British payments company Ebury has begun expanding its operations in Brazil, a country it sees as having the potential to become its largest market by revenue, a senior company executive told Reuters.
Ebury, majority owned by Spanish bank Santander, primarily handles currency exchange in cross-border trade, and is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) as soon as next year.
“In 2024, we will certainly double the volume of currency exchanges carried out in Brazil compared to 2023,” Fernando Pierri, Ebury’s global commercial director, told Reuters in an interview.
The firm had operations worth $4.86 billion last year in the country, where it arrived in 2021 through a partnership with local bank Bexs, which had foreign exchange regulatory approval to operate in the South American nation.
It subsequently bought Bexs, closing the operation at the end of 2023, allowing Ebury to fully integrate its operations, according to Pierri. Still, the country is currently Ebury’s third largest market by revenue, behind the United Kingdom and Spain, the firm said.
“Brazil will be a very important chapter (for Ebury) in terms of the IPO, because Brazil will be one of the countries with the greatest weight in terms of results for the company,” he said. The company is not specifically focused on making the country its main market, according to Pierri, although he believes it will “happen naturally,” without providing a timetable.
Pierri added that Brazil’s appeal to Ebury is based on the country’s large exports, especially of raw materials linked to agriculture, while he also sees opportunities in products aimed at facilitating payments to Chinese companies operating in the nation.
Elsewhere in the region, Ebury began operations in Chile in 2023, while it is also scheduled to begin operations in Mexico later this year, Pierri said. He added that the company intends to expand to other nations such as Colombia and Peru, although he did not specify when it might do so.
By Andre Romani, Reuters agency
Source: Ambito
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