Experian to buy majority of Colombia's Computec

Deal values Computec at more than $400 million

Offering $10,419 Colombian pesos per Computec share

British credit information group Experian (EXPN.L) agreed to buy a majority stake in Colombian credit services company Computec SA COM.CN, boosting its presence in Latin America.

Experian, which is already a market leader in Brazil, said it was offering $10,419 Colombian pesos for each Computec share, valuing the whole of Computec at around 736 billion Colombian pesos ($416.1 million).

Computec SA runs Colombia's most extensive consumer credit database and provides services such as credit reports and fraud prevention.

It also owns Venezuela's only credit bureau and early stage operations in Peru.

The company had revenues of 157 billion Colombian pesos in 2010, and an operating profit of 42 billion pesos.

"In assessing the opportunities for Computec and the growth prospects of the Colombian credit market, experian has found many similarities to the assessment it made at the time of the acquisition of a majority stake in Serasa in Brazil in 2007," experian said in a statement on tuesday.

Experian shares were up 0.8 percent at 813 pence in early morning trade, giving the company a market capitalisation of around 8 billion pounds ($13.36 billion). ($1=1768.7 Colombian Peso) ($1=.5986 Pound).