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Washington, D.C., August 26, 2011—
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has announced that it will buy up to $25 million of new common shares in Grupo Financiero Mifel, S.A. de C.V., to support the growth, income distribution, and competitiveness of smaller businesses in Mexico.
Small and medium enterprises generate 72 percent of formal sector jobs in Mexico. However, only less than 3 percent of these companies have access to bank financing. With this transaction, IFC will become a strategic partner of Grupo Mifel, the Mexican-owned financial group focused on local small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing, agribusiness, and construction industries, enabling it to increase lending to small and midsize business owners, help expand their businesses, and create employment opportunities.
Daniel Becker Feldman, CEO and main shareholder of Grupo Financiero Mifel, said, “This transaction will help us access a new type of institutional investor to support the loan portfolio expansion for our Mexican small and medium enterprises in sectors such as manufacturing and agribusiness. This investment also will enhance our position in the financial sector.”
The investment in Grupo Financiero Mifel shows IFC’s catalytic role in mobilizing resources and coordinating efforts of development finance institutions and the private sector to help fill financing gaps caused by the retrenchment of commercial lenders and increasingly cautious investors.
“IFC’s support of Grupo Financiero Mifel advances efforts to serve key economic sectors such as small and medium enterprises with limited access to finance,” said Roberto Albisetti, IFC Senior Manager for Mexico and Central America. “This new transaction is an indication of our continuous commitment to help strengthen Mexico’s financial system.”
IFC’s strategy in Mexico is focused on promoting access to finance for low-income individuals and microenterprises, supporting energy-efficient projects, and developing infrastructure to strengthen competitiveness.
About Grupo Financiero Mifel
Grupo Financiero Mifel is a non-public regulated, deposit-taking, financial group formally founded in 1993. It offers a wide range of financial services, including commercial banking, factoring, leasing, and mutual fund management through its four subsidiaries, Arrendadora Mifel, Banca Mifel, Factoraje Mifel, and Operadora Mifel. As of December 2010, Grupo Financiero Mifel had $3 billion in total assets and about 800 employees. For more information, visit
www.mifel.com.mx
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About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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