Fexco, the Co Kerry-headquartered financial services group, has invested more capital into its credit union joint-venture Metamo to support the development of new services and products.

The investment comes in the aftermath of Fexco accumulating significant funds following the recent sales of interests in two businesses.

These included the €70m sale to AIB of its 51pc interest in Goodbody Stockbrokers, and the €30m it received for the sale of its holding in the fintech Taxamo.

According to filings on the Companies Registration Office, €1m was invested into Metamo. Fexco invested €500,000 of the total alongside Metacu, an entity in which the member credit unions of Metamo vested their share of the joint venture.

A spokeswoman for Fexco said the funding would help Metamo as it builds out and enhances its offer to the credit union movement across the country. “This further funding from Metamo’s shareholders is to support the scaling of products and services that Metamo is delivering to a growing number of credit unions to support their innovation and transformational agenda,” she said.

“We are building on Metamo’s progress, which now includes over 30 forward-thinking credit unions utilising Metamo’s award-winning Total Lending Solution, financial advisory services, HR advisory, IT advisory and investment solutions to deliver on their modernisation journey required to compete in today’s digital economy.”

In 2019, 16 credit unions in Ireland partnered with Fexco, one of Ireland’s largest financial services companies, to establish Metamo DAC, a business-to-business joint venture service company aimed at providing products and services to the Irish credit union sector. The credit unions involved in the joint venture include some of the country’s largest, including Savvi, Altura and Cara.

In April, Fexco CEO Neil Hosty spoke with the Sunday Independent about Fexco and its sales of interests in Goodbody Stockbrokers and Taxamo. He said the company had accumulated a war-chest for future mergers and acquisitions.

“We have a number of potential opportunities in our pipeline,” Hosty said.

He added that Fexco also had options to raise capital, either through debt or by working with investment partners.

The company would invest its capital where it sees longer-term value.

“We are in no rush, nor under any pressure, but are happy to be in a position where we can make strategic decisions at pace — if we find the right options.”

Reporting on:independent.ie