Mexican cell phone giant America Movil, which does business in 17 countries across Latin America and the United States, plans to add another 20 million subscribers this year to its client base. 
Chief Financial Officer Carlos Garcia-Moreno chat with Reuters during the Latin America Investment Summit about keeping the doors open for more acquisitions outside its core region although he said the company is in no rush to do so.

America Movil is owned by Carlos Slim, one of the richest men in the world.

With Congress and political parties mired in energy reform talks, monopoly Pemex painted a grim outlook for Mexico’s oil industry if foreign partnerships for deep sea production are not allowed.
Pemex Exploration and Production Chief Carlos Morales told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit that the company’s first six deepwater exploration wells found no oil and how production at more of the country’s Gulf fields will follow Cantarell into decline in the years ahead. He also said that a planned oil sector reform would be crippled if it excludes alliances with experienced foreign partners. 
   

High inflation in Argentina is “worrying” Toyota’s local unit but the company is optimistic that concerns over energy shortages will ease in the medium term, said the firm’s president.

Investors are concerned about inflation and energy shortages in Argentina, where the red-hot economy has grown 8 percent a year for five years straight after a 2001-02 economic crisis.

“For us, inflation is a worrying issue,” said Anibal Borderes, president of Toyota Argentina, the local affiliate of Toyota Motor Co. ”I think it could be a key factor for anyone looking to export,” he told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Buenos Aires.

  “Energy supplies worry us too, but … there are plans in place to increase supplies and I expect they will begin to show results,” he said, referring to government energy initiatives.

Peruvian miner Buenaventura said 2008 will be a record-setting year for its main silver and gold mines.

Silver output at its Uchucchacua mine should increase to 12 million ounces in 2008 from 9.9 million ounces in 2007, said Buenaventura Chief Executive Roque Benavides.

He said gold output at its Orcopampa mine will rise to 300,000 ounces in 2008 from 267,935 ounces in 2007. 

“Both will have record productions this year,” said Benavides, speaking at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Lima, Peru.

After closing one of the biggest deals in the Mexican retail market in a decade by acquiring more than 200 stores from rival Gigante, Soriana plans to focus on keeping a tidy mid-term debt profile.
The Gigante transaction, which helped strengthen Soriana’s position against leader Wal-Mart de Mexico, will slow down the retailer’s organic growth for the next two years but the company hopes store openings will gather speed again in 2010.
Listen to Chief Financial Officer Aurelio Adan speak at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit about how the company will handle debt in the next five years and the reasons why he thinks Soriana stock is undervalued.

Walmex, the Mexican arm of U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is set for another tough year amid an economic slowdown that is making it more difficult for customers to buy anything from food to clothing.
In 2007, retailers were hurt by a downturn in the Mexican and U.S. economies. However, Walmex hopes that its first-quarter results will be decent. 
Listen to the company’s Chief Executive Eduardo Solorzano talk about the challenges ahead during Reuters Latin America Investment Summit. 

Ruben Iparraguirre, Chief Financial Officer at Banco Patagonia in Argentina, expressed his surprise over the U.S. government’s intervention to keep the credit crunch contained.

 During an interview for the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Iparraguirre said the degree of U.S. activism was unexpected.

“We are surprised that the United States, which pushes free markets so much, has intervened so much now, that it’s done what it’s doing to save debtors who took on extremely expensive and risky mortgages, to save banks who loaned to those debtors, and to save the packagers who took those mortgages and resold them and designed them as junior, junior, junior bonds”.

As Mexico’s oil production gradually declines from peaks in 2004, future governments may need to come up with new ways to tax more products, like food or medicine, to keep healthy coffers, Deputy Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit.
   Revenues from state oil firm Pemex currently bring government revenue to 20 percent of gross domestic product.

Grupo Mexico’s Chief Financial Officer Daniel Muniz and Vice President of International Relations Juan Rebolledo sat down with Reuters during the Third Latin America Investment Summit to talk about the company’s struggle with blokades and strikes, which have hurt production at its key Cananea pit, and their hopes for a quick solution.
   They also share their long-term expectations that prices of the red metal should stay high, betting global inventories will remain tight.

New technologies that enable a wider distribution of basic communications in Mexico are taking longer than expected to take off amid struggles between companies interested in accessing cheaper networks and high launch costs.
   A vast fiber optic network owned by Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), good for transporting data all across the country,  is currently used by just a handful of telephone firms seeking to bypass what they often criticize as very high fees from the dominant fixed-line phone company.
   CFE’s chief Alfredo Elias Ayub told Reuters said during the Third Latin America Investment Summit that in a couple of months there could be news about fiber optic rentals to new companies.
    He also shared his views about why power line communications, which carry information over the powerline, are stalled due to the high price of modems and the lack of sufficient research in countries like Mexico.