Latin America is a region ripe with investment opportunities, but also one bedeviled with perils. The future of Latin America’s largest economies; Argentina, Mexico and Brazil, is looking uncertain. Yet […]
Category: Corporate & Sovereign Strategy
Posted inWeb Articles
Orinoco No Flow?
Venezuela?s Orinoco oil belt, the largest known hydrocarbon deposit in the world, is a gold mine both to the Venezuelan government and foreign investors. Sponsors Texaco, Phillips Petroleum and Venezuela?s national petroleum company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) signed a $1.1 billion financing as part of the $3.5 billion Hamaca oilfield project in June. Financial backing from the Export-Import Bank of the US helped garner support from commercial banks. But President Chavez wants to pass a new hydrocarbons law (see Promulgations page 8) that threatens to raise future financing costs for oil exploration projects and deter investment in Venezuela?s energy industry.
Posted inWeb Articles
Polar Doubles Up
Empresas Polar, Venezuela?s largest private food-processing company broke new ground this February when it acquired a 98.2% stake in its largest competitor, publicly traded Mavesa, for $522 million. Because Mavesa trades on both the US and Venezuelan securities markets, a tender offer complying with both countries? securities and exchange commissions (SECs) had to be carefully crafted.
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Leading the Emerging Markets Charge
Victor Menezes, CEO and chairman of Citibank, is overseeing the bank’s expansion in fast-growing regions. He began his Latin American career in the ’80s and knows the region’s perils well.
Posted inMagazine
The Struggle for Survival
After launching a spectacular IPO in 1999, StarMedia founder and CEO Fernando Espuelas now has to prove that he can build a business and not just burn cash.
Posted inMagazine
MSDW Leads the Way in M&A
A new phase of private sector restructuring and consolidation is underway in Latin America, and dealing with corporate clients requires a special set of disciplines, skills and contacts. Morgan Stanley […]
Posted inMagazine
Bidding Up Cuban Paper
With a faint whiff of a US-Cuba rapprochement and renewed interest in exotic defaulted debt, investors looking for cheap bets are bidding up prices. However, the rally could be short-lived.
Posted inMagazine
Petrobras’s Makeover Man
Philippe Reichstul has jettisoned old-fashioned management ways and begun building the Brazilian oil company into a modern corporation. His success makes him LatinFinance’s CEO of the year.
Posted inMagazine
Coverlink Arrives in Latin America
Ana Patricia Botín, president of Coverlink and daughter of BSCH CEO Emilio Botín, is expanding her Internet service company to Latin America, beginning with Mexico where Coverlink has acquired software […]
Posted inMagazine
Brazilian Tech Bets
Internet deals are dominating merger and acquisition activity in South America’s biggest market. But value remains for investors in slow-growth, capital intensive businesses that need restructuring.