The manager highlighted that Insigneo is a wealth management firm based in Miami that seeks to manage assets or portfolios over $100,000. After the purchase of Vector assets, the firm expects growth of between 10 and 15%.
The company also has offices in New York, Houston and Texas.
The amount of the operation will not be disclosed by agreement between both companies. “For us, a space has opened up that we have taken advantage of with all enthusiasm, conviction and commitment,” he highlighted.
Henríquez said that for now the purchase and sale transaction with Vector is in a regulatory approval period in the United States: a series of protocols that allow the purchase to be completed.
This purchase is expected to have regulatory approval within four months.
“We hope it will be a short period and we will try to make it as short as possible,” he said. “We are expecting that approval should be obtained in February.”
The purchase includes all assets that were not in Mexico, that is, those of clients in the United States and Canada, mainly, as well as smaller operations in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
Advisors are also included to guarantee quality service for clients, although Insigneo is evaluating whether there are personnel that will have to be dispensed with.
Insigneo will become a company with more than $30 billion in assets.
What was the Vector Global purchasing process like?
On October 21, Insigneo announced the purchase of VectorGlobal assets for more than $4 billion.
The operation occurred after last June, FinCEN accused the brokerage firm of illicit financing.
“Based on public and non-public information available to FinCEN, FinCEN believes that there are reasonable grounds to conclude that Vector, a financial institution operating outside the United States, is a primary source of money laundering concern in relation to illicit opioid trafficking,” FinCEN noted.
After an intervention by the Mexican government and the transfer of the business in Mexico to Finamex, Vector reached an agreement with the American firm.
Henríquez said that despite rumors that companies in Mexico such as Mifel were interested in acquiring Vector, it was ultimately the relationship they previously had with Vector’s shareholders, as well as the controller Itzel Moreno, who opted for them, that led to this operation.
“There was already a previous dialogue; they invited us to participate in an evaluation to see if (the business) could make sense, to which we gladly said yes,” he said. “(Itzel Moreno) was very consistent and very interested in ensuring that the transaction was carried out under the best possible terms.”
When asked if there was a possibility that the United States government could point out that he had assets of a company accused of money laundering, Henríquez said that FinCEN’s accusations were towards businesses that excluded Vector Global.
“Any order that came from the Treasury Department, which was FinCEN, expressly excluded Vector Global,” he explained. “Vector Global is a regulated entity in the United States that uses the same custodian that we use and is in good standing with the American regulator. So, that gave us the peace of mind to enter the process.”
Additionally, authorities in Mexico assured Insigneo that Vector Global’s operations did not have any systemic risk.
