Less than three months after being spun off from First Data Corp., Western Union Co. has made its first acquisition.
The Englewood, Colo., money transmitter said Thursday that it had purchased the 75% stake of Servicio Electronico De Pago SA of Buenos Aires that it did not already own. Western Union did not say how much it paid.
The Argentine company, which operates under the brand name Pago Facil SEPSA, offers products and services such as tax payments, prepaid Internet access, and cell phone minutes.
"It's not a house-shattering deal, but it's a sign that Western Union has far more autonomy in its investment decisions," said Gwenn Bezard, a research director at Aite Group LLC in Boston. "I don't think this acquisition would be the last one. We're going to see a string of acquisitions in the next two, three years."
Western Union said Pago Facil has more than 3,300 branches in Argentina, a country of 40 million people and an annual per capita gross domestic product of about $15,000.
Royal Cole, Western Union's executive vice president of payments, said in an interview Thursday that some Pago Facil locations offer remittances, and that his company will expand this service to other locations where it suits the "brand and the service."
The Argentine economy has rebounded from a financial crisis earlier in the decade and is now growing, Mr. Cole said. Western Union will expand further in Latin America, he said.
Western Union had owned 25% of Pago Facil since it was founded in 1993. Sideco Americana, a construction company in Argentina, sold the rest of Pago Facil's shares to Western Union.
Pago Facil is keeping its brand name, Western Union said.
Christina Gold, the president and chief executive of Western Union, said in a press release that through Pago Facil, Western Union's bill payment services would be extended throughout Argentina.
Craig Maurer, an analyst at Soleil Equity Research, said buying Pago Facil gave the company many more branches to work with, and that Western Union is just following the tactics of its former parent.
"They've been doing this stuff for a while. I'm sure this is the continued realization of the strategy they want to pursue," he said. "The strategy is to be able to send money anywhere anybody wants to send money to, whether it's paying a bill or sending money to a friend. The more points of access, the better."
