THE FIRST APPROACH that Elon Musk had with members of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador was at the beginning of April 2020.
Due to the Covid pandemic, the Ministry of Health had just decreed the National Sana Distancia Day (March 23). The automotive sector was not considered an “essential industry” and they stopped it.
Tesla, which has 127 suppliers here, was beginning to suffer the ravages of the lack of auto parts. Musk looked for a government representative and the one who picked up the phone was Marcelo Ebrard.
Since then, there has been a cordial relationship between the Chancellor and the controversial tycoon, a deal that took on a new boom starting in December, when it became known that Tesla was considering settling here.
Nuevo León and the area of Santa Catarina was the first site that the electric vehicle manufacturer met. From then on, feasibility studies and meetings with the state government began.
But the entity governed by Movimiento Ciudadano politician Samuel Garcia was not the only one Musk met. Almost at the same time, the South African was also the subject of a tour of the Tizayuca area.
While the emecista governor deployed paparazzi to photograph Musk during his visit to Monterrey and finished touring locations, he took his plane and landed at the Felipe Ángeles Airport.
He flew over Hidalgo, sighted the 800 hectares that they offered him in Tizayuca and asked for something else: that the helicopter take a tour of CdMx, Querétaro and the State of Mexico to get an idea of the environment.
Hidalgo’s defect or virtue was that the people of the Morenista governor, Julio Menchaca, were very discreet and adhered to Musk’s request to keep the negotiation confidential.
Hidalgo jumped into the spotlight two months after García sponsored a million-dollar campaign in local and national media to make people believe that Tesla had already decided on Nuevo León.
But Menchaca had a “machuchón godfather” in the 4T: the Secretary of the Treasury. It was Rogelio Ramírez de la O who brought the Tizayuca option to López Obrador, who, as in everything, took a political crack.
The man from Tabasco does not want García to win Tesla because it is making him grow politically and because he does not want budgetary resources from the federal government to go to an entity that governs the opposition.
García’s indiscretion, which Musk did not like at all, is now putting him on the brink of the precipice, because without Tesla’s decision involved, real estate commitments were made that could fall.
This coming Wednesday, when “Tesla Investment Day” takes place in Austin, Texas, Musk should be announcing the location of his new plant and a mega-investment of 10 billion dollars.
We will see then who takes it: if the new León with everything and the veto of the tenant of the National Palace, or Hidalgo, as Ramírez de la O is already pushing. It may also be distributed among various entities, as Ebrard said.
But the political and media noise of García, López Obrador and now five other governors who raised their hands, makes Mexico look like a banana country in Musk’s eyes, a country in which he does want to invest.
NOTHING, THE Board of Directors of AHMSA granted Alonso Ancira last Thursday all the powers to negotiate the entry of new capital to the steel company and avoid bankruptcy, a status in which it was declared by a Coahuila judge several weeks ago. But it turns out that the businessman is once again in the position of not wanting to give up control or the administration of the company. Ancira has an offer on her desk from Daniel Chapman, who leads the Argentem Creek Partners fund. This banker knows the company’s situation well because he comes from the Black River fund, one of AHMSA’s historical creditors. Another interested party is the Esmark steel company from the United States, as well as Ternium, Posco and Villacero, this one owned by Julio Villarreal, allied to a financial fund. The decision is supposed to be imminent.
I TOLD YOU THAT Friday was the formal replacement in the Presidency of the Mexican Business Council (CMN). Rolando Vega Sáenz replaced Antonio del Valle Perochena at an event in Cancun attended by almost all the members of that leadership, since at the same time it was the planning meeting of the CNM. Some businessmen who were seen there were Claudio X. González, Daniel Servitje, Alejandro Ramírez, Emilio Azcárraga Jean, Eduardo Tricio, Fernando Senderos, Alejandro Bailleres, Enrique Zambrano and Alberto Santos. Two well-known members of the Council who did not respond to the call in the lands of the Mexican Caribbean were Carlos Slim Helú and Germán Larrea.
ABOUT Germán Larrea: Either reach an agreement with Citi or Jane Fraser’s take out Banamex via a public offering. The mining businessman was already the only bidder. Daniel Becker’s group has lost two strong investors in recent weeks, which technically leaves it out of the running. One is Moisés El-Mann and the other is the powerful New York fund Apollo Global Management, led by Marc Rowan. The paradox is that the former withdrew because he was not willing to enter into a competition with Larrea to see who offered the most, and now the owner of Grupo México is placing his offer at around 7 billion dollars, without liabilities and only for the 75%
AND SPEAKING OF liabilities in Banamex, on Friday Civil Judge 71, Daniel Reyes Flores, admitted a new complaint filed by Oceanografía, by Amado Yáñez, whose purpose is to study the exorbitant guarantee that was imposed on him of 5 billion of dollars so that the challenge could have a suspensive effect against the lifting of the sale restriction, and where appropriate, it be eliminated as had already been done in June 2022. It will now be the Third Chamber of the Court presided over by Rafael Guerra that will decide what amount to set. But in the interim, for now the sale of Citi remains suspended. Banamex’s lawyer is the famous Javier Quijano, close to the affections of the 4T.
NINETY-FIVE couples invited the former president of the Spanish government José María Aznar to a gala dinner for his 70th birthday at the Teatro Real in Madrid on Saturday. From the president of Santander, Ana Botín, to the owner of Repsol, Antonio Brufau. From the media magnate, Rupert Murdoch, to the CEO of Endesa, José Bogas. From the former Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, John Snow, to the former President of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana. Only two Mexican couples: the communication adviser and former presidential spokesman, Carlos Salomón and his wife, and former president Felipe Calderón and Margarita Zavala. They were received with great affection, due to the Genaro García Luna case.
THE succession is HEATING in Canacintra, which will have elections this Wednesday. Yesterday, candidate José Manuel Sánchez Carranco denounced the interference of former presidents Enoch Castellanos and Rodrigo Alpízar in favor of his candidate María de Lourdes Medina. Yesterday he accused irregularities in the process, such as the inflated registry of directors and calls for pressure on directors who will cast a vote. A dirty game, then.
