Category: Regions

Mexican cement producer Cemex Thursday announced it had won control of Australian building materials firm Rinker after obtaining over 50% of the stock. The company declared its offer for Rinker unconditional and said the offer price of $15.85 was final. It also said it was looking forward to integrating the Australian firm. All Rinker directors are due to retire from the board in favor of Cemex appointments with a formal handover of the company set to take place towards the end of this month. Cemex originally made a hostile bid for Rinker last year and had to increase its bid to $14.2bn before winning the backing of its management.

French satellite operator Eutelsat has made an offer to acquire Mexican satellite company Satélites Mexicanos (SatMex) along with two Mexican partners – Groupo Miguel Aleman and Groupo Clemente Serna. No financial details of the offer have been revealed. SatMex successfully restructured last year to position itself as a target in the consolidating satellite communications sector. It appointed Morgan Stanley to advise on the sale to a strategic buyer. The restructuring, which has been praised for its fair treatment of foreign creditors, left 78% of the company’s equity in the hands of the debt holders. The remaining 22% is held by the Mexican government (20%) and jointly by local telco Principa and US operator Loral (2%).

Spanish power utility Unión Fenosa has announced a €600m ($870m) investment in “green” energy in Mexico with a view to exporting electricity northwards to the US state of California. The state has committed itself to cutting carbon emissions and to use 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2010. The Spanish company will take advantage of Mexico’s 2,700 hours per year of useful sunlight, said Unión Fenosa chief executive, Honorato López Isla, speaking at a press conference.

Mexican consumer prices fell by 0.49% in May, taking annual inflation down to 3.95% from 3.99% for the 12 months through April. The Central Bank is targeting inflation of plus or minus one percentage point around 3% this year. Meanwhile, core inflation rose 0.22%, taking annual core inflation up to 3.73% from 3.66% in the 12 months through April.

Mexico’s controversial 2006 broadcasting law – known locally as the “Televisa Law” after one of the major broadcasters – is to be rewritten following a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court. The Court objected to sections of the law which allow broadcasters to add digital services without bidding and allowed for automatic television license renewal. The law will be returned to Congress for reworking in the next few weeks.