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Latin banks flex their muscles as US and European lenders head home
Latin America’s banking scene has long been dominated by the big European and US players. But as they retreat amid tough economic times at home, the stage is set for local players increasingly to flex their muscles.
The latest such Latin American bank to snap up an expansion opportunity is Chile’s BCI, which has bought the City National Bank of Florida from Spain’s bailed-out Bankia for $882.8m. Continue reading »
Bancolombia seals $2.1bn deal for HSBC Panama
The invasion of Central America by Colombia’s major financial groups rumbled on on Tuesday after Bancolombia, the country’s leading bank, snapped up HSBC’s operations in Panama for $2.1bn. Continue reading »
Central America does battle with coffee fungus
Mother Nature has dealt Central America a lousy hand. Earthquakes, floods and hurricanes of biblical proportions have battered the isthmus over the years, but the latest natural disaster is a botanical one.
A plague known as “coffee rust” has hit the region’s top-quality arabica crop. Premium blends from coffee grown in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama are much loved by aficionados. Continue reading »
Panama: fast growth, new Canal – what’s not to like?
The Panama Canal was once christened “one of the world’s greatest labour mobilisations.” Almost a hundred years after its inauguration, that monumental public work is still boosting the country’s economy.
The narrow nation will grow three times Latin America’s average of 3.1 per cent this year. According to the latest report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC, Panama’s economy is expected to expand by 10.5 per cent in 2012. Last year, the country grew 10.8 per cent. Continue reading »
Panama: stop that eurozone, we want to get on
These are tough times for Angela Merkel, the German chancellor: a nasty welcome in Athens last week, an increasingly contentious conflict with François Hollande, the French president, over banking union, and a fierce attack on her crisis management in the German parliament.
So it must have been nice to get a pat on the back this week, even it if was from an unlikely source: Ricardo Martinelli, president of Panama, who told Merkel on a visit to Berlin he would like to introduce the euro as Panamanian legal tender alongside the US dollar, because he has “full confidence in the euro, full confidence in Europe.” Continue reading »
Want a job? Move to Panama
With the $5.2bn expansion of the Panama Canal, a new metro and airports under construction, along with a raft of luxury hotels, Panama’s 3.5m population can hardly satisfy demands on the nation’s workforce.
And now it’s official. Panama is the number one hotspot for jobs in the Americas. The most recent survey by Manpower shows that Panama has a 26 per cent net trend towards job creation – the percentage of companies that aim to hire people in the fourth quarter subtracted by those who aim to lay off personnel. Continue reading »
Accor: bye US, hola South America
Accor on Monday gave its clearest signal yet that it sees its future in emerging markets by snapping up the South American hotel portfolio of Mexico’s Grupo Posadas for $275m.
The move comes less than two months after the French hotel group sold its underperforming Motel 6 chain of US budget hotels to Blackstone in a $1.9bn deal and will see Accor join rivals such as Hilton, Starwood, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Marriott in the race for EM hotel assets. Continue reading »
Panama: growing fast but don’t ignore the cracks
Growth in Brazil, India and China might be losing steam, Europe might be mired in its sovereign debt crisis and the US might continue to limp along. But at least there’s Panama.
In this year’s first quarter, Panama’s economy was in double-digit growth mode at 10.4 per cent year on year, according to Frank De Lima, the finance minister. Continue reading »
There’s a big Gap in Brazil
It has become commonplace for recession-savaged western companies to seek fresh fortune in emerging markets – especially in Brazil, the world’s second biggest emerging economy.
But that’s not the case for at least one western multinational wanting to boost its sagging domestic sales. Gap Inc, the US clothes retailer, is eschewing Brazil in its Latin American plans and looking for its retail El Dorado among the smaller but faster-growing economies of Spanish America instead. Continue reading »
Mining central America: easier said than done
There’s gold in them thar Central American hills. Gold and several other valuable minerals. Mining companies, especially Canadian, are courting the region yet most of the governments are playing hard to get, if not being openly hostile.
All of which must be pretty perplexing to at least some of the companies. World prices of metals remain high while Central American economies are some of the world’s most vulnerable. Surely a slam-dunk for the miners? Continue reading »
Panama: growing up, growing angry
Panama City has been transformed in recent years into a “Dubai of the Americas”, complete with a Trump Tower – a real-estate boom fuelled by double-digit growth.
But the go-go economic policy of the nation’s president, Ricardo Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon, has suddenly hit trouble in the face of protests. Continue reading »
Panama’s latest export: remittances
Forget the wide-brimmed white hats that Panama is synonymous with. The country’s latest export? Remittances.
While remittances from their emigrants have long been a part of the lifeblood of the economies of Mexico and Central America – Panama has emerged as an exception in the region. The country last year became a net exporter, rather than recipient, of remittances. It reported outward remittances of just over $1bn in 2011. This was money sent by foreigners who live and work in Panama to their home countries, mainly the United States and Colombia. Continue reading »
Panama: from poor man’s Switzerland to poor man’s Singapore
Somebody forgot to tell Panama about the eurozone crisis. While the rest of the world is slowing, its economy is set to expand by 10 per cent this year and 7.5 per cent next. And those are real figures, as Finance Minister Frank de Lima told beyondbrics. In the nominal terms most people use, those numbers hit the teens. Few countries, perhaps none, can match that. Continue reading »
Panama flip-flops on mining reform
By Ronald Buchanan in Mexico City
The president of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, heads up Latin America’s fastest growing economy, boosted by the $5.3 billion canal expansion and a string of public works projects.
But while we knew that Martinelli was a supermarket magnate, we didn’t know is he was also a circus acrobat, with a specialist in tumble turns. Continue reading »
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