Dear rss free blog,
There are Mexico trends which may impact the U.S.A. Not the great
sucking sound, but the new paradigm: making money by filling in gaps.
Eduardo
Garcia today reports in www.sentidocomun.com.mx about a joint venture
between media giant Televisa
SA and Genomma
Lab, a Mexican developer
of OTC medications and personal care products.
Under
a deal whose finances have not been revealed, the Spanish language TV
network will promote Genomma products, initially to the US Hispanic
and Puerto Rican markets, and eventually to Latin America. Genomma
stock soared.
This
is another pioneering move by Mexicans, in this case Carlos Slim
Helu, one of the three richest men in the world (along with Bill
Gates and Warren Buffett; they take turns as Numero Uno.)
Slim’s
Grupo Carso slowly linked up its stores in Mexico to provide loan and deposit
services to the under-banked country, beaten to the pitch by rival
Ricardo Salinas Pliego of TV
Azteca. The bank-in-a-supermarket idea was subsequently copied by WalMex,
copied by its parent WalMart,
and retailers in Britain. The U.S. is probably ripe for this alternative to banks.
Slim,
who bought CompuUSA
out of bankruptcy, owner of a nice chunk of the New
York Times, is a serial
monopolist, having won control of the TelMex
Mexican
telco at its
politically-linked privatization, and having added America
Movil (cellphones in
Mexico and Latin America) to the mix. He is trying to boost his media
presence in Los Estados
Unidos.
Another
probably more benevolent Mexican program by Cemex is also noteworthy, based on material in Elisabeth Rhyne’s new book, Microfinance
for Bankers and Investors(McGraw
Hill, 2009, $45). She cites CX’s Patrimonia
Hoy (Equity Today)
program which helps finance and sell cement to poor people for home
improvement. These do-it-yourself builders get finance from rotating
savings and credit institutions in their communities called tandas.
Cemex plugged into the tandas
with its own financing option, and also provides plans and technical
assistance.
By
now 185,000 Mexican families have added new rooms to their homes
under the program. And while initially started as a social service,
Patrimonia Hoy as it was scaled up was changed to become
profit-seeking and eventually profitable. Reaching that goal required
legal and regulatory changes to allow a non-finance company in the
cement business to provide loans for home improvement.
Ms.
Rhyne at Accion International worked with Cemex on the changes. There
was fear that if Cemex profited from the poor, it could be criticized
rther than praised. But two years ago, Cemex won an OAS Citizen of
the Americas award for Patrimonia Hoy. I think it could work in some US communities too.
