Airwallex companies in Brazil

analysisWhen announcing on 15 January 2025 that it had finalised the acquisition of the Mexican payment company MexPago, Airwallex said it had obtained a payment institution licence from the Banco Central do Brasil; a deal database dates the MexPago acquisition to 19 October 2023, presumably the agreement, and the buyer within the group is not named. The group's licensing disclosure names the licensee as AWX Brasil Instituição de Pagamento Ltda., authorised as a payment institution for post-paid instruments, payment initiation, e-money issuance and acquiring, and to operate in the foreign exchange market. In Comunicado No. 42.107 of 9 September 2024 (case PE 260558) the central bank published, for objections within fifteen days, that AWX Holding Brasil Ltda. (CNPJ 50.942.433/0001-34) as direct controller and Lucy Yueting Liu as final controller (controladora final) intended to take part in the control of the payment institution (CNPJ 52.076.716/0001-76, São Paulo). The notice announced an intended controlling interest submitted for authorisation; the personal identification details it contains are not reproduced here. By Comunicado No. 42.691 of 13 January 2025 the central bank announced its decision of 8 January 2025 approving Fernando de Vasconcellos Portugal Torres, Maurício Rossini César and Paulo Roberto Ribeiro as members of the institution's board of executive officers (diretoria), following an amendment of its articles of 26 August 2024; the personal tax numbers published in that notice are omitted. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

analysisBrazilian federal tax registry data, as reproduced by a commercial aggregator, show AWX Holding Brasil Ltda as an active limited company since 5 June 2023 with share capital of R$36,184,000.00 and holding-company activity at Avenida Brig Luis Antonio 300 in São Paulo. Its sole partner since 19 July 2023 is YTL AWX Limited, recorded with Brazilian CNPJ 51.018.106/0001-53 from 12 June 2023 as a foreign-domiciled holding company with an address at Kingston Chambers, PO Box 173, Road Town, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. The data do not name YTL AWX's owners; its link to Lucy Yueting Liu is that the central bank names her final controller of the payment institution held through AWX Holding Brasil, and no British Virgin Islands record is among the retained documents. ^{1 2}

analysisA second company, Airwallex (Brasil) Ltda (CNPJ 49.629.692/0001-20), has been active since 16 February 2023 with share capital of R$1,118,739.00 and the activity code for other auxiliary financial services, and shares the São Paulo address, telephone number and e-mail address of AWX Holding Brasil. In the same aggregator data its sole partner since 27 March 2025 is AWX Investment (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.; the partner before that date is not shown. Singapore registry data reproduced by a commercial site show that company (UEN 202312458Z) as a live private holding company incorporated on 31 March 2023 at 36 Robinson Road, Singapore, without its directors or shareholders. Cesar Madeira Padovesi has been administrator of AWX Holding Brasil since 5 June 2023 and of Airwallex (Brasil) since 16 February 2023 and represents their foreign partners; the same registry data list him in 154 companies, mostly as administrator of Brazilian subsidiaries of foreign groups. ^{3 4 1 5}

analysisAn Australian business magazine wrote in 2025 that Airwallex had recently acquired MexPago in Mexico, had entered Brazil through the acquisition of the payments company UniPay, and held more than 60 licences and permits. UniPay is named only in that article: Airwallex's own announcement of its Brazilian licence does not mention it, and no Brazilian record of UniPay is among the retained documents. ¹