Federico Restrepo Posada, a speaker at the marcus evans Latin Infrastructure and Property Development Summit 2014, discusses the opportunities in Latin America today. Interview with: Federico Restrepo Posada, Chief Executive Officer, Autopistas para la Prosperidad

1. Interview with: Federico Restrepo
Posada, Chief Executive Officer,
Autopistas para la Prosperidad
As the US and European economies
recover, some foreign infrastructure
and property investors in Latin
America may be tempted to invest back
into the stronger economies. However,
Federico Restrepo Posada, Chief
Executive Officer at Autopistas para la
Prosperidad, believes that the
opportunities in the developed countries
will not be better than what Colombia
and some other countries in the region
already have on the table. “There is a
perception that investing in some
emerging markets is risky, but over the
last ten years, they have provided very
attractive investment opportunities,” he
says.
Restrepo Posada, who overlooks a large
infrastructure project under develop-
ment in Colombia, is a speaker at the
marcus evans Latin Infrastructure
and Property Development Summit
2014, in Panama City, Panama.
What opportunities for growth do
you predict for the next few years?
How can developers in the region
take advantage of them?
As the developed countries emerge from
the crisis with very strong economies,
the emerging countries are waiting to
see what investors will do. Many will
look for opportunities to invest in the
US, but those opportunities will not
necessarily be better than what the
Latin American countries have been
providing in the past five years. Most
developed countries do not lack as
much infrastructure as some developing
countries do. Colombia is investing USD
25 billion on roads. The opportunities in
the US will not be better than that.
Could Latin American countries beat
a trend of investors returning to
developed economies? How?
One of the challenges with some
countries in Latin America, including
Colombia, is security. That is very
important for attracting foreign
construction companies. There is a
perception that investing in some Latin
American countries would be far riskier
than investing in the US, but that is
incorrect. It is all a matter of better
understanding the potential risks.
In the case of Colombia, the country is
well managed from an economic point of
view, laws and norms are reasonable
and stable, and social and security
conditions are always improving. The
government is spending a lot of money
on building new infrastructure projects
to make the country more competitive.
What mistakes do foreign investors
make that they could easily avoid?
In their focus to win the bidding
process, they underestimate the real
conditions of the project which lead to
problems in the construction phase.
They must be very responsible in the
way they calculate costs. It is not a
matter of winning the bid then when the
project is underway, making claims
because they supposed another
condition different to the real one. They
must study the technical aspects of the
project in detail, how the financial
aspects have been designed, how the
project was conceptualized, and have a
good understanding of the culture of the
country and how people behave.
They must
study the
technical
aspects of
the project
in detail
Why the Infrastructure Investment
Opportunities in Latin America
Beat Those of Developed Countries

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developments, risk management strategies and sustainable initiatives. The Summit
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