No time to read right now, but this looks interesting...
Credit to:
Message 9965740
quote.bloomberg.com
Top News
Fri, 4 Jun 1999, 8:34pm EST
Patagon.com to Offer Internet Trading Soon in Brazil, Mexico; No Minimum
Patagon.com to Offer Internet Trading Soon in Brazil, Mexico
New York, June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Patagon.com, the first web
site to allow online trading in Argentina's stock market, expects
to expand to Brazil and Mexico soon to tap a groundswell of
interest in online investment in Latin America.
With no minimum investment requirement, the start-up Miami-
based company is taking stock trading beyond the traditional
brokerages that serve well-heeled clients. Many brokerages in
Latin America have minimum investment requirements of $10,000.
''We're going to open this to people who didn't have enough
money to open an account before,'' said Constancio Larguia, chief
operating officer at Patagon.com, which opened its web-site in
January 1998. ''We hope this will be a breakthrough in the
industry.''
Patagon.com is one of the first companies in Latin America
that's riding the wave of Internet investing, a trend that's new
in a region where buying stocks has been limited to the rich.
After its successful start in Argentina last June, the
company hopes to start allowing customers to trade in Brazil's
Bovespa stock market by the end of this month and the Bolsa stock
market in Mexico by July's end.
The company, which could sell stock to raise capital in the
future, also plans to partner with a broker in the Chilean and
Venezuelan stock exchanges by the end of the year.
''Over time, I think this will change the accessibility of
markets,'' said Susan Segal, a general partner for Chase Capital
Partners, a venture capital arm of the investment bank. ''The
Internet has the possibility of changing the liquidity of the
markets in Latin America.''
Venture Capital Investment
Chase Capital Partners and Flatiron Partners, another New
York-based venture capital company, earlier this year invested $4
million each in Patagon.com so the company could set up regional
offices Miami, Sao Paulo and Mexico City.
In May, $27.8 million in stock was traded through
Patagon.com's online services, ranking it the sixth-largest of
all brokerages handling transactions on the Buenos Aires Stock
Exchange, Larguia said. The average daily trading volume for the
20 sessions on the stock exchange in May was $52.5 million.
Through an agreement with InvestCapital, Patagon.com managed
the first online trade in Latin America, a $3,500 purchase of
stock in Argentine oil company YPF SA, Larguia said.
Patagon.com presently counts about 7,000 clients in
Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela, and in the U.S.
and Hong Kong outside of the region.
The growth of Internet use in Latin America means the number
of people surfing the web in the region could triple by the end
of the year 2000 and boost growth at Patagon.com, Segal said.
The company's web site has attracted mostly young
professionals to its services. More than half of Patagon.com's
online traders are between the ages of 18 and 25, said Carlos
Maslaton, head trader at Patagon.com.
That fits in line with Patagon.com's youthful management
team. Larguia, who is 24, and 25-year-old Wenceslao Casares,
Patagon.com's chief executive, founded the company as students at
the University of San Andres in Buenos Aires in March 1997.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.
|
