Founded in 2001 by the firm’s chairman, Mr. Kirk L. Haney, Cloud Break Advisors is a boutique private equity firm that bridges the gap between the untapped markets of Central America and the Caribbean with the global institutional community and private investment networks. Cloud Break’s principals view the region’s recent strides in democracy, capitalism, free trade, tourism and education as a paradigm shift in the historical dynamics that have kept institutional investment from flowing to the region.

The firm seeks to capitalize on local market inefficiencies, political change and cultural nuances through a relationship-driven strategy that is founded in the principles of risk quantification, sponsor qualification and deal transparency. Operating from our guiding principles of ethics, honor and accountability, the firm acts as a trusted advisor to our investors and a reliable business partner to our local Central American and Caribbean partners.

Locations

Cloud Break Advisors has offices in Las Vegas, Nevada; San Diego, California, Guatemala City, Guatemala; and San José, Costa Rica.

Cloud Break Ventures^®

Cloud Break Ventures (CBV) is the venture capital arm of the Cloud Break group of companies. CBV has backed several companies over the last few years including Green Millennium, Ltd and SG Biofuels, Inc. CBV continues to invest in boutique opportunities worldwide.

Cloud Break offers real estate advisory and strategic consulting services for select clientele. In order to position the firm as a credible and trusted advisor, a strategic partnership was created with a local consulting group who’s principals came from Bain & Co., one of the premier consulting management firms in the world. Utilizing their team’s experience and use of the Bain methodology, Cloud Break is able to offer a superior service platform that helps to distinguish our brand throughout the region.

Energy consumption will undoubtedly continue to be a growing concern for the world, and alternative energy appears to be the only option. Aside from the price of oil, alternative energy demand is affected by government mandates towards the use of alternative fuels by target dates, the Western world desires to have greater security by decreasing dependence on the Middle East, environmental consciousness, private industry’s need to hedge against the volatile price of oil, and the developed world’s desire to foster “Green” industries that create jobs and increase national economic competitiveness.

Cloud Break Advisors seeks to identify opportunistic investments in the biofuel space as it is in alignment with our core focus of investing in sustainable “hard assets”. The firm believes that the long-term market opportunity will be found in Next Generation biofuels. The abundant lands of Latin America provide opportunity to create scalable operations in the cultivation of biodiesel crops. Stemming from our success in creating large-scale institutional forestry investments, the firm expanded its team, credibility and experience in agronomy to creating opportunities in biodiesel crop production.

Cloud Break Advisors multi-industry approach to the region (real estate, natural resources and energy) provides us a competitive advantage to evaluate markets and potential deals by understanding the big picture. Depending on the local property market dynamics and the status of the global economy, we seek to take advantage of the inefficiencies created by the non-transparent real estate markets of Central America and the Caribbean.

Our people are the firm’s single biggest asset. Each of our investment professionals has accomplished backgrounds in institutional real estate investment and/or development and they live in-country. Our philosophy of having seasoned professionals in the region differentiates us from our U.S. and European competition that opt to make investment decisions from abroad. With this “boots on the ground” approach to the real estate business, the firm unlocks value for its investors by accessing local deal flow, identifying and mitigating risk from a local knowledge perspective, and ensuring successful execution of project business plans through “hands-on” management.

The firm invests in direct acquisitions of existing income producing assets as well as joint ventures with local development partners. Preferred transaction types are:

• CORPORATE & INSTITUTIONAL BUILD TO SUITS
• CORPORATE SALE LEASEBACKS
• ACQUISITIONS OF EXISTING COMMERCIAL, HOSPITALITY & INDUSTRIAL PROPERTIES
• PROPERTY OR PARTNERSHIP RECAPITALIZATIONS
• GROUND-UP DEVELOPMENT & REDEVELOPMENT

Forestry proves to be a perfect hedge to many other investments, specifically equity markets, real estate and inflation. Every analysis shows a negative correlation to the stock market. In addition, its sustainability and “green” factor help offset emissions or balance less earth-friendly industries.

A tremendous opportunity exists in Latin American forestry. Increased demand for hardwood products is likely to continue long-term. Latin America offers affordable and fertile land, relatively low labor costs and positive climate conditions. Sustainable hardwood plantations (i.e. teak) are one of our favorite investments due to their ability to hedge other investments, positive impact on the environment and outstanding global market dynamics.

“Sustainable, high-grade hardwood plantations that employ best-management practices can produce 20 times (or more) of timber than natural forests on the same area of land.”