Investors for the fund include university endowments, pensionplans, insurance companies, family foundations and privateinvestors. "We are in the partnering business so we co-invest withworld-class local partners," he says. The fund will focus oncountries with large populations and emerging middle-classes, suchas Mexico, Egypt, Brazil, China and India, he says. EquityInternational will invest in companies that specialize in a varietyof different types of real estate including residential housing,senior housing, retail, office, hotels and industrial propertiessuch as logistics and warehouse facilities, Garrabrant tellsGlobeSt.com.

Garrabrant said the firm invests more than just capital. EquityInternational has helped Mexico-based homebuilder Homex andBrazil-based homebuilder Gafisa go public on the New York StockExchange. The firm has helped the companies it invests in withchanging their accounting practices, evaluating and groomingmanagement, and even assistance in choosing the CFO and CEO for BRMalls, an owner and operator of shopping centers based in Brazil,Garrabrant says. "It is a very hands-on approach," he says.

Since Equity International was formed in 1999, the firm hasraise more than $1 billion and invested in 15 companies throughthree separate funds. The fourth fund "is really a continuation ofwhat we have been doing the last 10 years," he says. Some of thecompanies that the company has previously invested in includeChina-based homebuilding Xinyuan and NH Hoteles, based in Madrid.Homex grew from constructing 5,000 homes in 2001 to constructing50,000 homes last year, Garrabrant says.