Emerging Markets in Latam
Two weeks ago, I was in Bogota and we met with top executives of Estevegomez, a building management firm. They were extremely nice, polite and the conversation encompassed several topics. All of them were extremel interesting to me and that´s the reason why I am reproducing them here.
Firstly, the influence of Spanish companies in Colombia, as a representative of a Latam market. According to them, Spanish companies simply showed up and took the purse out asking: how much is this company? End of story. They were not that interested in joint-ventures or local partners, but they are big enough and have critical mass to simply purchase companies.
Then we talked about Latam markets and how China and Asia were looking at them because of raw materials they need for their huge economies to keep the growing rate. I am not that sure about Chinese interest (concretely in Colombia) I have not seen any Chinese companies or movements, even takeovers. Also, in a recent renewable energies fair, in Madrid, I was asking the main responsible of Yingli, a solar panel Chinese company about expansion in Latam markets and she looked surprised. “We had no plans (and plants) there”.
Finally, we discussed a bit about innovation. Now that Mockus, from the Green Party, will probably win the elections, I think the time has come for Colombia to ask real questions about the productive model and the role they should take to at least follow the flow and try to decrease the distance between US and Europe.
