About Us
Petronia Capital is an independent investment management and advisory firm focused on Brazilian alternative investments.
Our mission is to help our clients obtain solid risk adjusted returns by focusing on investments that present diversification and inflation hedging benefits to their portfolios.
To achieve that goal, we seek investments that offer a high degree of protection of the invested capital or investments that offer attractive yields to investors seeking income.
Businesses
Energy
Our team has decades of experience on the development and management of power projects. We will seek to leverage our expertise to invest in renewable power generation projects that present solid returns and stable cash flows.
We have the ability to analyze projects in different segments of the power sector, including regulated projects, distributed generation and private generation projects, which increases our potential market size and deal origination capability.
Waste to Energy
At Petronia we believe that solid investments must also bring positive impacts to our society. Projects such as power generation from landfill gas and agricultural residues contribute to the reduction of both waste and greenhouse gases emissions, while presenting superior return and yield generation potential.
Agriculture
Favorable climate, high availability of land and water resources, a well established agribusiness sector and a large internal market. Brazil is an agricultural powerhouse with plenty of investment opportunities in farmland and in operating companies that would benefit from operating efficiency and consolidation strategies.
Our team will leverage more than a decade of expertise in institutional grade agricultural investments to seek the best opportunities for our investors.
Leadership Team
Luiz Henrique Rielli is a founding partner of Petronia and has more than 20 years of private investments and financial structuring experience. He was a founder and managing partner of AGBI Real Assets, where he participated in the startup of the company and was responsible for investment management and acquisitions. Before AGBI, he was a co-founder and director of Gordian Bioenergy, where he participated in the fund raising and structuring of a US$200MM bioenergy fund and led the investment team responsible for more than R$200MM in investments. Prior to joining Gordian, Mr. Rielli was a project finance analyst for Itaú BBA and started his professional career in Accenture’s strategy and business architecture practice, focusing on utilities and natural resources. Mr. Rielli holds a B.S. in Naval Engineering from the University of São Paulo and attended a continuing education program in Economics and Finance at Bocconi University, in Italy.
Ricardo Cunha is a partner of Petronia Energia and has more than 25 years of experience in the Brazilian power sector. Ricardo is the Managing Partner of Energética-Tech and was a founding partner and CEO of Energética Comercializadora, served as the Commercial Director of Iguaçu Energia and as Energy Management Director of AES Brazil, responsible for energy trading, market planning, risk management and contracts management of AES Eletropaulo, AES Sul, AES Tietê, AES Uruguaiana e AES Infoenergy. Before AES, he has worked for Gordian Energy Partners, a private equity firm specialized in investment in the energy sector in Latin America and for Enron South America, where he was part of the team that developed and implemented more than 2,000MW of generation projects in Brazil. During his career, Ricardo participated in several M&A transactions, including the acquisition of UTE São Borja, the sale of Prisma Energy, the sale of EDF assets in Brazil and Argentina, and the privatization of CEG/CEG-Rio and Elektro. Ricardo has a BA in Economics from University of São Paulo and a MBA from University of Michigan – Ross School of Business.