Mexican investment platform Flink to acquire brokerage for portfolio expansion
By Valentine Hilaire
MEXICO CITY, May 16 (Reuters) - Mexican start-up Flink said on Monday that it will buy local brokerage Vifaru Casa de Bolsa for $25 million in a bid to give its clients wider investment options.
The purchase, once approved by Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission, will allow Flink's users to invest in increments as small as 10 pesos ($0.4993), down from a previous 30 peso cutoff in existing products.
The acquisition will also allow users to invest in Mexico's local money markets, although not in stocks, a Flink spokesperson said.
Flink, which targets first-time investors, currently allows Mexican customers to invest in fractions of shares of U.S. listed companies such as Tesla, Apple and Amazon.
About 300,000 Mexicans had investment accounts of any kind in 2019, well under 1% of the population, according to company data.
The company will start operations in Colombia this year as part of its expansion plan, and said it is also eyeing Peru, Chile and Argentina for its operations.
The firm, which aims to boost its total customers to 4 million from 1.6 million now, expects to close the transaction in the fourth quarter.
($1 = 20.0262 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Sam Holmes)
