MexMoves

This week on MexMoves, we interview Carlos Madrazo, head of Jumex USA, on how the company is approaching the US market, what lessons it can bring from its success in Mexico, what has to change, and why both Hispanic and mainstream consumers are part of its long-term ambition. Before that, Eduardo and Damian break down the week’s biggest stories: China’s growing footprint in autos, as GAC claims it will begin to assembly cars in Mexico in the second half of 2026; the implications of Telefónica’s sale of its Mexico business, and what the buying consortium-leader Oxio does next; and the debate around Victoria Rodríguez’s leadership of Banxico after a critical Bloomberg Opinion column.’

This week, Eduardo and Damian sit down with Rubén Mugártegui, Managing Director of Amazon Web Services Mexico, as AWS celebrates its 20th anniversary, to discuss how the company helped drive Mexico’s shift to cloud computing and how it is now positioning itself at the centre of the country’s AI transition.

This episode also dives into:

🔹 The debate over Mexico’s ‘’Broken Economy’’ by The Economist. What causes Mexico’s persistently weak economic growth - seemingly everyone has a view

🔹 Park Life’s debut on the stock exchange, the first Mexican listed residential property company

🔹 What new data on Mexico’s fast-growing e-commerce economy shows

🔹 Nissan’s closure of its historic CIVAC plant in Morelos as part of its global restructuring

We interview Manuel Rodríguez Arregui, head of AINDA, the infrastructure and energy private equity fund focused on Mexico and Colombia. We discuss how AINDA sees the opportunities and challenges in financing Mexico’s much-needed infrastructure and energy projects, how the firm creates value across its portfolio, and why incorporating the highest ESG standards at every level of the company is key to raising capital and investing wisely in private equity.

First, Eduardo and Damian cover the week’s major business themes. Stagflation fears are rising after weak growth and high inflation readings in the first months of the year. Walmex’s Investor Day sought to answer investor questions around execution, pricing strategy, inventory management, leadership changes, and rising competition from hard discounters and e-commerce players. We also discuss what a Pemex-Petrobras alliance could mean, and how Mexico’s casino and betting business has become a major consumer, technology, and cash-flow story.

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This week we chat with Marcos Bucay, showrunner of La Oficina, about bringing The Office TV show to Mexico and what it reveals about hierarchy, nepotism, and the absurdities of corporate life a la mexicana. And in a bonus, top Stripe executive Neetika Bansal also joins us to explain how Stripe is adapting to the Mexican market and its vision for the growing role of stablecoins in global and local payments.

First, Eduardo and Damian analyse the key Mexico business stories of the week: the takeover battle around Fibra Macquarie as Fibra Monterrey and Funo’s Next enter the fray; the surprising split between OXXO and Nu; Alsea’s growth strategy as outlined at its New York investor day; and takeaways from the ABM meeting in Cancun, where top banks are talking and talking about SME credit and how to accelerate the shift from cash to digital payments.

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We talk with Guillermo Zamarripa, president of Mexico’s pension fund association, Amafore, about the growing importance of Mexico’s pension funds, including their role in the country’s long-term savings, capital markets, infrastructure and private assets, the challenge of ensuring adequate pensions as the population ages, and the structural or regulatory changes still needed for the Afore system to play a larger role in the economy. In the first part, Eduardo and I discuss Fibra Monterrey’s successful follow-on offering and what it says about continued investor appetite for Mexican equities, the broader consolidation wave in industrial real estate, why global tensions may actually strengthen Mexico’s nearshoring story, BBVA Mexico’s investor update and how it has out-finteched the fintechs while maintaining “principalidad,” Mexico’s latest billionaire list and what it reveals about the country’s wealth structure, and the growing foreign investment flowing into Liga MX.

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Felipe Vallejo, Country Head of Bitso Mexico, explains how the company is pivoting from a crypto-first exchange into a broader investing and payments platform, leveraging stablecoins to facilitate business payments and offering individuals non-crypto digital products including global stocks and bonds.

A geopolitically driven oil price spike is no longer the windfall it once was for Mexico. With the country now a structural energy importer, higher oil prices can marginally worsen the external balance and, through the IEPS fuel-tax buffer, create a fiscal hit that can outweigh the upside from crude exports, potentially leaving Pemex stronger but the federal deficit weaker.

Next, we look at Bloomberg and Whitepaper’s profiles of Fernando Chico Pardo, the new chairman of Banamex. What have learnt that is new? Finally we cover Mexico fintech fundraising and product expansion. DolarApp’s rebrand to ARQ signals a shift from cross-border finance toward a daily-use platform combining FX, cards, investing and credit, backed by major global investors (Sequoia and Founders Fund, no less). We also discuss Ualá’s ambitions in Mexico and why public data suggests its progress in the market seems problematic despite continued fundraising momentum.

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This week we chat with Gina Diez Barroso, founder of CENTRO University, and a leading Mexican voice in education, innovation, urban renovation, arts and women in business. She reflects on the evolution of Mexico’s creative economy, and what it takes to build globally competitive creative business leaders in Mexico and elsewhere.

We also speak with Edmundo Sandoval of Control Risks, the global risk consultancy, on how companies navigate insecurity, cartel dynamics, and extortion in Mexico, especially timely given the recent operation against the CJNG and the retaliatory violence that followed.

To kick off, Eduardo and I break down 2025 full-year corporate results, focusing on FEMSA and Mercado Libre. We also analyze major corporate moves of the week, including Fibra Prologis’ bid for Fibra Macquarie, a sign that consolidation is returning to Mexico’s industrial real estate market and, potentially, the capital markets more broadly.

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Pedro de Garay, co-CEO of GBM and founder of Siclo, describes the pivot from a broker and investment bank built for Mexico’s financial elite to a mass-market investing platform, scaled with SoftBank backing and designed for first-time investors. We look at what comes next as GBM tries to turn scale into higher profitability.

Diplomat Shauna Hemingway joins from the Canadian delegation of business leaders visiting Mexico to discuss where Canadian companies are investing, how they are reading the USMCA review, and the frictions that still slow cross-border deals.

Before the interviews, Eduardo and Damian cover Mexico’s new 30% film and TV production tax credit, including local supplier rules and minimum spend thresholds, and Netflix’s new Mexico City headquarters, another signal that it sees Mexico as a long-term production base.

We analyse Aeroméxico’s impressive cash generation in 2025, and Kavak’s fresh funding and what it says about late-stage tech in Mexico. We then break down Walmex’s softer 4Q25 results, a reminder that the consumer is still under pressure and competition is tightening. And on the Caribbean coast, early sargassum arrivals near Cancún are back on the radar, with potential consequences for tourism as the season approaches.

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Martin Mazza from Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity and its World project, tells us why Mexico and LatAm are key markets for Proof of Human tools in an AI world, how far they’ve progressed in getting Latin Americans to “eyeball up,” and what still needs to happen to reach critical scale. We also chat with another Argentine, Tomás Mindlin, CEO and co-founder of tapi, following the company’s US$27M Series B, on why Mexico is central to their expansion, profitability, the Arcus integration, and the role of cash-in/cash-out in Mexico’s payments digitalization. As always, Eduardo and Damian kick off with their take on some of the week’s main business stories: the Vizsla-linked kidnappings and murders in Sinaloa and what they signal about security risk in mining; Chinese OEM interest in Mexico colliding with U.S. tariff pressure and trade politics; Nu’s overcooked Mexico messaging; and the Volaris–Viva tie-up as the key stress test for Mexico’s new competition authority.

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We interview Domingo Valdés, CFO of Vinte, Mexico’s largest homebuilder, on where Mexican housing is headed over the next decade. We discuss policy shifts from Peña Nieto to AMLO to Sheinbaum, Infonavit’s expanding role, the successful Javer acquisition, and how Vinte’s ESG focus translates into financial benefits. Before the interview, Eduardo and Damian first break down the week’s biggest Mexico storylines. Namely, the relevance of Mexico to Sunday’s Super Bowl; the government’s new multi-year infrastructure push; BBVA México’s blowout results and why Mexico remains the group’s profit engine; the proposed workweek reduction and what it could mean for the formal vs. informal labor divide; and the latest on Pemex’s “turnaround” narrative.

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