Latin America

BRAZIL BANKING & FINANCE Local banks’ stranglehold on the Brazilian market is coming under threat from acquisition-hungry international banks and investors.   Brazilian central bank governor Henrique Meirelles's steady hand has helped instill growing confidence in prospects for the country's ...

COMPANY TO WATCH: COMPANIA DE MINAS BUENAVENTURA/PERU Compañía de Minas Buenaventura, Peru’s largest publicly traded precious metals mining company, is basking in record high prices for much of its output. Buenaventura operates seven mines in Peru and holds controlling interests ...

MEXICO Mexico’s recent economic progress could be derailed by turmoil in the US economy and the outcome of the US presidential election.     High aspirations: Mexico is hoping its economy can resist a US downturn.     The last ...

GUATEMALA     Colom: Facing challenges on the fiscal front. Just weeks after being sworn in on January 14 as the new Guatemalan president, Álvaro Colom—the Central American country’s first left-of-center leader since Jacobo Árbenz, who was overthrown in a ...

MEXICO     Mexico's stock exchange: Lining up a $1 billion IPO. After last year’s blowout initial public offering by the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa), which raised $3.6 billion, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV), the Bovespa’s Mexican counterpart, ...

Peru     Lessons learned? Investors will be looking closely at the assets behind Peru’s mortgage-backed securities. While most global markets are seeking to shield themselves from shockwaves emanating from the US subprime home loan and residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) ...

Nicaragua     Guevara: Deal will put an end to lawsuits. When Nicaragua offered commercial creditors a 95.5% haircut on $1.4 billion in commercial debt as part of a workout, the deal appeared to be more of a scalping. Yet ...

Brazil       Mantega: Hiking other taxes will make up for shortfall.       With Brazilian legislators scrapping the country’s financial transactions tax (CPMF) in December, the government says it must now plug a 40 billion real ($22 ...

COMPANY TO WATCH: COPA HOLDINGS/PANAMA       Panama, a natural transportation hub with its famous canal, has become an air-transport center for the Americas, thanks to its national flag carrier, Copa Airlines. The fast-growing airline with a young fleet ...

BRAZIL       The good times roll: Brazil's economy provides plenty of reasons to celebrate. Brazil-focused hedge funds continued to outperform other emerging market funds, producing an average 5.11% return in October, for a hefty 29.47% year-to-date (YTD) gain. ...

COUNTRY REPORT / BRAZIL Brazil’s commitment to developing biofuels is paying off handsomely. Investment is flooding in to other areas of the economy, too.   José Sergio Gabrielli, CEO of Petrobras For the administration of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula ...

BRAZIL     São Paulo stock exchange Bovespa Holding, which owns the São Paulo stock exchange, raised nearly $3.7 billion in an IPO that ranks as Latin America’s largest offering this year. Bovespa sold 250 million shares on October 26, ...

ECUADOR       Correa: Clamping down on the oil industry After a 15-year absence, Ecuador has rejoined OPEC in a move president Rafael Correa says will allow his country to gain greater access to technical advice and market information. ...

  DR NEWS     Grupo Clarín, Argentina’s largest media conglomerate, listed its depositary shares on the London Stock Exchange last month, making it the first company based in Argentina to have a DR listing on the exchange. The global ...

  Gol: Planning share buyback   Investment banks say the recent US Fed rate cut, coupled with strong domestic fundamentals, bodes well for Brazilian capital market investors. “Fed easing since mid-August has opened up a new leg of the bull ...

VENEZUELA     Rodrigo Cabezas: New currency will help fight inflation. Venezuela is gearing up for the introduction of a new currency to replace the bolivar, in circulation since 1879, in a move the Hugo Chávez administration hopes will help ...

LATIN AMERICA     Lipsky: Sounds a warning. When the meltdown in US subprime mortgages triggered forecasts of a possible US recession, unleashing global credit and money market volatility, Latin America proved to be relatively insulated from the debacle. Though ...

JAMAICA     Golding: Ambitious economic plans. Newly sworn-in Jamaican prime minister Bruce Golding is seeking ways to kick-start the island’s sluggish economy and tackle mounting social pressures over escalating unemployment and crime rates (his own forecasts predict 1,300 murders ...

COUNTRY REPORT / BRAZIL     Buffeted by the shockwaves from the US subprime mortgage crisis, Brazil has to steer a steady course if it is to keep its economic development on track.     Buffeted by the shockwaves from ...

COLOMBIA     Ecopetrol's Cartagena oil refinery. The Colombian energy sector entered a new investor-friendly era with the late-August IPO of Ecopetrol, the state-owned oil company. Ecopetrol is Colombia’s largest corporation, with income of around $18 billion in 2006. The ...