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Tijuana and Baja California News
Carlos Slim and Company Buy a Highway

A company founded by Mexican magnate Carlos Slim announced on September 30 the purchase of a toll road between Tijuana and Mexicali. Bought by Slim's IDEAL company from a concessionaire of the Mexican government, the Tijuana- Mexicali highway handles an average traffic load of about 6,250 vehicles per day. IDEAL will now be responsible for road maintenance, construction and administration. The terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

Registered on the Mexican stock market in mid-September, IDEAL is Slim's latest business venture. Created last June with an initial capitalization of approximately $800 million dollars, IDEAL was set up for the purpose of filling development and infrastructure investment holes in Mexico and Latin America. In establishing the company, Slim strategically drew in several prominent Mexicans to the new enterprise. They include David Ibarra Munoz, ex-budget and taxation secretary; Daniel Diaz Diaz, ex-secretary of communications and transportation; Guillermo Gutierrez Villalobos; ex-director of the Federal Electricity Commission; and Fernando Solana Morales; an ex-minister of education, former chief of foreign relations and one-time director of Banamex.

The new firm could be an important new player in remaining public works and infrastructure concessions totaling about $17 billion dollars expected to be granted during the remainder of the President Vicente Fox's administration. In addition to the Tijuana-Mexicali border highway, IDEAL already holds the toll road concessions for the Chamapa-La Venta, northeast Toluca and Tepic-Villa Union highways.

Slim is considered Latin America's wealthiest individual and perhaps the fourth richest man in the world. The businessman of Lebanese heritage maintains relations with political figures like Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution.

Slim expanded considerably his business empire from Mexican icons Telmex and Sanborn's in recent years, gaining a strong presence in the telecommunications, retail and now development sectors throughout the Western Hemisphere. CompUSA, MCI and Global Crossing are some of the household names associated with Slim's US interests. From 1996 to 2005, Slim's personal fortune soared from an estimated $6.1 billion dollars to $23.8 billion dollars.

Sources:
El Universal,October 1,2005. frontenet.com/terra.com, September 30, 2005.
La Jornada, September 15, 2005. Article by Victor Cardoso and Juan Antonio Zuniga.
La Jornada, March 11, 2005. Article by Victor Cardoso.

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Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
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