Emergent Cold LatAm Acquires Red Polar

Company plans to immediately expand Bogotá facility to provide greater customer solution capabilities.

SÃO PAULO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emergent Cold Latin America (“Emergent Cold LatAm” or the “Company”), the region’s largest provider of temperature-controlled storage and logistics solutions, announced today the acquisition of Red Polar, one of the leading cold storage businesses located in Bogotá, Colombia. The company also announced an immediate expansion of Red Polar that when fully realized will create a state-of-the-art facility in this important market, with a 25,000-pallet position capacity.

Founded in 2017, Red Polar operates a single cold storage facility in the municipality of Funza. It enjoys strong customer relationships and a positive reputation in the market with a focus on service. The Red Polar team is remaining with the business and will benefit from Emergent Cold LatAm’s operational expertise and best practices.

This is Emergent Cold LatAm’s second acquisition in Colombia. In 2022, the Company acquired Frigorifico Metropolitano (Frigometro), a national cold storage network with facilities in four strategic locations across the country. Importantly, the Red Polar transaction expands Emergent Cold LatAm’s presence in Bogotá, Colombia’s largest and most populous city. With multiple locations, the Company can better position the customers of both businesses based upon their supply chain objectives.

“Colombia is an essential part of our regional strategy,” said David Palfenier, President of Emergent Cold LatAm. “We see a growing agriculture industry and strong local demand for higher quality perishable food products. These trends support our thesis that Colombia is a great market for investment in modern cold chain infrastructure. Red Polar is a well-managed business and an excellent location for our Bogotá expansion project that will begin immediately.”

“Adding Red Polar to the network substantially advances our customer solution capabilities,” added Alain Eichmann, Managing Director. “With this additional capacity in a strategic location, we can now manage greater inventory and with improved flexibility. Once our planned expansion is complete, Emergent Cold LatAm will be uniquely suited to serve our customers’ supply chain needs in the Bogotá region and surrounding cities.”

44 Capital Finanças Corporativas acted as financial advisor and Brigard Urrutia acted as legal advisor to Emergent LatAm.

About Emergent Cold LatAm:

Emergent Cold Latin America (www.emergentcoldlatam.com) is the largest provider of refrigerated storage and logistics in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was founded in August 2021 to meet the need for modern cold chain solutions in the market, and the growing demand from local and global customers. Its main investors include Stonepeak, D1 Capital, and Lineage.

The company continues to invest in building and expanding a cold chain network of the highest quality in order to provide end-to-end temperature-controlled logistics solutions for its customers throughout the region. Emergent Cold LatAm currently operates more than 70 cold storage facilities in 11 countries in Latin America, in addition to new warehouses under construction.