Mexican Legends Live on in Huatulco

Mexican legends live on in Huatulco

By Bob Schulman

Luxury hotels overlook the bays of Huatulco. Photo by Dawna Robertson

There's an odd-looking, pint-size church bravely but unsuccessfully trying to blend in with the luxury hotels, condos, discos and souvenir shops in the posh Huatulco resort area in southern Mexico.
You'll find the church next door to an exclusive beach club in the once-remote village of Santa Cruz, now one of the crown jewels of the resort. On the wall is a fading sign well worth reading – because it explains how a few pieces of ancient wood on display in the church tie some of the country's most colorful legends together.

Church of Guadalupe has the stuff of legends inside. Photo courtesy of the Mexico Tourism Board

One tale goes back thousands of years, when Mexico's top god was a feathered serpent called Quetzalcoatl. He was a good god, the story says, and was beloved by his people. But he was too good (for instance, he hardly ever required human sacrifices), so his less liberal priests conspired to get rid of him. One day, they tricked him into doing something that today would be described as inappropriate.
After that, he left town and traveled far across the eastern sea to repent. According to the legend, he told his people he'd eventually come back, and to look for a bearded stranger with fair skin.
Years later, around the time of Christ – and here's where another legend kicks in – Quetzalcoatl showed up on a beach near Santa Cruz. The story goes on to say he appeared in the form of “an elderly white man with long hair and a beard” and carried an immense wooden cross.
He planted the cross in the sand (another version of the legend says it was the Apostle Thomas who showed up and planted the cross), prayed for a few days and then left.

Could this be the spot where the great cross once stood? Photo by Dawna Robertson

Since it was brought by a god (or an Apostle), the local folks figured the cross must be a holy object and prayed to it for good fortune. Over time, the site became known as Quauhtolco, roughly meaning “the place where wood is worshipped.” When the conquistadores arrived there in the 1520s, the site's name became Huatulco in Spanish.
By the 1540s, Huatulco had been turned into a port for Spanish shipments of silver coming up the coast from the rich veins of Peru. And where there's loot, there's pirates – and still another legend.
As the story goes, when he wasn't off pillaging, the notorious buccaneer Thomas Cavendish had a very religious side. And he was irked by the still-standing cross on the beach because it was said to have been planted there by a pagan god.
He tried to burn it, but it wouldn't burn. So his men tried to chop it up with knives and saws, but they barely made a dent. He tried to dig it up, but it was planted too deep. Then he lashed it to his ship with long ropes, raised the sails and tried to pull it loose. That didn't work either. Defeated, Cavendish settled for burning down a nearby town, then sailed away.
Concerned that others might try to destroy the cross, the regional bishop later moved it (perhaps with a little divine help, since the story doesn't explain how he managed to dig it up) 1,600 miles inland to his cathedral in Oaxaca, the state capital. The story goes on to say the bishop chipped off pieces of the wood to make some small crosses, one of which was sent to a village close to the spot where the large cross had stood.
Tile-like remnants of the small cross are still there, inside the Church of Guadalupe in the village of Santa Cruz.

Original wooden pieces form a cross-in-a-cross. Photo courtesy of the Mexico Tourism Board.

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New Tours Offer a Zesty Taste of The Real Estate Mexico

New tours offer a zesty taste of the real Mexico

Story and photos by Bob Schulman

You'll still see ads showing picture-postcard views of Mexico's famous beach resorts, but don't be surprised if the powdery sands share the page with pyramids and colonial churches. It's all part of a campaign recently introduced by Mexico's new tourism minister to boost travel to the country's historic and cultural sites.
Using the slogan, “Mexico: The place you thought you knew,” the campaign spotlights 10 new tour routes – mostly winding through inland cities – designed to give vacationers a taste of the country beyond sand, surf and sun. In unveiling the promotion at the annual Tianguis trade show, tourism chief Gloria Guevara noted Mexico has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country in Latin America.
One route, billed as “The birthplace of history and romanticism,” starts in Mexico City and heads north through places prominent in the country's fight for independence. Along the way you'll stop at cities such as Queretaro (where the Emperor Maximilian faced a firing squad atop the “Hill of the Bells”), San Miguel de Allende (the first city to be liberated from Spanish rule, now famous as an art colony), Guanajuato (a rich mining town and the scene of the first big battle for independence in 1810) and Guadalajara (another hotbed of independence, today better known for its cultural, art and shopping attractions).
Attention gastronomical adventurers: Are you ready for “The 1,000 flavors of mole?” Highlights of the tour include a stop at Puebla, the home of mole (moh-lay), Mexico's national dish. Here, you'll sample red, green, black, yellow and other variations of the sizzling sauce. The tour then goes south to the gorgeous colonial city of Oaxaca (try huevos oaxaquenos, eggs poached in a chile-tomato soup) and then on to the government-backed beach resort at Huatulco and the nearby eco-chic town of Mazunte.
Still another route offers a 10-day sampling of the Maya culture, starting at the so-called “white city” of Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula. Besides stops at archaeological sites such as Chichen Itza and Tulum, the tour allows time to play at the resort areas of Cancun, the Riviera Maya and the island of Cozumel before a flight down to the country's southernmost state of Chiapas. Among showstoppers there is a river cruise through a Grand Canyon-like gorge, a visit to the shopping mecca of San Cristobal de las Casas and pyramid-climbing at the ruins of Palenque.

The other seven routes typically feature inland cities elsewhere in the country. Among their themes are “Wine country and the aquarium of the world,” “The art of tequila and music under the sun” and “The magic of traditions and nature.”
Collectively, the routes wind through some 90 cities around Mexico including a number of smaller towns designated as “magic cities” in addition to the UNESCO sites.
More info: See the Mexico Tourism Board's site at www.visitmexico.com.

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Mexico Shows The World How To Party

Mexico shows the world how to party

Story and photos by Bob Schulman

Early in the morning of Sept. 15, Juana Velasquez and her family piled into their pickup truck for a seven-hour ride to the zocalo (main square) in Mexico City. They staked out a spot with a good view of the National Palace and then sat around for another eight hours until the festivities got underway that night.
At 8 p.m., the Velasquez family was among some 1.5 million people packing the zocalo and the surrounding areas to celebrate the 200th anniversity of an uprising that led to Mexico's independence from Spain. Many wore shirts, jackets, shawls and hats – even wigs – colored red, white and green (the country's national colors)
Celebrants in Mexico City and TV watchers around the world were thrilled by a sky full of fireworks, a Mardi Gras-like parade and Mexico President Felipe Calderon's emotional delivery of “El Grito” (honoring heroes of the war for independence) from a palace balcony. The night's events went off without a hitch, including the uprighting of a 100-foot-high likeness of the uprising's leader  Father Miguel Hidalgo.
Similar festivities were held in towns and villages across the country, hosted by governors and mayors. There, as in the capital city, the crowds sang, danced, waved flags and yelled "Viva Mexico” while mariachi bands blared out Cielito Lindo, Guadalajara and  El Jarabe Tapatio.
After two years of getting hammered by everything from the swine flu scare to drug wars, it was like someone had uncorked a giant bottle of joy for the Mexican public.
“Today I am so proud to

Party-goers jammed the town square of Coyoacan just outside Mexico City.

be a Mexican,” said Velasquez.

For the record: Some 50,000 workers h
elped set up and run the Mexico City celebration. The parade's 30 floats and speeches from the National Palace could be seen on 45 huge TV screens around the area while the crowd was
monitored on 5,300 security cameras. Sixty medical stations were staffed by 500 doctors and 72 ambulances.










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Old is New Again in Mazatlan Mexico

Old is new again in Mazatlan

By Bob Schulman

Mazatlan hotel zone seen from a tower of the El Cid Resort. Photo: Bob Schulman

Mazatlan, the grande dame of Mexico's beach resorts, has been hosting tourists since 1920 – when today's hot spots at Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and the like, even star-studded Old Acapulco, were mostly just barren stretches of sand. “She (the town) may show a wrinkle here and there,” a spokesman for the western Mexico resort says, “but her charms are still drawing millions of visitors.”
How does Mazatlan rank among the country's other resorts? How about walking away with the title, “Best Family Beach Destination” in the prestigious travel site Travelocity's 2010 ratings of 14 major Mexican getaways! Some 2.3 million people cast online ballots in the competition, of which 73 percent gave the nod to Mazatlan.
Like the other resorts, Mazatlan has miles of beaches lined with luxury hotels. But unlike the others, the nearby town isn't a throwback to its Spanish colonial days. Instead, Mazatlan looks more like a jump back in time to the Old World trappings of Germany or France rather than the porticoed walkways of Andalusia.

Cathedral in the Historic District.

The city's crown jewel – and a huge plus in the Travelocity competition – is a 180-block area in downtown Mazatlan called the Historic District. Originally built by Central European transplants in the 1840s, the area was once the city's commercial and entertainment center.
It gained international prominence as a rest and relaxation stop for the “49ers” heading to the gold fields of Northern California. By the time they arrived in Mazatlan, the wanna-be miners had taken long, arduous trips on sailing ships down the east coast of the U.S., Mexico and Central America, after which they hopped on boats to cross the steaming rivers of Nicaragua or pre-canal Panama, then boarded larger ships for the final leg of the trip up the western shores to San Francisco.
Mazatlan was “discovered” in the 1920s by fun-loving Hollywood stars and their friends when alcohol prohibition was enacted up north. “There were speakeasies (illegal bars) all over America, but the law was a great excuse to come down here to get a drink,” reporters were told by Gilberto Limon, Mazatlan's legendary public relations man.
Prohibition was tossed out in 1933, but even with the Great Depression raging up north, visitors kept coming to Mazatlan. “Word had spread,” Limon explained, “that our waters are packed with big gamers like marlin, swordfish, tuna and sailfish, and they'll bite at just about anything with a hook on it.”

Hotels in the Olas Altas area date back as far as 1920.

Mazatlan's early resort hotels were built along several blocks on the Olas Altas waterfront edging the Historic District. Several are still there. One, the La Siesta, offers 57 small but pleasant rooms lining a colonial-style courtyard. The 77-year-old hotel also offers an unexpected treat: Its restaurant, El Shrimp Bucket, is the flagship of the wildly popular Carlos' n Charlie's chain.

Outdoor restaurants in Old Mazatlan. Photo: Bob Schulman

Limon loved to tell the story of how a young Carlos Anderson and his pal Chuey Juarez came to La Siesta in 1962 to open their first restaurant. “I guess you could describe the place as something like the Rolling Stones meet Pancho Villa,” he said. “Guests sat at beat-up tables along walls decorated by photos from the Mexican revolution while rock music blared from tinny speakers. Sometimes the waiters sang along. It was fun for everyone.” From El Shrimp Bucket came Senor Frog's, Carlos O'Brien's, El Squid Roe and others in what's now a worldwide chain of dozens of restaurants.
Also still standing (but a lot less preserved) is the nearby Belmar, opened in 1920. Its then-opulent guest rooms, lush gardens and elegant ballrooms were once filled with Hollywood superstars of the likes of John Wayne, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Gregory Peck and Rock Hudson.

The Plaza Machado is symbolic of old-time Mazatlan.

Still another, the Freeman, debuted in 1944 as the first high-rise hotel in town. It's now the Best Western Posada Freeman Express, having been totally renovated a few years ago. A tip to visitors: Don't miss the stunning view of Mazatlan from the 12-floor hotel's rooftop bar. The Historic District, also called Old Mazatlan, has been enjoying a rebirth over the last few years, thanks to a multi-million-dollar facelifting. A few blocks inland from Olas Altas, tourists now wander around block after block of art galleries, sidewalk cafes, museums, jazz clubs, boutique hotels, restored mansions and even a restored neo-classical opera house.
Lined by trees and stone benches and on three sides by al fresco restaurants, the block-long Plaza Machado takes center stage in the Historic District. At one restaurant, Pedro & Lola, diners look out at a building across the street, now a dance studio but once a grand hotel, where in 1883 Mexico's famous opera singer Angela Peralta stepped out on a balcony and wowed the crowds with her theme song, La Paloma. She'd come to Mazatlan to sing at the nearby Teatro Rubio opera house but died before the performance of yellow fever, along with thousands of Mazatlecos.

Pool area at the Oceano Palace. Photo courtesy of Oceano Palace.

Sixty years later, the opera house was renamed the Teatro Angela Peralta in her honor. Restored to its original splendor, it's still open. Besides operas, it hosts  theatrical and dance performances, art exhibits and jazz and pop concerts. On a recent night, diners around the Machado were entertained by an Afro-Cuban group. The plaza, which in the old days was a gathering spot for classical music lovers, this night was jammed with hip-shaking salsa dancers.

Guests take 20-minute rides in “pulmonia” cabs from the Playa Mazatlan to the Historic District. Photo: Bob Schulman

Also part of the restoration project was the construction of a colorful, seven-mile-long tiled promenade edging the beaches between Olas Altas and the city's modern-day resort strip, the Zona Dorada (Golden Zone). According to Ernie Sanchez, public relations manager for the Mazatlan Hotel Association, the historic attractions are “a huge draw to the downtown area” for guests staying in the 10,800 rooms of the tropical palaces in the resort zone.
Getting there: Several major airlines offer nonstop flights to Mazatlan from U.S. gateways such as Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix and Houston, among others.
Staying there: Dozens of tourist-class hotels line the beaches of the Zona Dorado while others dot the resort's new marina and convention areas and another new development north of the resort strip called New Mazatlan. Among popular properties is the 400-room Playa Mazatlan (hotelplayamazatlan.com), one of the first two hotels in the Zona Dorada.
More info: Visit the Mazatlan Hotel Association at www.gomazatlan.com or the Mexico Tourism Board at www.visitmexico.com.
Photo credit: Mazatlan Hotel Association unless otherwise noted.










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Infraestructure Funds In Latin America (Mexico)

Infrastructure Funds in Latin America

MAY, 2010

Countries in Latin America are expected to invest $450 billion USD in infrastructure assets between the years 2011 and 2015. These long-life assets are usually characterized by high development costs (design and construction) but low marginal costs of production and little to no competition once in operation. While the bulk of the investment is expected to be allocated to the surface transport and energy sectors, the water/sanitation and ports/logistics sectors are expected to see substantial increases in the current levels of investment.

All across the region, the public sector is often affected by budgetary constraints and lacks efficiency when it comes to building and operating infrastructure assets. That is why, with the help of loans and guarantees provided by governments and multilateral development banks, strategic and financial investors from the private sector are increasing their role in the provision of such public works and services. The private sector’s involvement is done through private finance initiatives, concessions and joint ventures.

Several countries, mainly Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, offer attractive projects complemented by a strong political will, consistent and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks, appropriate investment climate and infrastructure financing mechanisms. It should be no coincidence then that the infrastructure funds established in 2009 plan to allocate their capital in said countries.

These funds purchase shares in the project company and work with strategic investors (operators, construction companies) to maximize the revenue. This increases their equity value over time. Their performance is tied to the ability to generate and extract cash from the operating asset (dividends) or through refinancing. The exit strategy can be the sale of their stake to other members of the consortium that owns the project company, to third parties or to the general public through an IPO.

Ashmore Investment and Inverlink’s offer won the competitive bidding process organized by the Colombian government to manage what is now called the “Colombia Infrastructure Fund Ashmore I FCP”. This fund is backed by Bancoldex, Colombian pension funds, the Inter American Development Bank (“IADB”) and the Andean Development Corporation (“CAF”). Macquarie Capital Inc. acts as the technical advisor. The fund has plans to raise USD $S500 million and intends to make ten transactions in private sector led projects from different areas such as sanitation, transport and energy. Also, the private equity fund Fintra raised USD $S300 million and plans to make equity investments in transportation projects.

Toronto based Brookfield Asset Management closed an infrastructure fund in Colombia (USD $S320 million) and set up another one in Peru. The latter, expected to start up with USD $S500 million, is a result of a partnership with the local private equity firm AC Capitales and will receive commitments from Peruvian private pension funds and loans from the IADB and the CAF.

With the implementation of the “Growth Acceleration Programs” (PAC I and PAC II) and the World Cup and Olympic Games coming up in 2014 and 2016 respectively, investment in infrastructure projects for the coming years in Brazil is expected to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual is setting up an infrastructure fund with capital raised from private equity sources that will focus on road, dam and port projects. Furthermore, the domestic conglomerate, EBX, announced early last year that it was planning to launch a USD $S5 – 10 billion infrastructure fund, possibly with Chinese and Middle Eastern investors.

At the beginning of this year, Macquarie Group announced the launch of “Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund” with USD $S408 million in initial commitments from Mexican pension funds, the domestic agency for infrastructure development, FONADIN, and Macquarie.

Although no funds were announced in Chile, this country remains the leader in the region in infrastructure investments as a percentage of the GDP with 6%. This number is expected to increase after the devastating earthquake that struck the country on February of this year. Reconstruction costs are estimated in at USD $S30 billion.

One of many similarities among these countries that will benefit from infrastructure financing is that they allow domestic pension funds to commit capital to funds and to hold long-term debt issues. Pension fund managers are always interested in these assets since their long-term lifecycle closely matches their own long-term liabilities.

There are other factors that are essential to attract private capital into the infrastructure development business, including: an adequate risk allocation when drafting the contracts to avoid lengthy renegotiations, a proper selection of the work or service to be provided, a transparent and competitive bidding process, speedy dispute resolution mechanisms, oversight agencies free of any political interference, a properly designed subsidy support system to incentivize usage or demand and a consistent and comprehensive regulation of the contracts by which the private sector hais outsourced the provision of a public work or service. A careful analysis of the aforementioned countries shows that in one way or another they fulfill these requirements.

Exciting times are ahead in infrastructure development for those Latin-American countries that have been successful in attracting private capital. A successful implementation of the projects will undoubtedly help their competitiveness and their overall welfare. It is not a coincidence that the countries that can’t seem to attract private capital for infrastructure investing are also those that are finding it increasingly hard to finance the provision of works and services with public resources, resulting in substantially lower amounts of investment compared to the countries highlighted in this article.

Author Biography


Patricio Abal has a J.D. from the Universidad Católica Argentina and is a Master in Project Evaluation Candidate at UCEMA & ITBA in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has worked at an Argentine law firm, the United States Senate, and at an Argentine venture capital firm.

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Real Estate Limited Partneships In Latin America (Mexico)

Real Estate Limited Partnerships in Latin America

NOV, 2009Real Estate Investing

Real Estate investment for Limited Partners (LPs) in Latin America can really be seen as a tale of two countries, namely Mexico and Brazil, and recent experiences there offer important contrasts between each country’s different market practices leading up to the global recession, some of the ways in which local participants responded differently, and, ultimately, lessons that the global recession may offer Limited Partners for future investing strategies in Latin America.

For LPs, the contrasts between Brazil and Mexico couldn’t be sharper, but identifying the appropriate strategy going forward may not be as clear. There seems to be a general consensus today that investors want to avoid Mexico but remain committed to investing in Brazil. One can’t blame them. This situation, in fact, is nearly a mirror image of the situation ten years ago when investors, beleaguered by years of boom and bust in Brazil, concentrated almost exclusively on Mexico as it emerged from the 1994 peso crisis. What we now know, of course, is that investors who were early to the game in Brazil have been rewarded handsomely, while experiences in Mexico are mixed at best.

During the last fund-raising cycle, most investment strategies that came to market were structured as country Funds. The emergence of country Funds, headed by dedicated local management teams, introduced a new era of competition for LP capital, which means LPs now have more options when analyzing investment choices.

This question of how LPs invest going forward will become more prominent as the reality sets in that foreign-based managers are really not set up to deal directly with day-to-day issues on the ground, and one lesson investors may take from the current crisis is that being closer to the investment itself is generally a good thing. This reality check is pushing LPs to look at their investment vehicle choices, their ability to defend their interests, fees they are paying as well as the overall investment strategy.

Issues facing LP investors are further complicated if the Fund is co-mingled. For LPs who had the ability and foresight to demand a seat at the table, either de facto or through negotiations, having more say in the matter when investments turn south turns out to be a pretty good thing. The lesson that LPs need to plan for a downturn when executing agreements is a prominent theme throughout the industry.

Over the last five years, Mexico and Brazil each benefited from a tremendous influx of equity capital, and excessive liquidity permitted global managers to tap into leverage that further increased demand for risk assets.....

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Leading Opportunities In Mexican Affordable Housing

Lending Opportunities in Mexican Affordable Housing

JULY, 2010
Mexico
By Lawrence McDanielMexico

The collapse of foreign investment in the Mexican affordable housing sector has created a significant opportunity for debt capital in search of compelling risk-adjusted returns on construction lending. Our confidence in this market is underpinned by continued strong fundamentals combined with increased government support of existing mortgage programs to provide exit strategies for newly developed housing units. We believe that current dislocations in the construction finance market, and commensurate yield decompression, is driven entirely by structural flaws in Mexico’s affordable housing sector and not by fundamentals.


STRONG FUNDAMENTALS

As Mexico successfully winds down its first-ever counter cyclical monetary policy intervention we believe its sovereign debt looks more attractive at present than that of any other G-8 country. The countries central bank, Banxico, shows signals of rate tightening in 2011 buttress our view by easing inflationary concerns even as tourism and industrial, auto and consumable exports have rebounded sharply since reaching their respective 2009 troughs. With currency flows now moving in the opposite direction, and consensus expectations of 4.5% inflation by year-end, we see possibilities for peso strengthening as well as a case for peso-dollar swaps to revert to pre-crisis costs.

Within this macro context, the Mexican mortgage industry trailed the broader 2008 economic slowdown by nine months or so and in our estimate, will lag the recovery by about the same length of time. Current consensus is that mortgage delinquencies, now approaching 8% industry wide, will not find bottom until Q4 of this year. Meanwhile, one million new housing units are required annually in order to keep pace with natural population growth. Despite the Mexican government’s unprecedented 90% direct and indirect participation in the funding of mortgages, the industry has struggled to keep pace with this demand. In the last 12 months the problem has exacerbated as home builders lost access to SOFOL (Sociedad Financiera de Objeto Limitado)-supplied construction finance; temporarily slowing the pace of development. Government sponsored mortgage programs simultaneously increased lending capacity, paradoxically leaving the industry in a state of high pent-up demand and readily available mortgage takeout finance which is stymied by the limited availability of construction loans.


PERSISTANT STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS

On the other hand, the global credit crisis exposed multiple structural weaknesses in Mexico’s affordable housing industry, as well as some previousl.....

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Finding an Entrance Into Mexico's Affordable Housing Construction Finance Market

Finding an Entrance into Mexico's Affordable Housing Construction Finance Market

NOV, 2010Mexican Affordable Housing

Construction lending opportunities in Mexico’s affordable housing sector continue to look attractive to us; buttressed by strong fundamental demand for new units, readily available takeout finance provided by Mexico’s two state-sponsored mortgage banks Infonavit and Fovissste, and a structurally constrained supply of construction finance. Existing unmet demand for affordable homes hovers at around 5 million units or so depending on which source you quote, and new family formation increases this amount by around a million new units annually. However, Mexico’s home builders are expected to only meet 60% of this in 2010, not due to any shortage of land or construction capacity but solely due to an ongoing lack of construction finance.

Why Is There a Persistent Shortage of Construction Finance in Mexico?

Post-crisis loan underwriting standards have indeed tightened in this market, resulting in project sponsors now contributing around 50% more equity capital to each project. However, homebuilders have been surprisingly quick to adapt to the new risk paradigm. Faced with little or no ability to raise additional equity to bridge the gap, the industry has adapted in part by improving per-project turnover time: they simply focus the same resources on a shorter list of simultaneously managed projects. But some have gone even further by incorporating sophisticated preferred equity structures into their financing strategy, thereby providing a new form of market participation for total return investors, but more importantly, enabling the home builder to avert production declines entirely. We therefore are inclined to discount post-crisis underwriting standards as a meaningful contributor to the growing backlog of demand.

Mexico’s largest hom.....

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Chiapas is Leading Biodiesel use

Chiapas is leading biodiesel use

29/11/2010 19:35
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Mexico's President Felipe Calderon opened the first biodiesel plant in Mexico, located in Tapachula, Chiapas.

Fuel generator had an investment of $21 million pesos from state government and $15 million pesos from Federal.

Its initial production capacity is of 20,000 liters per day and may expand up to 10 times.

Energy obtained in this plant will feed the entire public transport system of Tapachula and a portion of Tuxtla Gutierrez.

The plant will transform non-food agricultural products such as jatropha curcas oil, palm oil and recycled oil into clean fuel, federal government reported via a press release.

From now on 'Chiapas will be the main entity producing biofuels' said President Calderon.

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Pemex Open To Buy Refinery Abroad

Pemex open to buy refinery abroad

14/12/2010 22:42
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Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) announced that there is no time limit on the analysis it is performing for the acquisition of a refinery outside Mexican territory so the option is open.

In recent days, during negotiations with the oil Velero, among others from the United States, the director of Pemex, Juan Jose Suarez Coppel, said that they are considering 'so seriously' the purchase of a refinery, but he did not give any further details.

At least 21 refineries -located in the Gulf of Mexico coast in the United States in the same region where operates the refinery plant Deer Park (where Pemex is a partner), are available for sale and one of them could be acquired by Mexican federal government at an affordable cost compared to the construction of a new industrial complex.

Information for international analysts and the Petroleum Administration for Defense District, states that refiners made transactions to sell complex at prices ranging from $300,000 - $500,000 million and up to one billion dollars.

The value is below the cost of the refinery that will be built in Tula, Hidalgo, estimated at $10 billion dollars.

According to experts, Mexico is the country with more leverage to make profits, because many of the refineries for sale have excellent logistics synergy for the country due to its proximity and because it can immediately import oil and diesel, instead of wait eight years to build a new refinery.

Pemex is the Mexican government company in charge of the total hydrocarbons produced in the country.
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Mexico Needs Structural Reforms In Mining

Mexico needs structural reforms in mining

14/12/2010 22:58
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According to estimates by the Mining Chamber of Mexico (Camimex), Mexico could receive investment for up to $13,083 billion dollars in the mining sector for the period 2010 – 2012.

However, this investment is at risk if structural reforms in the energy, fiscal and labor sector are not carried out. For this reason there is a risk that Mexico's mining sector lost profits obtained from the so-called 'mining boom' expected worldwide for the next decade, informed the Camimex.

Experts share this view. Doug E. Stretton, director of mining asset management of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said that the strengths of Mexico to take advantage of global mining growth are its geographical location, its bilateral trade and potential to develop infrastructure that would allow the country to move its mineral exploitation abroad and obtain profits.

Mining sector has also begun to emerge locally. Only in 2010 Mexican mining production has become the fourth largest manufacturing sector in Mexico, behind oil generation, remittances and tourism.

According to data provided by Camimex it is expected that later this year, Mexican mining production hovers around $10 billion dollars in production value.

But this amount is only a sample of what the Mexican mining sector can represent for the country.

According to estimates of the Mining Chamber of Mexico, if reforms required for this industry are carried out, investment could reach $4,018 billion dollars for 2011 and $4,484 billion dollars for 2012. This would mean that production value could increase over the next two years.
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SCT Will Expand Infraestructura Of Lazaro Cardenas Port

SCT will expand infrastructure of Lazaro Cardenas Port

15/12/2010 20:46
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The Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) awarded the land where the second phase of the Specialized Container Terminal I (TEC I) of Lazaro Cardenas Port will be developed.

$200 million dollars will be allocated for this project in a first phase to increase the terminal capacity at 400,000 20-foot containers (TEUs). This will allow reaching a capacity of 1’250,000 containers.

As part of the contract of Partial Cession of Rights that has the Port Authority Administration (API) of Lazaro Cardenas with the concessionaire, the SCT recently granted 28 hectares, where a 330-meter length quay will be constructed.

This expansion project, expected to be completed in October next year in its first phase, is part of the 2007-2012 National Infrastructure Program implemented by the Federal Government.

From January to October 2010, the port moved 658,119 TEUs, representing an increase of 38% over the same period last year, at the end of this year is expected to reach 784,000, informed the SCT.

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Disneylandis Maya Under Construction Mexican Group Xcaret

Disneylandia Maya under construction

15/12/2010 21:36
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Grupo Xcaret will invest $12 million dollars to develop in January 2011, a cultural tourism resort in the archaeological zone of Chichen Itza in Yucatan.

The project, named last year by the State Governor Ivonne Ortega Pacheco as Disneylandia Maya, will officially start construction of the Mayan Palace, next to the cenote (natural well) Aban.

Miguel Quintana Pali, president and CEO of Grupo Xcaret, revealed that the consortium will also invest in the construction of 3 small hotels near the city of Valladolid, and a hostel for tourist services in the cenote Aban.

Each of the hotels will cost $1 million dollars and will be small buildings with 30 luxury rooms.

The architectural proposal for cenote Aban, whose works will begin during the second half of next year, consists in endowing it with more vegetation, landscaped gardens and large terraces, including a restaurant.

La propuesta arquitectónica para el cenote Abán, cuyos trabajos iniciarán el segundo semestre del próximo año, consiste en dotarlo de más vegetación, de grandes jardines y enormes terrazas, incluido un restaurant

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OHL Spanish Company Obtained $2 billion Pesos to Complete Work In the State Of Mexico

OHL obtained $2 billion pesos to complete work in the State of Mexico

15/12/2010 20:49


OHL Mexico, the operator of infrastructure with Spanish capital, obtained a $2 billion pesos loan from the National Infrastructure Fund (FNI) to complete construction of Phases I and II of the Circuito Exterior Mexiquense (Exterior Loop of the State of Mexico).

The loan has a term of 16 years, informed OHL Mexico, without disclosing the interest rate that will pay to FNI to use those funds.

The Circuito Exterior Mexiquense it comprised by a set of highways, with 155 kilometers in length, surrounding Mexico City in the northeast and connecting to three of the four main gateway highways to Mexico: Mexico-Puebla, Mexico-Pachuca and Mexico-Queretaro.

OHL Mexico has the concession to build and operate the loop until 2040. Currently it has 60 kilometers of highways in operation, while the infrastructure company has already built 44% of the total.
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Australians Acquire Roads Of Durango

Australians acquire roads of Durango

05/12/2010 14:21


Macquarie Group signed a sale agreement to acquire the company Desarrollos Carreteros del Estado de Durango, a dealership of the companies Rostec de Mexico and Carreteras y Tecnologia en Concretos.

The Australian company dedicated to the development of infrastructure, did not disclose financial details of the operation, but in case of closing, it will get permission to operate and maintain for 20 years, 10 toll free road stretches in the State of Durango.

Macquarie explained that the closing of the transaction is still subject to approval by the authorities and to obtain funding to carry out various projects on highways stretches.

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Mexico Clears Way For Maiden Real Estate Investment

Mexico clears way for maiden real estate investment
Escrito por Real Estrategy 2 Internacional Dic 14, 2010

Mexico will offer shares of its first real estate investment trust early next year as Latin America’s second-largest economy mints an asset that could help stimulate property markets.

Investors have complained for years that Mexican real estate investment trusts, known as REITs, were impossible to structure due to murky tax rules and and other costly regulation.

Market uncertainty and a small pool of eligible properties have also discouraged investors but local financiers have bundled 16 commercial and industrial properties that will underpin the new security.

“These kinds of instruments are never easy to structure. Piece by piece, though, we have put the puzzle together,” said Augusto Arellano, director of Protego Asesores, which spent 18 months putting together the REIT to be dubbed ‘Fibra Uno’ after the Spanish acronym for the security.

Mexico finance ministry officials have helped clarify the federal tax treatment for REITs while some states in Mexico have forgone their tax take in order to encourage the market, Arellano said.

Regulators have also recently cleared the way for Mexican pension funds to bet some of their $114 billion on the new security in a move that should reassure outside investors.

President Felipe Calderon has tried to stir infrastructure investments by cutting red tape and pushing the pension funds to invest in roads, bridges and other construction projects.

The size of the new REIT has not been disclosed but one source close to the deal said he expects the security to go on the block before the end of February.

Mexico’s commercial and industrial real estate sector is underdeveloped compared to regional peers like Brazil, where foreigners see securities markets as more dynamic.

Lawmakers created a Mexican version of real estate investment trusts more than five years ago but the securities have not been used due chiefly to adverse tax implications.

“The shared view is that the tax uncertainty was the main obstacle,” Arellano said.

Since they bundle a variety of real estate projects, REITs add liquidity to the market while hedging risk for investors. The securities, which can be traded like shares, typically shield the fund from corporate income tax.

Santander, Merrill Lynch and UBS are to help shepherd the investment to global investors.
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