Mexican media giant Televisa said Monday it has agreed to buy 30 percent of cell phone carrier Nextel de Mexico for $1.44 billion as part of its plan to offer “quadruple play” — voice, video, Internet and wireless products. Two of Mexico’s most powerful businessmen are set for a new round of head-to-head competition as the country’s television The companies plan to bid together on wireless airwaves in a government auction planned for May, and [...]
Businesses
-Swiss insurance company Zurich Financial Services Ltd. wants to boost its presence in Brazil and Mexico as it bets consumers in Latin America’s two largest economies will demand more insurance products, according to a top executive. “In the short-run, I think the focus is to continue building up our presence mainly in Mexico because in the other markets we already have a very strong position,” Peter Rebrin, chief executive for Zurich Latin America, said in [...]
Target is navigating turbulent economic times by polishing old stores rather than opening new ones and seeking growth in countries outside of the United States, such as Mexico. The discount chain said yesterday that it will spend $1 billion renovating 340 stores while opening fewer than 10 new ones in 2010. That’s dramatically fewer than the 58 it opened in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31 and the 91 it opened in fiscal 2008. The [...]
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. [...]
America Movil SAB from Mexico, Latin America’s largest wireless carrier, fell the most in 10 months after announcing plans to take over its sister fixed-line companies in a deal valued at more than $20 billion. The company, controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said yesterday that it would offer stock worth about 215 billion pesos ($17 billion) for a holding company that controls South American carrier Telmex Internacional SAB. America Movil would then offer as [...]
Is it Time To Buy Pemex Bonds? they look like a Buy on Spreads, Higher Oil Prices. The 8 percent dollar-denominated securities maturing in 2019 from the largest oil producer in Latin America are yielding 64 basis points above sovereign bonds with the same maturity. A “fair value” for Pemex yields would be as little as 12 basis points higher, said RBC analyst Eduardo Suarez, who is based in Toronto and rates the state oil [...]
Morgan Stanley today boosted its 2010 growth forecast for Mexico on the prospect it will benefit from a recovery in the U.S., the Latin American country’s biggest trading partner. The companies join cement maker Cemex SAB and Sigma Alimentos SA in selling debt abroad as the Mexican economy looks to grow in 2010. Mexico’s Cemex, the world’s No. 3 cement maker, said on Wednesday it is selling 4.127 billion pesos in convertible bonds. Mexico’s Cemex, [...]
Mexico’s antitrust watchdog is fining media giant Televisa almost $4 million for refusing to let a cable operator transmit its channels, the latest in a push to boost competition in the sector. The Federal Competition Commission decided at a meeting last month to fine Televisa, which controls cable operator Cablevision (CABLECPO.MX) Televisa (TLVACPO.MX) (TV.N), controlled by billionaire Emilio Azcarraga Jean, controls about 70 percent of the broadcast television market share in Mexico, with TV Azteca [...]
* Mexico launches mutual fund to attract small investors Mexico’s government-backed mortgage lender Infonavit said on Monday it is launching a mutual fund of mortgage-backed securities to boost liquidity and help deepen Mexico’s capital markets. Infonavit, which in recent years started placing mortgage-backed debt to raise financing for further lending, will start off the fund with 200 million pesos ($15.4 million). The fund will be available through banks and brokerages to Mexicans investing a minimum [...]