Mexico's Richest Man to Profit From Mexico City Rebuilding

Mexican investor and telecommmunications mogul Carlos Slim Helu is poised to profit from fundraising efforts to rebuild Mexico City after a series of devastating earthquakes struck the city, Forbes reported.

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Slim, the richest man in Mexico, launched a fundraiser several weeks ago under his Slim Foundation and Telmex Foundation, which concluded over the week.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said during a press conference that he had reached a deal with the Real Estate Development Association to help rebuild the city. The group is a front for wealthy Mexican real estate developers.

The Organization to Promote Development and Employment in Latin America, or IDEAL, is expected to be an important component of rebuilding efforts. Slim’s financial services subsidiary, Inbursa, is affiliated with IDEAL and his nephew, Alfonso Salem Slim, is Vice Chairman and Executive Officer of IDEAL.

The Losada Moreno family, one of the wealthiest families in Mexico, is also cashing in after the earthquakes. A subsidiary of the family’s retail group, Grupo Gigante Inmobiliario, is expected to win government contracts to help rebuild Mexico City.

Companies are focusing immediately on buildings that are need in of structural repair and holding off on totally destroyed buildings and other structures with cosmetic damages.

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Mexico City, one of Latin America’s largest cities, was undergoing a massive real estate boom that the reconstruction efforts are expected to expand. Financial experts predicted that Mexico City’s real estate industry sector would double in profitable by 2018.

Critics slammed real estate investors for financing buildings up to 16 stories tall in areas where buildings exceeding four stories were banned.

Damage to the city and several other southern Mexican states was estimated to cost around US$2 billion (38.1 billion pesos), according to a statement by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Activists have expressed concern over the government's decision to hand over Mexico City’s infrastructure to the people who they see as having exacerbated the natural disaster even further by ignoring government safety regulations.