(Invest in Brazil) March 1, 2011 – BuscaPé Inc has acquired a controlling stake in the Latin America online payments platform DineroMail. BuscaPé Inc is a Brazilian website owned by the Naspers group of South Africa. Naspers has been on an aggressive acquisition spree in Latin America, as it seeks to reinforce its business offering in the region.

The Buscape acquisition follows hot in the heels of similar investments, with the firm’s purchasing of other financial services sites in the region, such as Online Payments (Colombia) and Digital Payment FControl (Brazil). Naspers is keen to boost and strengthen the group’s financial and payment services business.

DineroMail was the first digital platform in Argentina to enable people and businesses to send and receive money online, and has gone on to become the market leader in Argentina and Latin America with over 3.5 million users, posting average growth of 600% annually since its founding more than 7 years ago.

Juan Pablo Bruzzo, Co-CEO of DineroMail, said BuscaPé’s entry as a majority shareholder in DineroMail represents one of the most important deals in the Latin American Internet market, and will create synergies as it consolidates BuscaPé’s presence in Latin America, and spur DineroMail’s process of internationalization, as well as contribute to the growth and development of new projects.

The purchase of DineroMail, which will become part of the BuscaPé Financial Services business unit, is an important step forward for the BuscaPé Group, which is looking to boost and consolidate its services in the 28 Latin American countries it operates in.  BuscaPé is the current market leader in the region, with more than 60 million unique users across all of its online properties in Latin America.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mark Cavagnoli, Vice-President of Financial Services, Latin America, at BuscaPé, said after acquiring Pagos Online in Colombia, and Pagamento Digital and FControl (a company specializing in fraud control) in Brazil, the BuscaPé Group has strengthened its position as the online transactions services leader in Brazil and Latin America.

The investments have enabled the firm become the main alternative for online payment methods and electronic commerce services, coming as part of its strategy to reach more than 300 million potential electronic commerce customers in the region, said Cavagnoli.

The managing partners and founders of DineroMail will maintain their ownership stakes in the company and will continue running the same, without major management changes. The World Bank is a DineroMail shareholder through its investment of about US$ 5 million in 2009, via its International Financial Corporation (IFC) arm.