Carlos Slim buys Estudiantes Tecos
The sale of Estudiantes – popularly known as Tecos – means the club will end its historic affiliation with the private Autonomous University of Guadalajara (UAG).
Having increased its stake in Estudiantes to 100 percent back in January, the Leaño family which runs the university has now sold the club in its entirety to the group headed by Slim and his business partner Jesus Martinez.
With an estimated fortune of 75 billion dollars, Slim is considered the world’s richest man. He made his first foray into the world of Mexican soccer in August, buying a 30-percent stake in Grupo Pachuca, a business group in the state of Hidalgo which owns professional soccer clubs Pachuca and Leon, both of whom play in Mexico’s top division, the Liga MX.
Immediately making his mark on the nation’s most popular sport, Slim broke up the Televisa/TV Azteca duopoly on broadcasting rights, granting concessions for Leon’s games to Fox Sports and MedioTiempo.com.
Last month Slim also became a senior partner in Real Ovideo, having invested two million euros in the economically troubled club from Spain’s Segunda Division B.
The purchase of Tecos is a curious move. The club never draws a sell-out crowd, attracting only a tiny fanbase mostly comprised of UAG students.
If Slim hopes to build a side to compete with Guadalajara’s hugely popular clubs Chivas and Atlas, it will require not only a significant investment in players, but also a major focus on marketing to expand Tecos’ almost non-existent base of support in the city.
Club Vice President Juan Carlos Leaño confirmed this week that Tecos will continue playing at the 30,000-capacity Tres de Marzo stadium in Zapopan through the next season, which begins in January.
Leaño and the administrative staff will then stand down in June, when the new owners will make a decision over the future home of the team. The possibility of the club leaving Guadalajara has not been ruled out and even the name of the team could change, with Tecos no longer representing the UAG.
Founded in 1935, Tecos won their first and only championship title in 1994. After a lengthy spell in Mexico’s top flight, they were demoted in the summer to the Ascenso MX second division.
The club finished third in the Apertura 2012 season but lost to La Piedad in the playoffs. They will have to win the upcoming Clausura 2013 to stand a chance of returning to the Liga MX next summer.
Rafa Marquez joins Leon
In a sign of the ambition behind Slim’s newly acquired clubs, Leon announced the signing of legendary defender Rafael Marquez from New York Red Bulls on Thursday. One of the greatest Mexican players of all time, Marquez won a host of trophies, including four league titles and the UEFA Champions League, during a seven-year stint at FC Barcelona.
Marquez, who began his career at local club Atlas, signed a two-year deal with Leon upon his release from New York Red Bulls.
Jose Cuervo stays in local hands as Diageo deal breaks down
British drinks giant Diageo will not be purchasing Jose Cuervo and will end its international distribution deal with the Jalisco-based company next year.
For most of this year Diageo has been in ongoing discussions with Cuervo – the world’s biggest selling tequila brand and the oldest distillery in Mexico – over their relationship.
Diageo, which owns major brands such as Johnnie Walker, Buchanans, Smirnoff, Captain Morgans and Baileys, had been widely expected to complete a deal worth around three billion dollars with Cuervo’s Mexican owners, the Beckmann family. But the Beckmanns are understood to have valued Cuervo at up to 500 million dollars more than Diageo, who were concerned that a significant investment would be required to improve margins and boost falling sales in the United States.
On Tuesday, Diageo announced that months of fruitless negotiations had come to an end.
“It has not been possible to agree a transaction which delivers value for Diageo’s shareholders and therefore, by mutual agreement, we have terminated our discussions,” said Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh.
Diageo has been distributing Cuervo outside Mexico since 1986 in a deal that made up around three percent of Diageo’s group sales. Once this relationship expires in June 2013, Cuervo will distribute its liquor in the United States – its primary export market – through its own subsidiary, Proximo Spirits.
Diageo, meanwhile, will maintain its 50-percent share in Don Julio, focusing on the smaller but faster-growing customer base at the high end of the tequila market. The breakdown of negotiations has also fueled speculation that Diageo could attempt to acquire the U.S. Beam spirits group which owns the world’s number-two tequila brand, Sauza.
Mexico’s informal sector accounts for 60 percent of workers
Newly released official statistics show 60 percent of Mexico’s labor force work informally, paying no taxes and claiming no social security.
Using new methodology, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) revealed this week that Mexico’s informal sector now comprises 29.3 million workers, 60.1 percent of the total 48.7 million laborers in the country. This is more than double the 14.2 million recorded in the last such survey.
Of the 18 million men and 11.3 million women who work informally, 23.5 percent are aged 14 to 24; 42.9 percent are aged 25 to 44; 27.3 percent are aged 45 to 64; and 6.2 percent are over 65.
They include 2.1 million domestic staff and 6.2 million agricultural workers. In rural areas the informal work force represents 73.5 percent of those in employment, while the figure drops to 47 percent in urban areas with a population above 100,000.
Northern states such as Baja California (41.6 percent), Chihuahua (42.8) and Nuevo Leon (43) have the lowest proportion of informal workers, while in southern states like Oaxaca (80.8), Guerrero (80.8) and Chiapas (76.5) the percentage is staggeringly high.
On average, formally registered workers earn 38.4 pesos per hour, while informal workers make just 24.08 pesos per hour.
With such a small proportion of workers paying taxes, the Mexican government collects far less revenue than it should. It has one of the smallest tax takes in Latin America and remains dependent on income from state-oil-monopoly Pemex to fund nearly a third of the federal budget.
New Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said on Monday that the government will consider changes to existing tax laws – including controversial VAT exemptions – to boost revenue and pay for programs proposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Late last month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged Mexico to adopt tax and subsidy reforms to raise its low ratio of revenue to gross domestic product (currently around 18 percent, just over half the OECD average of 34 percent) and reduce its dependence on income from oil.
The Tequila Files 