A Mexican businessman detained in Spain blocks the sale of a company worth 3 billion dollars
A tough battle is raging within the shareholders of Grupo Ahmsa, one of Mexico's largest companies. The company's strongman, Alonso Ancira, finds himself under house arrest in Spain and seeks to prevent his extradition to Mexico. At the same time, some of the shareholders, specifically the Autrey family, want to sell the company and they are the ones who are carrying out the conversations with the Argentinean-Italian multinational Techint that would have made an offer of around 300 billion dollars. Ancira opposes this operation.
Techint is owned by Paolo Rocca and has one of its most extended business operations in Mexico, with steel plants in Nuevo Leon run by Ternium and seamless pipes in Veracruz, under the Tenaris-Tamsa brand.
Ancira was arrested as part of the investigations against Emilio Lozoya, ex-CEO of Pemex and a fugitive from the Mexican authorities. Ancira, historically linked to the PRI -he is also a close friend of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari- believes that Ahmsa should be recapitalized to resist the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
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In his Madrid conversations, according to sources, Ancira is convinced that the AMLO administration will fail in the economy and that it will only govern for a six-year term, at the end of which the businessman envisions a glorious return. Altos Hornos México (Ahmsa) is the largest steel company in the country, a sector in which the Techint group has become a world leader.
The businessman has gone so far as to say that if necessary he could cover the alleged embezzlement that the government of Mexico accused him of, in an alleged agreement with Lozoya. "If AMLO doesn't want AgroNitrogenados then he can return it to me and for the same 260 million dollars", he said.
López Obrador in a recent meeting at Palacio Nacional with Paolo Rocca, owner of the Techint Group
On Monday, Mexican newspaper El Financiero revealed that the deal with Techint is at an advanced stage and that a due-diligence process is already underway.
Ancira has told his brothers that the company should not be sold and that Techint's offer is low because he considers that Ahmsa is not worth less than 4,200 million dollars. The problem is that not all the brothers share this vision and the same goes for the Autrey family, who believe that if the company remains with the Ancira family, the next few years will be unsustainable.