Mexican corporate Marhnos accelerates expansion in Peru
The Mexican Grupo Marhnos, which has built and operated projects such as the Anzalduas international bridge, the Guadalajara-Colima highway and the regional high-specialty hospital in Ciudad Victoria, in the state of Tamaulipas, aims to become one of the largest infrastructure developers in Peru.
In this interview with BNamericas, its Social Infrastructure Director, Héctor Aguilar, elaborated on the reasons for the expansion to Peru, the other countries on the company's radar, and the challenges and opportunities in Mexico.
BNamericas: Why is Peru an attractive country for the company?
Aguilar: Peru is a market that, despite political issues, has shown stability.
It has a lot of mining and many commodities that somehow give it economic growth over the years. It has public policies that, I insist, despite the changes in government, have shown to be economically stable and the level of certainty they offered with the level of need for social infrastructure make an interesting and attractive combination for us.
The projects were very clear about what they were looking for and adhered to what we were looking for from public-private partnership projects [PPPs], where they let us be proponents, who is the one who takes an initiative that is not requested as such, We develop it together with the corresponding ministry and lets you propose what you think is convenient. Adjustments are made, then it is put out to tender and then assigned.
These unsolicited initiatives give a greater margin of participation and probability of success, and it is good to enter a project that you started from scratch, even if you do not always win it.
BNamericas: What projects does the company have in Peru?
Aguilar: We already have a project for some schools already assigned. We are just waiting for government validation.
There are two other projects that are on hold, at an earlier stage where they go out to tender, but we were the proponents of the project, so we have certain advantages to acquire them.
We have a parking lot in the municipality of Lima, and we are going to participate in the tender for two hospitals.
In Colombia we evaluated several projects: hospitals, judicial buildings, etc., but, due to situations in the country, we decided to put them on hold and see how the country behaves, because doing long-term projects is betting on the country.
BNamericas: What hospitals are you focusing on in Peru.
Aguilar: The hospital in Piura and the hospital in Chimbote. They are public and their tenders are open.
In schools, the project that was assigned is called [high performance schools] COARs and we have two projects in which we are proponents: which is the CERs [schools at risk] program and the parking lot of the cultural plaza in Lima.
BNamericas: How do you evaluate Peru at the moment?
Aguilar: Peru comes with delays, but it is walking. Now with the change of government, a more notable delay has been noticed because the minister [of development, among others] has changed twice already and there are adjustments, they tell you “I was going to approve, but the new [minister] arrived and he is going to take a couple more weeks."
But we are very confident that they will approve it. For example, President Pedro Castillo said "I want to attract private investment", but I tell him “If you want to attract investors, show them some level of certainty, if not, you will scare them".
BNamericas: Does this expansion have anything to do with the current situation in Mexico?
Aguilar: It obeys more to a strategic issue. Diversifying yourself will always give you a greater chance of success. Being only in one type of product and in one region is risky.
So, yes, many times, internationalization comes due to limitations that you may find in your markets, due to the type of project or due to any situation.
It is one more issue of portfolio management and strategy. Have the challenges increased? Yes, but we also believe that these challenges will not go away in other markets.
BNamericas: What infrastructure challenges does Mexico face?
Aguilar: There is no PPP. It is not a scheme that is very attractive to this government. The ones we have [in Mexico] were there before. Right now there isn't. But it is respectable. They prefer traditional public works, we prefer long-term projects.
BNamericas: How has the current administration interacted with infrastructure developers?
Aguilar: There are many projects that many infrastructure companies are working on with their modalities. In the case of PPPs, many government entities feel that they hand over part of the work or project to the private sector, which is not true, so they are questioned.
A good example is the prisons, which were given in concession and many said "they are [the private] stealing a lot and not." I would almost assure you, I don't know the details, that these projects are cheaper in the long run than if you do the work and manage it because a private company is much more efficient.
I believe that the management of the projects is being centralized to the Armed Forces, but they have to subcontract in the end.
BNamericas: Do you have other countries on your radar?
Aguilar: We are starting to do things in Puerto Rico and Texas. We also evaluate Colombia. We have been called to Ecuador and Panama to evaluate projects.
We are open to Latin America, but simply because of the nature of the projects, we need to analyze them well and see where there are good possibilities and where we focus our resources. Only in Peru, the projects that I am mentioning to you exceed US$600 million.
BNamericas: Does Mexico offer opportunities?
Aguilar: There are still needs, we have to go local, there are many state projects, because the states continue to develop hospitals, schools and many other things.
I think it should not be ignored. The Federal Government wants to centralize infrastructure projects in one institution, but sooner or later the institutions are going to realize the needs and we have seen that the health sector is open, as is the education one.
We have at least 10 projects in the evaluation process in Mexico. Being in this process, we avoid giving names [of projects], but I tell you that we are in the hospital sector, we are evaluating hospitals that are falling apart and groups of hospitals, both private and public, and we are evaluating a polytechnic university in San Luis Potosí. There are also other projects in the public and private secto
