Boutique international investment bank Atlantico Capital has hired Juan Francisco Toro to lead the firm’s new Mexico City office, the company confirmed to Infralogic.

Toro, who was previously a managing director at Astris Finance where he spent over 18 years, will be a managing partner in Atlantico’s Mexican office and will work alongside fellow Astris alum Juan Pablo Hernández, who will also join the firm as vice president, Atlantico’s Founding Partner Miguel Bermejo told Infralogic.

The firm is in full on expansion mode and will also announce the incorporation of an additional partner in its Madrid office, where Atlantico is working to deepen relationships with its partner firms in France, Germany, Italy and Sweden, working on deals between those countries and Spain and then linking those clients to the Americas region, Bermejo, who works between the company’s Madrid and Miami offices, added.

At Atlantico, Toro joins Founder and Managing Partner Bermejo and Founding Partners Fernando Casas and Xavier Ruíz; with Ruíz also acting as Atlantico’s legal counsel. The firm will shortly have three managing directors working with the founders: Toro, Ivan Oliveros, who is based out of New York City, and a third partner that Bermejo said the firm would announce soon as part of their European expansion.

“Mexico is a very relevant market for Atlantico Capital and we see a lot of prospects there in the coming years with big opportunities with ‘near shoring’ and with the expected revamping in the infrastructure and renewable energy sectors,” Bermejo said.

Bermejo described Mexico as being “part of our core markets” and said the country and the opportunities they have identified there are big enough to warrant a local office. “We are not only an infrastructure and energy boutique, that accounts for roughly two thirds of our pipeline, but Atlantico also works on transactions in the industrials and nearshoring sectors, and we see there is a great interest from Mexican companies to invest in the USA and Europe too,” he said.

The financial advisor has worked closely with Mexican infrastructure developer Grupo GIA in the past, such as when Atlantico was the financial advisor to GIA’s wholly owned subsidiary in Honduras that in 2022 restructured USD 184m in project debt for its Government Civic Center project.

Bermejo said that Atlantico is working with GIA on another transaction right now as well as working with a Mexican CKD fund manager on a renewable energy project in Mexico. Both deals are brownfield opportunities, but Bermejo declined to provide further details.

The Mexican office will also complement Atlantico’s recent experience and current pipeline to further develop Atlantico’s presence in the Americas including the Central, South America and Caribbean markets where Toro has extensive experience. Atlantico is also working on renewable energy deals in Chile, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic and working with the firm’s client IBT on signing the commercial agreement and structuring the financial close of the Piura and Chimbote hospital projects, Bermejo said.