Brazil’s No. 2 private bank Banco Bradesco SA (BBD, BBDC4.BR) announced Friday it agreed to buy IBI Mexico for an undisclosed price in its first excursion into international credit card administration.
The bank said it had no immediate plans to use IBI Mexico as a beachhead to set up retail banking operations in Mexico, but the deal reinforces ideas that Brazilian banks are increasingly looking for opportunities abroad following two years of consolidation at home.
Bradesco will pay cash for all shares in IBI Mexico, which administers the consumer finance arm of clothing retailer C&A in Mexico. In the process, it will acquire a credit portfolio of 1.3 billion pesos ($99 million) and over 1 million credit card accounts, said Marcelo Noronha, head of the bank’s credit card business.
“We grabbed the opportunity to extend our existing relationship with C&A outside Brazil,” he told journalists on a conference call. “We identified it as a very well run asset.”
With acquisition possibilities limited at home and many international banks weakened by the recent credit crisis, Brazilian banks are increasingly being linked to foreign banks.
Brazil’s No. 1 private bank Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB, ITUB4.BR) has said it is assessing international opportunities, although it denied a recent report that it is considering buying stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG). It already has retail banking interests in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and the U.S. – from: online.wsj.com
At a press conference Wednesday, Telmex’s controlling shareholder, billionaire Carlos Slim, said the company’s intention is to distribute television on its network, not to enter the TV content market.
Another television provider would create demand for more content, and work for content providers, he said. The only thing Telmex would be interested in doing, or promoting, is a History Channel focused on Mexico or Latin America, or a regional National Geographic channel, Slim added.
Mexicos Slim plans Investment plan to radically update Mexico’s “Digital Infrastructure”
From: Daniel Hernandez
At a sleek press conference inside his Telmex Institute in Mexico City’s historic downtown, Slim and several of his top corporate deputies announced a $10 billion-peso three-year investment plan to radically update Mexico’s “digital culture.” A separate multi-million-dollar initiative to fund genome research came on Tuesday.
The idea, Slim said, is to make Mexico more competitive in the abstract “human capital” sense with other ascendant economies — such as Brazil — whose successes in innovation have so far eluded his own country. Slim said his Telmex will: from thefastertimes.com
(Corrects to say CIC will rely more on external managers in inefficient markets in eighth paragraph.)
Jan. 20 (mexico.) — China Investment Corp., the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, has had “early” talks for direct investments in Brazil and Mexico, Chairman Lou Jiwei said.
The sovereign wealth fund plans to increase direct investments this year and prioritizes such investments in developing markets, Lou said at a financial forum in Hong Kong today. CIC plans to be an “active, minority” shareholder in companies, instead of being involved in day-to-day operations, he said.
“In developing countries, the public capital markets are not as deep as developed countries,” Lou said. “We’re more interested in direct investments in developing countries.”
CIC, which held almost $300 billion in assets at the end of 2008, last year accelerated investments in resource-related companies, from U.S. power producer AES Corp. to Russia’s Nobel Oil Group, to hedge against rising inflation. Brazil is the second-biggest exporter of iron ore, while China is the largest buyer of the raw material.
“I believe CIC will continue to concentrate on resources, because it is the vehicle for China policy to secure resources for the country,” Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong, said in a Jan. 18 interview.
One World Ventures, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: OWVI) today announced the opening of its new facilities and offices in Mexico City, Mexico. “We’re excited about the continued growth and demand of our products in the expanding Latin American market,” said Stephen Prior, CEO of One World Ventures Inc. (OWVI). “The Latin American region represents a natural expansion of our growing business in the Americas. OWVI and Tutamen have experienced increased demand in the region and we are responding aggressively to support the Mexican community with sales, service, support and technical assistance.”
Latin America is a growing region where companies are developing well. Mexico is one of the biggest markets with a population of 110 million and as in many other countries in the region, Mexico’s GDP is growing fast. Demand for Solar products surviving off the grid is a priority. Tutamen has also submitted its new Street LED light products and Home LED products to the Mexican Government Technical offices for approval to sell to the Mexican Government.
About One World Ventures, Inc.
One World Ventures, Inc. is a holding company with management resourced in Asia and the United States that invests in technologies, communities and systems that facilitate trade, finance, communication and travel across international boundaries, cultures and languages.
Once Slim’s companies are combined, America Movil will have clients with a total of 250 million connections, making it one of the world’s largest telecom operators.
Telmex is by far Mexico’s largest fixed-line operator with more than 80 percent market share, but cable television companies have begun to grow in recent years by offering their own Internet and phone service. Mexican regulators have blocked Telmex from offering video services, which it says it needs to compete against Televisa.
By tying up his operators, Slim wants to offer customers bundled packages of fixed-line telephone, wireless, Internet and television.
Televisa and cable companies have said they are keen to offer similar packages and that they could bid for wireless frequencies in an upcoming government auction.
Mexican tequila production fell sharply last year after a bumper 2008, while exports were practically unchanged from a year earlier, according to the Agriculture Ministry in Mexico..
The ministry said in a weekend press release that tequila production last year was 249 million liters. That was 20% below the record 312 million liters that the tequila regulatory council reported for 2008.
Exports in 2009 were little changed from 2008 at 136.1 million liters, with exports of Mexican tequila made entirely from the agave plant up 3.9% to 37.3 million liters, the ministry said.
The country’s pension fund assets rose 22.8% in 2009 to MXN1.15trn (US$90.8bn), according to data released by the Comisión Nacional del Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (CONSAR). Mexico.
Average returns for the year for the pension fund managers, known as Afores, were 4.9%.
In March of last year, the pension funds agreed to invest primarily in local securities in order to boost the economy during the financial downturn. (Global Pensions; March 19, 2009)
The pension fund managers’ asset allocations reflect this move with 66.34% of total assets invested in government securities and 16.5% in domestic private sector debt. Nearly 9% is allocated to domestic equity, 4.15% to international debt and 4.02% in international equity, according to CONSAR.
Mexican pension funds have also been investing in infrastructure. Last week, infrastructure manager Macquarie announced seven pension funds have invested MXN3.42bn in the Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund, representing 66% of the total assets under management. (Global Pensions; January 15, 2009)
Australia’s Macquarie Group has collected $408 million in the first phase of its Mexican infrastructure fund, The Wall Street Journal reports. The vehicle, Macquarie’s first in Latin America, will invest in at least five infrastructure projects.
Macquarie has put $58.9 million in the fund, while the government infrastructure fund, Fonadin, invested over $78.6 million. Seven Mexican pension funds have contributed a combined $267.3 million. Macquarie expects the fund to reach around $786 million.
Mexican rescuers and their dogs walk past a destroyed university after Tuesday’s earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 16, 2010. Thousands of Haitians flocked out of Port-au-Prince on Saturday in a swelling exodus from the earthquake-shattered city where aid is not reaching the streets fast enough for the homeless, hurt and hungry.
Humanitarian aid sit on a pier next to Mexican hospital cargo ship “Huasteco” in the port of Veracruz before heading to Haiti, January 14, 2010. planeloads of food and medicine streamed in to Haiti on Thursday to aid a traumatized nation still rattled by aftershocks from the catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings and buried countless people.
Mexican medics apply first aid to Josyanne Petidelle after she was pulled from the rubble and thought dead in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. The 19-year-old was resuscitated minutes after she was rescued, three days after being trapped.
