Leftist AMLO and Billionaire Hit It Off Over Love of Baseball

3/22/2019 – Bloomberg

By Eric Martin

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador often calls business elites a corrupt mafia, but when it comes to promoting his favorite sport, he’s willing to play ball.

AMLO, as the leftist is known, on Saturday plans to adopt the century-old American tradition of throwing out the first pitch for a baseball game, helping inaugurate a 3.9 billion-peso ($207 million) stadium for Mexico City’s Diablos Rojos, or Red Devils. The Diablos, who will play an exhibition against San Diego Padres prospects, are owned by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu. The former owner of Citigroup Inc.’s Mexico unit also holds a stake in the Padres

Lopez Obrador, who took office in December, has been a passionate fan since his small-town childhood. He fondly recalls playing center field, using a homemade ball and bat and listening to radio broadcasts of American games in Spanish. While he has rarely traveled outside Mexico, he made an exception for the 2016 All-Star Game in San Diego, taking his youngest son and snapping a photo with David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox.

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Mexico’s America Movil to buy Nextel’s Brazil operation: filing

3/18/2019 – Reuters

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Mexico’s America Movil, which controls telecom operator Claro in Brazil, said on Monday that it will acquire 100 percent of rival Nextel’s Brazil operation, allowing for consolidation in the country’s already crowded sector. Claro will pay 905 million dollars for the company, which is controlled by mobile service company Nii Holdings Inc. The company had been on sale for months, as Reuters reported in June that Nii Holdings had hired new banks as it sought a buyer.

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Mexican Voters Love Their President, But Investors Are Wary

3/7/2019 – Bloomberg

By Nacha Cattan

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO as he’s known, is doing spectacularly well with voters 100 days into his term. The latest survey pegs his approval rating at 78 percent, a record for the first trimester of a presidential term since polling began in the 1980s.

But just as his popularity is soaring, market sentiment is souring, widening a divide between investors and the president’s base. The clearest sign of this is a substantial markdown in growth forecasts by Wall Street analysts. In a poll of institutional investors commissioned by Credit Suisse Group AG in February, three-quarters said the current economic situation was worse or much worse than a year ago.

In contrast, the majority of Mexicans see a president who’s delivering on his campaign pledges to fight crime, raise living standards, and reduce inequality. Since taking office on Dec. 1, his administration has launched welfare programs for the elderly and disadvantaged youth, abolished cushy retirement pensions for former presidents, and cracked down on gangs of gasoline thieves whose appetite for destruction rivals those of Mexico’s infamous drug cartels. The social-media-adept president touts his government’s achievements in daily press conferences watched by hundreds of thousands on YouTube.

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Exclusive: Mexican central bank in talks with Amazon about new mobile payments

3/6/2019 – Reuters

REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/Illustration/File Photo

By Stefanie Eschenbacher

It would be the first time the world’s largest online retailer offers such scanning technology in Mexico and could eventually open a new customer base in a nation where more than half of the population has no bank account.

The payment system, known as CoDi, is being built by central bank Banco de México, known as Banxico. CoDi will allow customers to make payments online and in person through smartphones free of charge using QR codes. It aims to bring more people into the formal financial sector.

A pilot rollout of CoDi is expected this month, Banxico has said.

Amazon and Argentine rival MercadoLibre have approached the bank about adopting the system, Jaime Cortina, Banxico’s director of operations and payments, told Reuters.

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Pemex partners to invest $250 million in two onshore blocks in Mexico

3/6/2019 – Reuters

Reuters 

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Two private partners of Mexico’s state-run oil company Pemex will invest a combined $250 million in two projects over the next four years as they aim to quickly ramp up crude output, according to plans approved on Tuesday.

The joint venture partnerships with Pemex were initiatives championed by Mexico’s previous government following a sweeping 2013 energy reform, but have come under sharp criticism from current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who favors a more state-centric oil policy.

DEA Deutsche Erdoel holds the partnership rights with Pemex on its Ogarrio block and the development plan approved Tuesday by Mexico’s independent oil regulator calls for fresh investment of $161 million through 2023.

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U.S. to open steel dumping probe into Canada, Mexico, China: report

2/27/2019 – The Hill

© Getty

By John Bowden

The Commerce Department is reportedly planning to open an investigation to determine whether Canadian, Mexican, and Chinese steel is being sold at unfairly-low prices.

Reuters reports that the Commerce Department will open a probe into fabricated structural steel imports following a tip the agency received earlier this month. A person briefed on the impending investigation told the news service that an announcement was planned for some time Tuesday.

The International Trade Commission, which investigates trade disputes, is set to rule on the issue by March 21, according to Reuters.

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UPDATE 1-Mexico’s Televisa reports sharply lower fourth-quarter profit

2/22/2019 – Reuters

MEXICO CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Mexican broadcaster Televisa reported on Thursday that its fourth-quarter net profit fell about 84 percent from the year-earlier quarter, hampered by weaker advertising revenue and a loss for its secondary businesses.

Grupo Televisa, Mexico’s largest broadcaster, posted net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31 of 56.6 million pesos ($2.9 million), down from 343 million pesos a year before.

Net sales climbed slightly to 26.7 billion pesos ($1.36 billion) from 26 billion pesos in the prior-year period.

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