Category: Regions

Mexico’s biggest wireless company América Móvil will invest $200 million in Peru this year as part of the company’s expansion throughout South America. América Móvil also says it plans to buy Brazilian wireless telecommunications services provider Telemig Celular Participações. América Móvil is one of the two largest mobile phone operators in Latin America, and competes directly with Spanish wireless telecom provider Telefónica Móviles.

Mexican cement producer Cemex has sold its 12% stake in Chilean cement producer Cementos Bío Bío (CBB) for about $66 million. Cemex sold its 31.44 million CBB shares on the Santiago Stock Exchange to Santander Investment at the minimum fixed price of $2.08 per share. Cemex has decided to sell non-core assets in order to pay off debt after it completed its purchase of UK ready-mix concrete maker RMC for $5.8 billion in March.

Statoil, Norway’s largest oil and gas group, has said it would pay $2 billion for the entire US Gulf of Mexico deepwater portfolio of EnCana Corporation, a Canadian oil and natural gas producer. EnCana owns a number of high quality discoveries and exploration opportunities in the Gulf, with the potential to deliver 30,000 net barrels oil equivalent per day by 2008-9. Output could be three times greater by 2012.

Mexico’s largest media company Televisa posted a net profit of $54 million in the first quarter, up 21% year-on-year. Sales rose 17% to $575 million, while the company’s total debt load came in at $1.8 billion ($210 million of which is short term). Televisa also announced it has bought the rights to broadcast the 2006 World Cup, which will take place in Germany.

Net profit at Mexico’s biggest telecom network Telmex rose 10% in the first quarter to $568 million, while revenue jumped 28% to $3.5 billion. The company’s total debts rose 54% to $9.3 billion. Telmex is taking on debt to invest in Brazil and other parts of South America. Revenues from Mexico, where Telmex controls 95% of the market, have stagnated in recent years.

Mexican cellphone giant América Móvil posted net profit of $407 million for the first quarter, up a disappointing 2% year-on-year. However, revenue was $3.50 billion, up 33% year-on-year. América Móvil, with 66 million subscribers in Latin America, is the leading wireless network in the region.

Mexico’s IGAE index, used as a proxy for GDP, rose 3.4% year over year in February. Services led growth, rising 4.3% year over year. Industrial output rose 2.0%, and agriculture was up 2.9%. Growth was stronger than expected, and UBS economists believe that growth is set to accelerate over the medium term, supported by steady US export demand, with internal demand showing greater resilience.

Mexico posted a $181 million trade deficit for March, its lowest in 11 months. The country had exports worth $17.33 billion, up 4.4% year-on-year. Imports were $17.52 billion, up 4.5%. Exports of oil and oil-related products jumped 41% to $2.5 billion, while manufactured goods were worth $14.6 billion. Mexico’s total trade deficit in the first three months of 2005 came to $1.8 billion.

Cemex, the world’s third-largest cement maker, said first-quarter profit surged 43 percent after the Mexican company bought U.K.-based RMC Group for $5.8 billion and an expanding U.S. economy boosted demand. Net income rose to $444 million from $311 million a year earlier. Sales, including one month of RMC operations, also grew 43 percent, to $2.6 billion.

Mining and metals giant Grupo Mexico (G-Mex) reported net earnings of $251 million for the first quarter of 2005, a 51 percent increase year-on-year. G-Mex’s consolidated earnings for the quarter were $1.25 billion, up 43 percent. The company is currently planning a three-for-one share split to boost its liquidity on the Mexico City stock exchange.