MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico 's economy has yet to suffer a significant slowdown despite a feared recession in the United States , as industrial output and investment stay fairly healthy, the central bank governor told Reuters.
Experts warn that a drop in the U.S. economy will hurt Mexico more than others in Latin America, but Gov. Guillermo Ortiz, at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Mexico City , said recent data suggested Mexico is in relatively good shape.
"So far this year, we haven't really felt an important slowdown in Mexican economic indicators," he told Reuters.
"Figures for consumption, as well as investment, industrial production and foreign trade point to a first quarter with relatively strong activity," Ortiz said at the Reuters Summit, although he predicted the period would be slower than it was a year ago.
Chile Enersis to invest $10 bln in Latam
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile-based regional energy group Enersis ENE.SN told Reuters on Tuesday it will invest $10 billion in Latin America between 2008-2012, adding that its plans are unswayed by turbulence in global markets.
"Around $4.4 billion will be spent on the distribution business and $5.6 billion on power generation, at today's exchange rate," CEO Ignacio Antonanzas told Reuters after a shareholder meeting of the group's Endesa Chile unit.
Enersis, the regional investment arm of Spain 's Endesa, is headquartered in Santiago and has power generation and distribution units in Argentina , Brazil , Colombia , Chile and Peru .
The firm's power-generating operations are concentrated in Endesa Chile , while its distribution business is centered in Chilectra and other subsidiaries.
The firm's investment plans over the next five years will be funded in large part by cash flow, Antonanzas told Reuters.
He forecast the firm's earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) would be around $3 billion this year."A good part of these investments will be financed through operations (cash flow)," Antonanzas added at the Reuters Summit. "Endesa Chile and Enersis have ... robust balance sheets. This is the investment policy that we have decided on and plan to use going forward."
Peru's Alicorp sees sales at $2 billion: CEO
CALLAO, Peru (Reuters) - Alicorp, one of the largest food processors in Peru , plans to boost annual sales to $2 billion by 2013, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday, as the company looks to expand in Latin America .
Foreign acquisitions and exports figure prominently in the company's growth plan, said CEO Leslie Pierce.
"In the next five years, we should double sales ... to above $2 billion," Pierce told the Reuters Latin American Summit.
Alicorp's 2007 sales totaled 2.805 million soles (about US$1 billion). It sells everything from cookies to ketchup.
"We are looking very closely at acquisition opportunities in the region, like in Central America and the Caribbean," Pierce, who also mentioned Ecuador , Colombia and Argentina as possible areas of interest, told Reuters.
Alicorp already has manufacturing operations in Peru and distribution hubs in Ecuador and Colombia .
Foreign sales make up about 15 percent of Alicorp's total sales, said Pierce, who has previously said the company wants to boost exports to about 40 percent of total revenue by 2017.
The company plans to invest $15 million in Peru in 2008, mostly for maintenance, said Pierce at the Reuters Summit.
Braskem optimistic on Venezuela expansion
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem is set to expand into Venezuela and sees its planned investment in two plants there as safe even though ExxonMobil Corp had been involved in the same project before quitting that country.Supplies of high-quality Venezuelan naphtha and abundant natural gas are key to competing with Middle Eastern suppliers of petrochemical products in the Americas and Europe , Braskem Chief Executive Jose Carlos Grubisich told Reuters late on Monday.The Venezuelan venture will be Braskem's first project outside Brazil and part of an international expansion for the largest petrochemical company in Latin America ."It's not a question of optimism, it's business -- we have supply contracts for ethane and propane already negotiated that put us at the same competitive level as the Middle East," Grubisich said during the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Sao Paulo."It's a fact, plus we are combining advanced technology with global scale -- that's unbeatable," he told Reuters. "This opens a very big prospect for us to consolidate our position and become a much more important player in North America and Europe ."Braskem and Venezuela 's state petrochemical company, Pequiven, hold stakes of 49 percent each in the Jose petrochemical complex project. Another 2 percent is owned by Japanese trading house Sojitz.The
Grupo Mexico eyes $5 bln Baja port project
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Industrial Grupo Mexico said on Tuesday it was eager to win a piece of a $5 billion project to build the Punta Colonet port on Mexico 's Pacific coast.The planned mega-project on the Baja California Peninsula is meant to handle part of the surge of goods bound to U.S. consumers from Asia . It will be an alternative to Long Beach and Los Angeles , whose ports are at capacity."The big promise is Punta Colonet," Grupo Mexico Vice President Juan Rebolledo told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit. "It will undoubtedly be the most significant infrastructure project in the past 15 or 20 years."
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has launched an ambitious program to invest billions of dollars to build and improve highways, airports and ports. Experts say the country needs better infrastructure to compete internationally.
Mexico's government has said it will launch tenders to build Punta Colonet, meant to handle 5 million containers per year, in the second half of 2008.
Brazil's Fator eyes brokerage takeovers
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Banco Fator, one of Brazil's last independent investment banks, plans to buy domestic brokerages in the expectation that stock trading in the country will surge in the years ahead, Chief Executive Manoel Horacio da Silva told Reuters on Tuesday.The bank sees four or five good takeover targets and has "flirted" with some candidates, though no final agreements are in the works, he said. Consolidation among brokerages is ripe as banks seek to cut costs
Fator's brokerage was the biggest at the Sao Paulo stock exchange in 2004, but fell in the rankings in the past few years just as trading volume grew and the number of initial public offerings in Brazil jumped to record highs."We are buyers. We will try to bulk up the brokerage by acquiring others," Silva said at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Sao Paulo .
"It's very expensive to run a brokerage, to maintain the compliance, risk. These (smaller) companies will have no way out. There will have to be consolidation."
The bank also plans to take advantage of a windfall from the sale of stakes in Brazil 's two largest financial exchanges, Bovespa Holding and BM&F SA, to launch a private equity firm, called Fator Capital, and four separate funds.
Fator is in talks with a domestic bank and a local pension fund over a fund with 400 million reais ($228.6 million) in assets that will invest in medium-sized companies, Silva told Reuters.
The bank is also in discussions with a major foreign bank to raise $600 million for another fund to invest in infrastructure in Brazil , mainly energy projects, he said at the Reuters Summit. Talks with the partners for the two funds should be concluded in 30 or 40 days.
Ecuador mulls debt buyback in 2008
QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador has not ruled out buying back parts of its global bonds due in 2012 and 2030 this year if conditions are favorable, but it will not issue new foreign debt in 2008, Finance Minister Fausto Ortiz told Reuters on Tuesday.
Ecuador is analyzing all available options to improve its debt profile and will lower its public debt service burden by around $1.2 billion this year from 2007, Ortiz said, speaking at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Quito.
"It is important to say that the weight of the debt service is no longer the main problem of the state budget," Ortiz told Reuters. "All financial options (to reprofile debt) are on the table."The option to buy back parts of the debt will depend on the impact a possible U.S. recession has on foreign markets as well as the costs to fix damage to the Andean nation's infrastructure and key crops after recent heavy rains and flooding, he told Reuters.Widespread flooding has prompted other government officials to predict slow economic growth this year, but Ortiz told Reuters he hopes the world's top banana exporter will keep on track with its 4.2 percent growth target.
Peru's Alicorp looks abroad to boost sales
CALLAO, Peru (Reuters) - Alicorp, one of the largest food processors in Peru , plans to boost annual sales to $2 billion by 2013, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday, as the company looks to expand in Latin America .
Foreign acquisitions and exports figure prominently in the company's growth plan, chief executive Leslie Pierce told Reuters.
"In the next five years, we should double sales ... to above $2 billion," said Pierce, speaking at the Reuters Latin American Summit in Lima , Peru .Alicorp's 2007 sales totaled 2.805 million soles (some $1 billion dollars). It sells everything from cookies to ketchup."We are looking very closely at acquisition opportunities in the region, like in Central America and the Caribbean," said Pierce, who also mentioned Ecuador , Colombia and Argentina as possible areas of interest.
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