BlackRock Inc. plans a major expansion in Mexico that may boost the number of employees in the country to as many as 400, according to people familiar with the matter.
The world’s largest asset manager is seeking to build a stronger presence in Mexico City, where it currently has about 250 personnel, that will help it grow its business there and across Latin America, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
“We are constantly assessing our global and regional footprint to better meet our clients’ needs,” a spokesperson for the New York-based company said Wednesday in an emailed statement.
While US President-elect Donald Trump made Mexico a target during his campaign, threatening to impose tariffs and deport millions of migrants, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum is trying to jumpstart investment in Latin America’s second-biggest economy. Sentiment on Mexico has soured in the wake of Trump’s reelection and recent constitutional reforms that prompted Moody’s Ratings to change the country’s credit outlook to negative.
BlackRock Mexico Operadora SA is the nation’s second-biggest fund manager, overseeing almost 780 billion pesos ($38.4 billion), trailing only Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, according to October data from local brokers association AMIB.
Mexico offers great opportunities for investments in infrastructure projects, Sergio Mendez, BlackRock’s top executive in the country, said during a panel discussion last week. The head of Mexico’s debt office told an annual gathering of the country’s pension funds that the government was looking at different types of securities to finance projects.
BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink has been a champion of Mexico in recent years, meeting several times with former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who often had tense relationships with investors and local billionaires.
In the wake of the US elections, Sheinbaum posted photos of her meeting with Fink and Adebayo Ogunlesi, head of Global Infrastructure Partners, which BlackRock acquired last month. They discussed the economy and free trade in the region, she said.
Source: El Financiero
