"After reviewing more than 300 companies since last year ... it's getting harder to find good deals in Latin America," Maciel told a Latin America investment conference in Sao Paulo organized by Credit Suisse.
Maciel said the best alternative is to look for targets among lending startups, that always need funding to grow their loan portfolios. He cited as examples recent investments in Mexico's Konfio and in Brazil's Creditas and Banco Inter.
The Softbank executive said price-to-earnings multiples of Brazilian companies in local exchanges are not lower than U.S.-listed Brazilian startups. Softbank will consider listing some of the companies in its Latin American portfolio on Brazil's stock exchange, Maciel added.
(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, editing by Louise Heavens)
