#1460381 ANPEC - 2000 - Exame de Seleção Nacional (ANPEC)/"2001"

THIRD TEXT

There is the bottom-line, spreadsheet way of doing business in quiet boardrooms. And there’s the Latin Way. Knowing the difference between the two is a big factor behind what has been dubbed the reconquista of Latin America by Spain. And this time the weapon of choice of the conquistadores is the peseta rather than the sword. In what has become the world’s hottest spot for foreign investors, Spaniards have a head start over competitors, says Sergio Aranda Moreno, CEO of Spanish-owned Gas Natural México. Explaining the Latin way of wheeling and dealing, he says, “Sometimes I come out of a meeting and a colleage says, ‘Phew, what a bloodbath!’ Yet on the the surface, everything was warm and polite. Someone from another culture would never have noticed the battle going on behind the scenes.”

But anyone who is numerate can see the fallout from those deals. Big spending by foreign companies in Latin America and the Caribbean has catapulted outside investment into the region by an estimated 33% last year, to $97 billion, surpassing that in Asia by $13 billion. And the foreigners doing the most moving and shaking come from one of the region’s old colonial powers. In telecommunications, banking, energy supply – even marketing fish and collecting trash – Spaniards are “invading” Latin America with more force and flair than anyone else. Juan Villalonga, president of Spain’s communications giant Telefónica, says Spaniards doing business in Latin America these days feel “como Pedro por su casa,” or like Pedro at home – which is about as comfortable as a Spaniard gets.

The Spanish-led push has helped Europe turn the investment tables on Latin America’s longtime financial Big Brother, the U.S. Of the 25 largest foreign companies in Latin America in 1998, on the basis of consolidated sales, 14 were European and 11 were from the U.S., with Spain’s Telefónica now the region’s biggest communications operator.

In other markets dear to the U.S. heart, Spanish firms have muscled themselves into preferred positions. Sergio Aranda says that when the Mexican government opened its natural-gas market five years ago, U.S.-based companies were expected to dominate, given their proximity. But it didn’t turn out that way. Gas Natural México, set up by an affiliate of Spain’s petroleum giant Repsol, today has about 10 times as many customers as its U.S. rivals. And in March, Aranda made another coup. Gas Natural bought from Texas utilities the right to supply gas in Mexico City, converting the Spanish company into by far the dominant force in Mexico’s gas market.

Aranda says language alone doesn’t explain the Spaniard’s surge. The affinities that give Spanish firms an edge run deeper. “American businessmen have a 9-to-5 culture,” he says. “Here, where personal contact is so important, it’s a constant round of lunches and dinners. That’s the way we do business in Spain too. The Americans are also much more direct. Like the Mexicans, we skirt around the issues, often making our point indirectly.”

Like Spaniards in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and many other Latin American countries, Aranda doesn’t sense any resentment in the region of the 21st century conquistadores. Questions do arise in some countries about concentration of ownership. But Aranda says, “I feel more than welcome here.” (“New World Conquests,” Time magazine, May 8, 2000: 22-27).

According to the text:

Item 2: Texas utilities have been sold in Mexico City.