LatinFinance

History

The magazine LatinFinance was first published in October 1988. Its initial editorial objective was, in large part, to explore and document the changes and opportunities in Latin America brought about as a result of the Latin American debt crisis, sovereign defaults and subsequent Brady Plan of the late 1980s. During this period LatinFinance was primarily focused on debt, covering banks' attempts to reduce their exposure to LDC debt, sovereigns' efforts to restructure their debt and raise fresh capital through amongst other things privatization, and the secondary markets activity that grew from this.

The editorial focus, and readership, of the magazine expanded rapidly to encompass debt, equity, forex and emerging financial products including derivatives and structured finance products and to examine the practical application of these products by sovereign, sub-sovereign, financial and corporate issuers as well as their role in areas such as infrastructure and project finance, M&A, and financial risk management. Over time travel, wine and art were added to the magazine's coverage and by the mid-1990s it was being described by The New York Times as the "glossy magazine that fills the coffee-table niche" among titles covering business in Latin America. For a while LatinFinance even carried a regular, if short-lived, Japanese-language section.

Though the company organized several events, and published some books, through the end of the 1990s LatinFinance's business was predominantly magazine publishing with both revenues and profits derived primarily from advertising sales and magazine subscriptions. The period following the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression and default in early 2002 proved especially challenging for Latin American financial markets and those active in them. LatinFinance's performance in its 2002 financial year slumped to the worst in its then 15-year history though it remained profitable and was even able to consider, though ultimately to reject, suggestions that it absorb the two other pan-regional business-to-business titles.

From 2003 LatinFinance embarked on a new strategy to diversify from its core magazine by accelerating the expansion of its events and seminars and to deepen and broaden its coverage through investment in and a realignment of editorial – notably replacing its entire editorial staff and moving editorial from Miami to either New York or into Latin America – thus enabling the launch of electronic news and data products. During this period LatinFinance refocused on its core finance and investment subjects ceasing, for example, publication of its longstanding, annual Corporate Travel Guide. Concurrently LatinFinance's editorial broadened into an explicit aim to "examine the drivers and direction of movements of capital into, out of and around Latin America and the Caribbean, as they happen, wherever those flows come from or from where-ever they are directed". Therefore, in addition to Latin America and the Caribbean, LatinFinance is now active in the major financial centers of North America and Europe as well as in newer centers for capital provision including China, Japan, Korea, the GCC and India.

LatinFinance has won numerous editorial awards and on its 20th anniversary in 2008 was honored by Nasdaq for its contribution to the evolution of the capital markets of Latin America and the Caribbean.