MexMoves

We interview María Ariza, CEO of Mexican stock exchange BIVA and founder of Mexico Investment Day, now Mexico Investment Week, in New York, to discuss next week’s event and the current state of Mexican capital markets.

We also talk with Ariel Fischman, CEO and founder of 414 Capital, about the state of Mexico’s mergers and acquisitions market.

First, Eduardo and Damian discuss the following business and economic stories:

* Axtel, the Mexican telecom company that has been on the market for six years, has suddenly received two competing acquisition bids.
* Afore Coppel is, according to press reports, preparing to acquire its smaller rival, Afore InverCap, from global investment firm Advent International after 14 years of ownership.
* Mexico’s Foreign Investment Law could be reformed under a new proposal that would introduce a national security screening mechanism into the review process.
* Felix Pago, the remittance fintech, receives a sizable capital injection as it seeks to expand its services.
* Volkswagen cuts a shift at its iconic Puebla plant as the company faces U.S. tariffs and growing competition from Chinese automakers.
* Finally, cuts to credit card fees are becoming a reality in Mexico. What could the impact be?

We interview Sofía Ramírez Aguilar, head of México, ¿Cómo Vamos?, a leading Mexican think tank, on one of Mexico’s biggest economic challenges: labour-market informality, and what to do about it.

About 55% of employed Mexicans work informally, meaning they lack social-security or legal protections. Beyond that, informal workers earn less than half what formal workers make.

Sofía explains why informality has proved so persistent, and how it is connected to Mexico’s low productivity, education, gender inequalities and company size. The productivity divide is huge: microbusinesses employ 41% of Mexico’s workers but generate only 16% of economic value added, while large companies employ 29% and produce 54%. The issue is therefore not simply how to formalise workers, but how doing so can help Mexico create more productive firms and better jobs.

First, Eduardo and Damian discuss the week’s big economic stories:

* Delta-Aeroméxico wins in court: why the Delta JV is central to Aeroméxico’s network economics.
* US-Canada trade talks collapse: could Canada’s confrontation with Washington actually make a Mexico-US bilateral deal more likely?
* The Mexican economy: Banxico upgrades its 2026 growth forecast to 1.5%, helped by booming non-auto exports and electronics.
* Mexico’s AI hardware boom: Pegatron, Foxconn, Inventec, Wiwynn and Flex are helping turn Mexico into a massive supplier of servers and data-centre equipment to the US.
* Enterprise AI comes to Mexico: Primero’s US$12 million seed round and Wonderful’s Mexican expansion show how implementing and developing platforms for AI inside large, complicated Mexican companies is becoming a hot business.

Is Mexico’s economy finally turning a corner, or simply stabilizing at a disappointingly low growth rate?
This week on MexMoves, we interview Gabriel Lozano, Chief Mexico Economist at J.P. Morgan, to discuss the economic outlook for the rest of 2026: why investment is lacking, the weakness of auto and strength of non-auto exports, Mexico’s growing role in US data-center roll-out, the impact of Plan México, why the Peso is so strong, and what to expect from USMCA negotiations.
First Eduardo and Damian look at the week’s biggest business stories: the World Cup tourism boom that wasn’t, Carlos Slim’s hit from Braskem Idesa’s Chapter 11 agreed restructuring, Mexico’s growing tariff wall against China, Omnilife’s Texas manufacturing bet, rising credit-card default rates, and FEMSA and QED’s new head of Spin Credit.

Antonio Tejedo, Vice President of Investor Relations at Grupo TRAXIÓN, joins us to discuss the transformation of Mexico’s leading transportation and logistics company, from a traditional trucking operator into an integrated platform spanning freight, people mobility, warehousing, brokerage, technology and supply-chain management.
We look at how TRAXIÓN was built through acquisitions, how nearshoring challenges and tariffs are hurting the company, the shift towards a more asset-light model, and how the Solistica acquisition from Femsa is going. We also discuss investor perceptions of the company, and why its valuation is so discounted.
We also interview Mauricio Schwartzmann of PayTech Yuno following the company’s latest funding round of $45mn, on how AI is changing payments, banking and financial infrastructure. Mauricio explains why he left his plum job as Mastercard Mexico Head to join his former Rappi colleagues at startup Yuno.
Before the interviews, Eduardo and Damian discuss Tiendas 3B’s extraordinary growth in 2Q26 and how hard discount and e-commerce are squeezing traditional retailers, and ICA’s decision to buy out Fluor after more than three decades together, and what that transaction could say about Pemex paying suppliers going forward.
They also reflect on the passing of Miguel Mancera Aguayo, former head of Banco de México and one of Mexico’s most admired and consequential public servants, whose role in securing central-bank autonomy in 1994 helped shape Mexico for the good.
They discuss Kavak’s striking claims about AI transforming its business, the latest twists and turns in USMCA negotiations, and ask why the Mexican Peso is so strong and if that is a good or bad thing.

We talk to Ricardo Pintado, Managing Director at UBS Wealth Management, about how Mexican entrepreneurs and wealthy families should approach investing, succession and the differences to creating wealth from preserving it.

We discuss how a global private bank’s value proposition differs from that of a commercial bank, brokerage firm, independent adviser or family office. We also explore why there will always be room for trusted human advisers, even as AI transforms investment management and the broader financial sector.

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In the rest of the episode:

* Pemex’s stronger 2Q26 results: Revenue, production and refining improved, while financial debt declined. But questions remain.
* Mercado Libre’s blow-out 2Q26 top-line results: The company reached $10bn quarterly sales, 50% above last year. Within that, Mexico again delivered exceptional growth, with revenue up 55% and fintech expanding by more than 70%, as the e-commerce giant continued to gain share. However, weaker operating margins weighed on the share price.
* Possible SuKarne sale: The family-controlled Culiacan-based Mexican protein producer could be valued at more than US$2 billion, according to Reuters. We look at how SuKarne became a market leader by vertically integrating, selling each cut of meat around the world where it commands the highest value.
* 1H26 Mexico-US trade: Mexico’s bilateral trade surplus with the US continues to widen, as AI infrastructure exports replace automobiles as the key export driver. But Taiwan’s and Vietnam’s exports to the US are expanding even faster than Mexico’s, and they reported even larger trade surpluses with the US than Mexico. On USMCA, we examine the strategic debate between accommodating US pressure and taking a more assertive position.
* Avocado exports: Security concerns have again interrupted new shipments from Michoacán, highlighting how insecurity is acting as a break on growth.