Bio

Carlos Vara is one of the founding partner at VACE Partners. Carlos has over 25 years of investment banking experience. Mr. Vara currently serves on the Board of Directors of relevant Mexican companies such as Grupo Gigante, José Cuervo, Genomma Lab, Hoteles Presidente, and FHipo. He also serves as member of the Finance Committee of Grupo Gigante and as President of the Development Committee of Hoteles Presidente. Previously, he also served as a member of both Aeromexico’s Board of Directors and Finance Committee. Carlos has participated in the origination and execution of M&A transactions in diverse industries with an aggregate value of more than US$100 billion and capital markets transactions of more than US$50 billion. In M&A he has participated in the advisory to Cuervo in the acquisition of Three Olives and Bushmills and in the sale of Tequila Don Julio; to Gigante in their divestiture to Soriana; to Nacional Financiera’s toll roads privatization (FARAC I); to a consortium of Mexican investors in the acquisition of Aeromexico; to Grupo Imsa in the sale of a 43.3% stake; to Cemex in the acquisitions of Southdown, RMC, and Rinker; to America Móvil in the acquisitions of AMTEL, BSE, BCD and America Movil’s spin-off from Telmex (around US$50 bn of aggregate transaction value advised to AMX); to Kimberly Clark in the sale of its consumer products division (Scribe); to Grupo Chedraui in the acquisition of Carrefour Mexico; to AHISA in its sale to Metlife; to PBG in the acquisition of Pepsi Gemex; to Associated British Foods (ABF) in the acquisition of Capullo; to BBV in the acquisition of Bancomer; to Citigroup in the acquisition of Banamex; and to Aegon in the acquisition of a 50% stake in Seguros and Afore Banamex, among others. He has also played a leading role in many Mexican landmark equity transactions such as OMA’s IPO in 2006, Femsa’s secondary offering in 2005, SPCC’s secondary offering in 2005, Cemex’s secondary offering in 2003 and again in 2005, and Grupo Televisa’s secondary offering in 2001. In terms of Debt Capital Markets, some of the most relevant transactions that Carlos participated in were: the first ever perpetual bond offering issued by a Mexican company (Pemex, 2004), the first ever guaranteed bond for a Mexican company (Vitro, 2003), and the first ever 30-year issuance for a non-investment company (Southern Copper Corporation), among others. In addition, Carlos has brought a series of new Mexican names for their first debt issuance to the markets such as Cuervo, Xignux, CIE, Posadas, Prenda Facil, and others. He also played a key role in the Debt Restructuring of DESC, Grupo Gigante, and TFM. Before founding VACE Partnes, Carlos worked for 9 years at Citigroup as head of the Mexico and Latin America Investment Banking team. Previously, from 1996 to 2000, he worked for McKinsey as a consultant in several offices, including Mexico City, Caracas, Lisbon, Madrid, and New York. While working with McKinsey, Carlos advised the BMV on the conversion to an electronic trading platform and on the creation of MexDer. Carlos holds a B.S. in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), a M.S. in Economics from Yale University, and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.