Category: Daily Brief

US media company Fox International Channels has bought a majority, 51% stake in Telecolombia, a producer of Spanish-language programmes. The new entity will be known as Fox Telecolombia will remain under the leadership of Colombian Samuel Duque Rozo.

General Electric Co (GE) has tapped Marcelo Mosci to become the president and chief executive of GE Latin America, the company announced Wednesday. Mosci is the former general manager of GE’s Latin American healthcare unit.

Latin America’s wealthy individuals posted the biggest increase in wealth accumulation last year, a 23.2% jump in 2006, representing the fastest growth of any region in the world, according to the 11th annual World Wealth Report, released Wednesday by Merrill Lynch and consulting firm Capgemini. Average GDP growth of 4.8% for the region, higher company valuations and an uptick in foreign investment increased individual prosperity, with Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Chile’s wealthy benefiting the most. Brazil alone registered a 10.1% jump in the total number of wealthy individuals. China’s growing demand for commodities, as well as its mounting direct investments in the region are driving wealth accumulation in Latin America. China accounted for roughly 16% of all foreign direct investment in LatAm last year; up from 2.9% in 2000, according to the report. And while portfolio flows continue to pour into Latin markets, the region’s wealthy are choosing not to invest their money at home. In 2006, they were the only group of high net worth individuals in the world to increase their investments in North America, most noticeably upping investments in real estate from 11% to 25% of their portfolios.

NASDAQ is set to unveil an electronic marketplace to trade 144a securities, with a Latin American launch set for late July. The so-called Portal initiative aims to increase liquidity and improve pricing for the still opaque and fragmented 144a market, John Jacobs, CEO of NASDAQ Global Funds, tells LatinFinance. NASDAQ hopes to receive SEC approval for the project in the next 30 days. Burdensome regulation in the US has made selling securities to retail investors a costly and drawn-out process, which in turn has steered foreign issuers towards the 144a market. LatAm equity issuance into the 144a market has more than doubled since 2005, according to Dealogic. So far this year, Latin firms have raised $10.6bn in 144a equity, compared to $11.9bn for all of 2006 and $4.3bn in 2005.

Broadband Internet growth and mobile telephony expansion in the past 18 months has been concentrated in Latin America, according to a report by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. In its report entitled, “Mobile Telephony And Broadband Internet Make A Big Connection In Latin America In 2007,”, the agency goes on to say that: “Although prospects in these segments remain positive, we expect growth rates to decline, depending on the business lines’ maturity in each country”. In 2006, mobile telephony penetration increased to around 78% in Chile, 75% in Argentina, 50% in Mexico, and 53% in Brazil, with prepaid customers, representing about 80% of the client base, according to S&P.

US oil firms ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp have rejected the demand by the Venezuelan government to become minority partners in projects they once controlled in the country’s Orinoco heavy oil belt. Instead, the companies are negotiating their exit strategies. Four other international oil companies – Total, Chevron, Statoil and BP – have agreed to the government’s proposals which will see state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), with an average stake of 78% in the four oil projects, almost twice the previous holding.