Category: Regions

Mexican mobile phone operator, América Móvil, part of the Carlos Slim empire, has registered with Chile’s securities commission to issue paper in the local market. The company applied to sell up to $1 billion worth of bonds but gave no details as to maturity. Last month, the region’s largest cellular phone operator, announced it was planning to issue debt in several local Latin American markets this year, starting with Chile and Peru. The money raised will be used to fund its expansion plans to raise total users by 12%, up to 122 million, by the end of year. Last month it relaunched the newly rebranded Claro (formerly Smartcom), the number three Chilean operator which it bought last year.

The Mexican economy recorded another month of growth in July, expanding by 5% year on year, as measured by the economic activity index (IGAE). Month-on-month, economic activity grew 0.23%. The July growth was driven by industry, which expanded 5.8%. Agriculture grew 5%, while services were up 4.9%. The IGAE is only an indicator of Mexico’s economic activity as it does not include all activity that contributes to the country’s GDP.

Spanish hotel chain Princess is to invest $198 million in Mexico to build two five-star hotels in Playa del Carmen, on the Riviera Maya. Mexico is the company’s second-largest destination after Dominican Republic and Princess will target tourists in US, Canada and Spain to visit the Mexican resort.

Mexico recorded a trade deficit of $783 million in August, above analysts’ forecasts, and took the cumulative deficit for the year through August to $561 million. The value of exports for the period January through August totaled $165.33 billion, up almost 21% year on year. Of these, non-oil exports increased almost 18%, while oil-related exports were up just over 38%. Imports, meanwhile rose almost 18% in value to reach $165.89 billion.

Société Générale has acquired a 49% stake in Mexican special purpose finance company Agrofinanzas, which will see SocGen increase the capital of the Sofol. The French bank is the latest in a long line of foreign banks to enter the lucrative Mexican market in recent times. The market is dominated by Spanish banks BBV and Grupo Santander, as well as HSBC of the UK. Agrofinanzas, which was set up last November, specializes in agro financing.

Mexican glass manufacturer Vitro opened its debt swap offer yesterday, Monday, for up to $225 million of 2013 notes that yield 11.75%. The company is offering to swap the debt for similar notes registered under US securities law and also yielding 11.75%. The swap aims to improve liquidity of the notes.

Héctor Slim Seade, the nephew of Telmex owner Carlos Slim, has been named the new chief executive of the Mexican telco. Slim Seade, who was in charge of operational support at Telmex, will replace Jaime Chico Pardo who moves to become chairman of the board. Chico Pardo will be responsible for the company’s strategy and for consolidating its international expansion. And Oscar Von Hauske, previously head of systems and telecoms operations of the company, has been named chief executive of a newly created international division. Both Slim Seade and Von Hauske will report to Carlos Slim, who will act as co-chairman of the board.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank, has said it will be supporting the first public-private partnership (PPP) project in Mexico by providing a partial credit guarantee to help finance a road in central Mexico. The Mexican peso guarantee, worth $11.8 million, will be granted to Banco Santander, which will lead a $52.5 million syndicated financing to be offered to Concesionaria Irapuato La Piedad, part of Mexican construction company Empresas ICA. According to Atul Mehta, IFC’s director for Latin America and the Caribbean: “This financing is part of IFC’s integrated strategy for Mexico in the infrastructure sector, which included helping develop the necessary framework for the PPP program, and providing financing for the first project to be launched under the
Program”.