Mexican private equity firm Discovery Americas has  reached an agreement to invest MX$662m (US$32.5m) in Arrenda+, a non-bank lending and leasing institution specialized in SMEs looking for alternative sources of funding. The deal is still pending regulatory approval from the Mexican Anti-Trust Commission (COFECE).

(Press Release) Last June 12, 2018, Discovery Americas (DA), through its fund DAIV (BMV:DAIVCK16), agreed to invest MX$662m (US$32.5m) in Arrenda+, a non-bank lending and leasing institution specialized in SMEs looking for alternative sources of funding. The deal is still pending regulatory approval from the Mexican Anti-Trust Commission (COFECE).

“We’ve found in Arrenda+ a group of partners and a platform with exceptional growth potential,” said Alberto Moreno, founding partner of Discovery Americas. Additionally, Armando Martínez, managing director at DA, said that: “Arrenda+ has developed an innovative business model and an impressive track record as a recurrent issuer in the capital markets.”
Arrenda+ is a non-bank financial institution (NBFI) that has become one of the largest players in the Mexican market with a fast-growing portfolio that has outpaced the Mexican financial industry’s growth by 2.7x. Currently, Arrenda+ has a portfolio worth more than MX$2bn (US$96.6m), which is diversified by industry and type of asset. It also has a regional focus in Jalisco, which represents a competitive advantage.

“This partnership with Discovery Americas will allow us to grow, expand our geographical footprint to the rest of the country, and compete through an outstanding customer service,” said Alberto Martinez Rubio, CEO of Arrenda+.

This is the first investment for DAIV in financial services, which is one of the fund’s target sectors. Previously, DA has invested in other industries, such as healthcare, transportation and logistics, and education.
The advisors for DA were Ritch Mueller as legal advisor, DMTax as tax advisor, KPMG as accounting advisor, Akya assisted the strategy and Fidem did IT. Gonzalez Luna Abogados was the legal advisor for Arrenda+.