BUENOS AIRES - Patagon.com International Inc., the Miami online brokerage arm of Banco Santander Central Hispano SA, has bought the discount broker KeyTrade Online.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Patagon offers Internet brokerage services and financial information in Spanish, Portuguese, and English to customers in Latin America and Europe. The Santander unit said it would use KeyTrade of Great River, N.Y., to enter the U.S. market.
The success of this entry will depend on how much Patagon is willing to invest in KeyTrade, said Dan Burke, a senior brokerage analyst at Gomez Advisors in Lincoln, Mass.
KeyTrade, which started doing business in September, is a "good first step, but it will take time for them to build up that brand," he said.
Patagon, which maintains offices in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Spain, is 75%-owned by Banco Santander. Patagon recently bought Open Bank, the largest online bank in Spain.
