Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas articles from July 2001

Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas archives from July 2001

Argentine gambit. (Letter from the Editor).
July 1, 2001... THE GERMAN PHILOSOPHER GOETHE ONCE SAID, "Fortune favors the bold." If that is true, then fortune must be grinning ear to ear as she looks down on Argentine economic minister Domingo Cavallo. Unfortunately, the world is not doing the same....

Aerolineas Argentinas has filed for protection from its creditors. (Upfront: Argentina).
July 1, 2001... GROUNDED: Buckling under the weight of US$900 million in debt and US$1 billion in losses, Aerolineas Argentinas has filed for protection from its creditors. In early June, the airline suspended nearly all of its international flights. Spain's...

Economic Minister Domingo Cavallo. (Upfront: Argentina).
July 1, 2001... Economic Minister Domingo Cavallo once again looms large. He has effected a partial change in Argentina's exchange rate for importers and exporters, where 1 peso will be exchanged for the average value of the US dollar and the euro. This...

Broadband provider Impsat Fiber Networks. (Upfront: Argentina).
July 1, 2001... Broadband provider Impsat Fiber Networks, planning to expand its network, will purchase US$33 million of equipment from US-based Lucent Technologies. Impsat has also secured a US$30 million credit line from US-based equipment supplier Harris....

State oil company Petroleos Brasileiros. (Upfront: Brazil).
July 1, 2001... BLACK GOLD: State oil company Petroleos Brasileiros (Petrobras) has taken a major step toward bringing private investment into the country's petroleum sector, as part of a plan to make the nation self-sufficient in oil within four years....

International Monetary Fund loans and add about 1 percent of GDP to the national debt to stabilize Banco do Brasil, Caixa Economica Federal. (Upfront: Brazil).
July 1, 2001... The government will spend US$5.26 billion to recapitalize and clean up the balance sheets of four government banks. It will draw on existing International Monetary Fund loans and add about 1 percent of GDP to the national debt to stabilize...

Canadian-based producer Alcan. (Upfront: Brazil).
July 1, 2001... In the face of the nation's ongoing electrical power crisis, Brazilians have decreased power consumption around 18 percent, falling just short of the goal of 20 percent reduction set in June to avoid blackouts. Doing its part, Maranho state...

Nokia of Finland is supplying Telemar. (Upfront: Brazil).
July 1, 2001... Nokia of Finland is supplying Telemar with US$680 million of GSM/GPRS mobile telecommunications network equipment for Telemar's newly-acquired PCS network; the network is scheduled to be ready in 2002.

Romo's debt diet. (Upfront: Mexico).
July 1, 2001... ROMO'S DEBT DIET: Savia and Pulsar Internacional head Alfonso Romo has finally sold off enough Savia holdings to pay down nearly US$1 billion of the company's US$1.3 billion debt. Netherlands-based ING has purchased the company's 45 percent...

ICA-Fluor Daniel has won a US$159 million contract to build the 600 megawatt Termoelectrica de Mexicali. (Upfront: Mexico).
July 1, 2001... ICA-Fluor Daniel has won a US$159 million contract to build the 600 megawatt Termoelectrica de Mexicali gas turbine power plant, which will supply energy to the US state of California. The company expects to invest US$350 million and complete...

Petroleos Mexicanos has selected Dragados Offshore. (Upfront: Mexico).
July 1, 2001... Petroleos Mexicanos has selected Dragados Offshore (a subsidiary of Spain's Grupo Dragados) to build a US$179.2 million extraction, compression and gas-processing rig for the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico routinely burns off millions of dollars in...

Mexico's No. 2 mobile carrier, Telefonica SA of Spain has contracted Motorola. (Upfront: Mexico).
July 1, 2001... Beginning its drive to become Mexico's No. 2 mobile carrier, Telefonica SA of Spain has contracted Motorola of the US to expand its mobile network in northern Mexico. The US$41 million contract comes as Telefonica completes its US$1.6 million...

US yellow corn. (Upfront: Mexico).
July 1, 2001... The government has announced plans to reduce tariffs on US yellow corn to 1 percent from 127 percent for all corn in excess of the 3 million metric tons allowed in duty-free NAFTA. The goal is to provide cheaper livestock feed, hence lowering...

Carlos Hank Rohn, owner of US-based Laredo National Bancshares. (Upfront: Mexico).
July 1, 2001... Carlos Hank Rohn, owner of US-based Laredo National Bancshares, has agreed to resign as chairman of the company and pay the US Federal Reserve US$40 million to settle charges that he violated US banking laws in the purchase of Laredo. The...

ABB, based in Switzerland, has won US$300 million in contracts to design and build two power transmission systems. (Upfront: Regional).
July 1, 2001... ABB, based in Switzerland, has won US$300 million in contracts to design and build two power transmission systems, totaling 1,300 kilometers, in Brazil. The company has also joined Chile's Enap and Brazil's Ipiranga to construct a US$600...

Embraer offerings take wing. (Deal Spotlight).
July 1, 2001... Brazilian aircraft maker Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica (Embraer) debuted a two-fisted market offering this June that raised more than US$1 billion from investors, making it one of most successful and actively traded Brazilian issues so...

Bolsas: gains & losses. (Portfolio).
July 1, 2001... BOLSAS: GAINS & LOSSES Latin American Stock Exchanges (June 2001) Lima General Index 2.56% IPSA (Chile) Index 1.13% Bogota Index 1.89% Bovespa -0.99% InMex -1.37% ...

Telecom Argentina. (Bonds & Obligations: Argentina).
July 1, 2001... 150 million euro 3-year bond Coupon 9.5% Priced at 99.687 Launched June 20. Rated B2

Petrobras. (Bonds & Obligations: Brazil).
July 1, 2001... US$500 million 10-year notes Coupon 9.75% Priced at 99.749 Launched June 28

BNDES. (Bonds & Obligations).
July 1, 2001... 90 billion yen 5-year bond Coupon 4.75% Priced at 100 Launched May 29. Rated BB-

Telefonica del Sur. (Bonds & Obligations: Chile).
July 1, 2001... US$15.7 million 20-year tranche Coupon 6% priced at 7.19% US$10.2 million 4-year tranche Coupon 6% priced at 6.37% Launched May 31. Rated A+

Republic of Colombia. (Bonds & Obligations: Colombia).
July 1, 2001... US$400 million 5-year bond Coupon 10.5% Priced at 99.825 Launched May 30. Rated BB

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). (Bonds & Obligations: Mexico).
July 1, 2001... US$500 million 9-year bond Coupon 9.125% Priced at 328bp Launched May 31. Rated BB+

Argentina plans to sell 30 percent La Caja de Ahorro y Seguro. (Investments and M&As).
July 1, 2001... * Argentina plans to sell 30 percent of La Caja de Ahorro y Seguro to Italy's Assicurazioni Generali and an insurance group owned by the Werhein Family, for US$44 million.

Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF and Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras plan an asset swap valued at more than US$1 billion. (Investments and M&As).
July 1, 2001... * Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF and Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras plan an asset swap valued at more than US$1 billion. Petrobras employees have asked a federal judge to stop the swap but the two companies expect to close the...

Brazilian retail bank Banco Mercantil do Sao Paulo. (Investments and M&As).
July 1, 2001... * Brazilian retail bank Banco Mercantil do Sao Paulo is in talks to be acquired by Citigroup, which has said it will focus on the Brazilian market after its recent move to acquire Mexico's Banacci Group.

Banco Hipotecario. (Investments and M&As).
July 1, 2001... * The Argentine government plans to sell its 43.9 percent stake of mortgage lender Banco Hipotecario. The deal could fetch US$500 million. Hipotecario Chairman Miguel Kiguel says the sale will go through when market conditions improve.

Hong Kong port operator Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH). (Investments and M&As).
July 1, 2001... * Hong Kong port operator Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) completed its US$400 million acquisition of ICTSI International Holding Company. The deal gives HPH shares in four ports in Mexico and Argentina. The company already owns the Panama...

Oil companies Texaco, Phillips and Venezuela's PDVSA. (Investments and M&As).
July 1, 2001... * Oil companies Texaco, Phillips and Venezuela's PDVSA secured US$1.1 billion to finance the Hamaca heavy crude project in Venezuela. The US ExIm Bank approved US$628 million while a commercial bank group provided US$47 million.

Public sector debt. (Latin American Index).
July 1, 2001... Public Sector Debt as % of GDP * The measure of public sector debt as a percent of GDP is an important one, often cited as a measure of a government's fiscal stability. Much has been made recently of the Argentine government's...

Top 20 billionaires in the region. (Latin American Index).
July 1, 2001... TOP 20 Billionaires in the Region. Latin America has a decent-size share of the world's billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. Latin Americans made up 8 percent of this year's comprehensive list of the world's 538 billionaires....

Mercosur: the cows have it. (Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... * People in Brazil: 170.7 million * Cows in Brazil: 160 million * Ratio of people to cows: 1 to 0.9 * People in Argentina: 37 million * Cows in Argentina: 50 million * Ratio: 1 to 1.4 * People in Paraguay: 5.5...

Auto sales soar in Ecuador. (Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... * Total cars sold in Ecuador in 2000: 19,150 * Total cars sold through May 2001: 18,691 Source: The Miami, Herald, Bloomberg

Back to banking. (Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... * Increase in loans to individuals by Brazilian banks in the past year: 60% * Dollars in new personal loans that figure represents: US$26.1 billion * Personal loan repayments that are at least 15 days late: 11% Source: The...

Internet advertising drops. (Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... * Amount spent on advertising by Latin American Internet companies in 2000: US$505 million * Amount projected to be spent in 2001: US$404 million Source: Business News Americas

Something fishy. (Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... * Chile's salmon exports, January-April 2001: US$437.7 million * Salmon exports, January-April 2000: US$412.9 million * Increase in dollar value: 6% * Increase in tonnage: 55% * No. 1 importer of Chilean salmon: Japan ...

Gassing up. (Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... * Bolivian natural gas exports in 2000: US$120.5 million * Increase from 1999: 245% * Increase from January-April 2001 (over same period, 2000): 163% Source: Business News Americas

Sharing the wealth. (Corporate Moves).
July 1, 2001... Wondering how to keep your suppliers happy and in the fold? How about giving them a slice of your company? That's exactly what Brazil's Porto Alegre-based steelmaker Gerdau SA did to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding. The...

Venezuela reaches out ... to Bangladesh. (Microfinance).
July 1, 2001... Venezuela's Banco del Pueblo Soberano was started as a special project of President Hugo Chavez, with a mission to make mircoloans to small Venezuelan businesses. More than a year later, the bank has lent only 5 percent of its capital to the...

A card-carrying member. (Communications).
July 1, 2001... Most kiosks we've run across sell food or merchandise, but in today's New Economy, anything's possible. As part of a five-year strategic alliance between Todito.com and Grupo Elektra -- both controlled by the family of Mexican billionaire...

Driving North: most Mexican exporters have cut back as the US economy has slowed down. Not Antonio Madero. The CEO of manufacturer SanLuis has seen the future, and he's buying into it. (Strategies).
July 1, 2001... ANTONIO MADERO IS a man with a history. Not just his own, which is formidable, but also one that stretches back generations to modern Mexico's formative past. The first thing you notice when you walk into Madero's eighth-floor office at...

Chicken run: Costa Rica's dominant poultry company can't get Wall Street's attention. So its CEO decided to expand further in Central America, venture into Brazil and hire an investment banking firm. (Strategies).
July 1, 2001... WHEN CALIXTO Chaves started his poultry company 31 years ago in Costa Rica, chicken wasn't a food that was consumed regularly. In fact, if Costa Ricans ate any chicken at all, they dined on the cagilla, or egg-laying birds, which were often...

The shape of things to come. (Strategies).
July 1, 2001... An overvalued currency, a lack of innovation, no tradition of high-tech manufacturing -- none of these obstacles have slowed down Venezuelan CEO Marco Barbier in his quest to conquer the plastic product market. IF YOU'VE EVER VISITED...

Inside the glass box. (Strategies).
July 1, 2001... Innovation has been a hallmark of Brazil's Microsiga from the start. Now CEO Laercio Cosentino is breaking new ground for his company, with a cutting-edge management style and an IPO on the nation's newest exchange. IF MICROSIGA CEO...

Eulogy for a CEO: Argentina's most admired company, the Techint Group, loses its president in a tragic plane crash over Patagonia. (Strategies).
July 1, 2001... IN ADDITION TO BEING THE top executive of the US$6 billion engineering, construction and manufacturing conglomerate Techint Group, Agostino Rocca was also a dedicated mountaineer and avid explorer of Argentina's wild south. When he died in...

The reinvention of Embratel.
July 1, 2001... It's been three years since Brazil privatized its telecommunications sector, beginning long-distance carrier Embratel's long struggle to transform itself from languorous incumbent to competitive tiger. Its secret weapon: a CEO with a...

Sharpening the executive mind: the continuing education of top executives has become a priority for Latin American corporations as they grow in the global marketplace. A review of top programs.
July 1, 2001... Despite reports of the demise of Internet-based training, many of the world's top executive education programs use it as an integral part of the learning process. The trend towards Internet usage stems from the current business buzzword:...

Step forward: improving corporate governance in Latin America is a necessary next step for the region's equity markets to progress. (Marketplace Equities).
July 1, 2001... INVESTING IN EMERGING markets equities is clearly not for the faint of heart. Devalued currencies, debt restructuring and major political shifts are all too common. Yet, investors are often confronted with another serious problem: weak...

Small but rich: although small in comparison to its Mercosur neighbors, Uruguay's US$1 billion telecom market holds promise. The spark that's needed? Upcoming market liberalization. (Marketplace: Executive Briefing).
July 1, 2001... URUGUAY'S DEMO-graphic picture shows a majority of urban, well-educated and wealthy inhabitants. Although Uruguay has a small economy (capital city Montevideo ranks as the 13th largest metropolitan market in Latin America), in relative terms...

Small helpers: sometimes, you just need a little bit of extra help. These tiny gadgets pack lots of usefulness into a small space. (Style of Life: Gadgets).
July 1, 2001... [much greater than] NATURALPOINT TRACKIR Install a small piece of software, plug the palm-sized tracking unit into your computer's USB port, place a sticky dot on your forehead, and you can control the cursor with your head movement. We...

A home in the sky. (Style of Life: Real Estate).
July 1, 2001... Luxury Residential High Rises in Miami Miami has long been considered the unofficial capital of Latin America. Nowhere is this more clearly reflected than in its vibrant luxury real estate market, which continues to be driven by Latin...

Cast away in Belize: Cayo Espanto, a private islet off the Central American nation of Belize, may be the most exclusive, reclusive and gourmet escape in the Caribbean. (Style of Life: Travel).
July 1, 2001... ALMOST AS SOON AS WE LEFT BELIZE City's international airport aboard a tiny Maya Island Air propeller plane, we knew that nature would be the centerpiece of our trip to Cayo Espanto. Our pilot pointed out manatees splashing in the Belize...

Anguillan Idyll: a secret island in the British West Indies boasts one of the most upscale private villas for rent in the Caribbean. (Style of Life: Travel).
July 1, 2001... MOST TOURISTS WHO VISIT ANGUILLA come for the sand, the seafood and the serenity The tiny island, a peaceful Crown Colony of the West Indies, is home to some of the finest beaches in the Caribbean -- at least 5 out of the top 10, according to...

A taste of the keys: Little Palm Island, once the haunt of US presidents Kennedy and Truman, is now an oasis of quiet, privacy and superb culinary creations. No TVs allowed. (Style of Life: Travel).
July 1, 2001... TODAY'S VISITORS TO LITTLE PALM ISLAND are greeted by a very different atmosphere than when former US President John F Kennedy went there in 1962 to watch the filming of PT-109, a movie based on his war experiences. For one thing, the island...

Muy Rico in Puerto Rico: want to mix beautiful beaches with jaw-dropping historic sites? Then San Juan is the place. (Style of Life: Travel).
July 1, 2001... WHAT MAKES SAN JUAN, PUERTO Rico, one of the more entertaining places in the Caribbean is the city's mix of beaches, nightlife, and 16th and 17th century Spanish architecture. Old San Juan has been lovingly restored, while the city's Condado...

Do your homework: talk of a hemisphere-wide free trade pact is again shining the spotlight on Brazil-US relations. (Final Thoughts).
July 1, 2001... THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE US AND Brazil is both a promising one and one fraught with missed opportunities. It's time to take a fresh look at it. Take, for example, the two nations' stance on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)....