The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank dedicated to private sector development, has invested USD70 million in the financial conglomerate Grupo Mundial. The investment comprises a USD 30million equity investment for about a 7 percent stake in the group and a USD 40million long term loan facility. Grupo Mundial Tenedora S.A., headquartered in Panama, provides insurance, banking and asset management operations throughout Central America, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras and Colombia. The IFC has explicitly said that the investment is designed to help the group deliver more insurance and banking services to underserved areas. So far the group has been trying to increase access to financial services in its main markets through the development of insurance products and mortgages aimed at low to middle income-earners.
The first operating firm began in 1968 and the company has been listed on the Panamanian Stock Exchange since December 2005. In 2006 the group delivered a profit of USD 16.9million, with Total Assets of USD 604million and Return on Average Equity of 19%. The Group’s main subsidiaries are Aseguradora Mundial S.A. and Banco Panameño de la Vivienda S.A. (Banvivienda).
The IFC investment is designed to support the Group’s developmental, institutional and capacity building potential, thereby reinforcing the local banking and insurance industries in the Central American region. In this way the group can extend the products and services it offers to the financially underserved in this area.
The IFC has already shown support for the Group this year in May, by providing a subsidiary company, Banvivienda, with a USD 25million line of credit to support the firm’s supply of mortgages to the low and middle income markets in Panama.
Amy Rennison, Microcapital writer
Additional sources:
www.ifc.org/ifcext/spiwebsite1.nsf/0/db7a7ac35015649c852572f7005e4ca9?OpenDocumentwww.ifc.org/ifcext/spiwebsite1.nsf/0/faffe87a7d3100d7852572880052142d?OpenDocument
Grupo Mundial
Hecho Relevante – 17 de Agosto de 2007
http://banvivienda.com/informes.html
Annual Report
http://banvivienda.com/memoria-2006.html
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