufficient ports, roads, grids, and digital connectivity constrained competitiveness and regional integration. Yet, a transformation is underway. The long-standing infrastructure gap, estimated by the Inter-American Development Bank (2024) at over 3% of regional GDP annually (approximately US$2.2 trillion over the next decade), is increasingly being financed not only by public funds and multilaterals but also by private capital and family-led investment platforms.
Historically, much of Latin America’s wealth originated in family-owned conglomerates that built fortunes through trade, banking, agriculture, and logistics. In recent years, many of these families have begun to institutionalise their wealth by establishing investment offices and hiring seasoned professionals to manage complex, long-term assets. Infrastructure, given its scale and strategic importance, has become a natural destination. Peru’s Grupo Romero, one of the region’s most established business groups, embodies this evolution. Founded over 135 years ago and diversified into finance, logistics, and consumer goods, the group now channels its infrastructure ambitions through InfraCorp, its dedicated general partner (GP) for investment across Latin America.
While commercial banks, development institutions, and private equity funds continue to play central roles in acquisition and project finance across Latin America, with more than US$46 billion raised across over 220 deals in 2023 according to Proximo (2024), new infrastructure platforms such as InfraCorp are increasingly acting as sponsors capable of structuring blended-finance solutions with both local and international lenders. This broadening of the financing ecosystem strengthens competition for mature, lower-risk assets while creating new opportunities for specialist platforms able to originate, structure, and operate more complex projects.
How the Energy Transition Affects Investment Incentives
When contextualising the growth of infrastructure investments, it is crucial to also address the role of the energy transition in reshaping returns on capital in different sectors. As countries decarbonise, capital flows into renewables, transmission networks and storage. Today, clean sources account for about 60% of power generation in Peru, 70% in Colombia, 30% in Mexico and more than 80% in Chile, compared with roughly 40% in the European Union, according to the IEA (2024) and S&P Global (2024). This shift creates a dual dynamic: renewables attract strategic investors, which compresses returns, while complementary assets such as transmission lines, firm generation, and port logistics continue to offer premium yields for private investors.
Because of sovereign, regulatory, and currency risks, investors typically seek higher returns in Latin America than in developed markets. Greenfield or higher-risk assets often target mid-teens internal rates of return (IRRs), reflecting both construction exposure and country-specific challenges. According to the Global Infrastructure Hub and EDHECinfra’s Financial Performance of Infrastructure Investment (2024) report, unlisted infrastructure equities in emerging markets delivered an average ten-year return of approximately 15.5%, compared with 12.3% in developed markets. This confirms the region’s premium for risk and illiquidity. Following the intensification of competition in mature renewable segments, return asymmetry emerges, with higher spreads in less-crowded investment verticals such as ports, export logistics, and digital infrastructure, and lower returns in more commoditised renewable projects. As illustrated in the subsequent section, this new dynamic defines InfraCorp’s investment approach.
InfraCorp in Action: Case Highlights
InfraCorp’s mandate focuses on five verticals: ports and logistics, energy and power, transport, digital infrastructure and social infrastructure. The platform seeks majority ownership in assets with stable contracted cash flows and invests with a long-term, hold-to-maturity perspective. Equity investments are structured to meet target returns and are often enhanced through selective acquisition financing.
One clear manifestation of the dynamic induced by the energy transition is the extension and expansion of TISUR (Terminal Internacional del Sur), the Port of Matarani in southern Peru and one of the country’s key copper export hubs. Operated by Tramarsa, a company owned equally by Grupo Romero and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, TISUR is negotiating a 30-year concession extension to 2059 along with up to US$700 million in new investments for deeper berths, additional storage yards, and modern electric cranes. The project supports Peru’s growing copper exports amid rising global competition and demonstrates how private capital can drive large-scale, long-duration infrastructure expansion.
In the energy sector, InfraCorp’s portfolio includes Samay I, a 724 MW thermal power plant in Arequipa, Peru. In late 2025, Bladex and Scotiabank structured a US$250 million refinancing to strengthen its balance sheet, showing how private sponsors and commercial banks collaborate to maintain reliable backbone power supply during the transition toward renewables.
Across the region, InfraCorp’s refinancing and capital-structuring work reflects the deepening of local markets. Guatemala’s Energuate, for instance, completed a US$770 million bond-led refinancing this year led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), demonstrating that Latin American utilities can now access global bond markets on investment-grade terms.
InfraCorp is also expanding into digital infrastructure. In October 2025, it acquired a 49% stake in GTD’s data centre business (Gtdata), which operates 11 facilities across Chile, Peru, and Colombia, for approximately US$118 million. The partnership plans to build new sites in Lima and expand throughout the Andean region, positioning InfraCorp in one of the fastest-growing infrastructure segments, with double-digit market growth expected through 2027.
Future Outlook
Overall, Infrastructure in Latin America is no longer a slow-moving, state-driven sector. It has become a dynamic and investible asset class. Platforms such as InfraCorp are transforming how projects are financed and executed by combining family legacy with institutional governance, local expertise with global capital, and risk appetite with disciplined returns.
The region’s infrastructure gap remains wide, but it is gradually closing thanks to a new generation of professionalised, family-backed investors who understand both the challenges and opportunities of Latin America. As trade corridors, digital networks and clean energy systems expand, the region’s infrastructure story will increasingly be shaped by these hybrid platforms. InfraCorp stands as one of the clearest examples of how private capital, guided by institutional discipline and family vision, is redefining the future of infrastructure in Latin America.
