Category: Mexico

Public and private sector leaders will discuss and debate the transition of Mexico — one of only three Latin American investment grade countries — from an emerging to a “converging” market. The “Cumbre Financiera Mexicana” is a high-level and spirited debate and discussion on the ever-changing face of Mexico’s dynamic financial markets. The invitation-only event will provide a unique forum for investors, financiers, government and corporate leaders to network, analyze shared challenges, and identify new opportunities. To apply for an invitation click here.

Mexican state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is considering opportunities to expand operations outside Mexico. Energy Minister Fernando Elizondo said the company is studying gas exploration projects in Peru and Bolivia and is looking to build a refinery in Central America, possibly in Guatemala. Pemex is benefiting from high oil prices and voracious demand from the US, but will likely have to issue more debt as it looks to expand production.

Alfa, Mexico’s second largest industrial company, will use $1 billion from steel asset sales to cut debt rather than boost dividends, company officials told investors in the US and Europe. Alfa recently agreed to sell its stake in steelmaker Hylsamex to Argentina’s Techint for $2.25 billion and its 4.5 percent stake in Venezuela’s Siderurgica del Orinoco for $107 million.

Despite Mexico’s thriving real estate and construction sectors, the market has thus far lacked any mortgage insurance products. A bill before Congress will make such products available for the first time, for which analysts are predicting an expansion in both primary lending and secondary market activity. The “Cumbre Financiera Mexicana” is a high-level and spirited debate and discussion on the ever-changing face of Mexico’s dynamic financial markets. The invitation-only event will provide a unique forum for investors, financiers, government and corporate leaders to network, analyze shared challenges, and identify new opportunities. To apply for an invitation click here.

Mexico’s state-run oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has issued short-term bonds worth $46 million and will use the proceeds as working capital. The bonds are rated mxA-1+ by Standard & Poor’s and F1+(mex) by Fitch. The company is looking to raise more funds to upgrade aging facilities and expand exploration.

Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca, wireless phone company Grupo Iusacell, and consumer banking unit Grupo Elektra, all part of Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s Grupo Salinas, plan to delist from the New York Stock Exchange. A Grupo Salinas spokesman said the move was a response to excessive regulation in the US, which has pushed up the companies’ costs to unacceptable levels. Ricardo Salinas has been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with executing a fraudulent debt transaction in 2003.

Mr. de Nicolas will be part of a panel of experts on the development of Mexico’s market for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS). The meeting is a high-level and spirited debate and discussion on the ever-changing face of Mexico’s dynamic financial markets. The invitation-only event will provide a unique forum for investors, financiers, government and corporate leaders to network, analyze shared challenges, and identify new opportunities. To apply for an invitation click here.

Employment in Mexico’s maquiladora industry rose by 7.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, helped by increasing demand for manufactured goods in the US. Mexico has some 2,800 maquiladora plants, which account for 50 percent of Mexican exports.

The yield on Mexico’s 10-year treasury note declined Monday to 9.69 percent, its lowest level in more than three months on expectations that slowing inflation may lead the central bank to reverse more than a year of interest-rate increases. Mexico’s annual inflation rate fell to 4.6 percent in April from a 20-month high of 5.4 percent in November. The central bank last week decided to hold its benchmark lending rate at a two-year high of 9.75 percent.

Mexico City Mayor Andrés López Obrador says that if elected president next year he would try to tax shareholders who sold Banamex, the country’s biggest bank, to Citigroup for $12.7 billion in 2001. Sellers avoided taxes because the deal was structured as a public offer on the Mexican stock exchange. Populist López Obrador is a frontrunner in the election race. However, he also said he would finance government spending by improving efficiency, not taxes, and ruled out renegotiating the Nafta trade pact with the US and Canada.