Approval obtained from today’s Economic Competition Commission to proceed with highly-complex mergers in Mexico involving major firms in their respective industries, such as:
Ternium-Hylsa and subsequently also Ternium–IMSA (the latter unconditionally approved), steel companies,
Alsea-Vips, restaurant chains,
Bimbo-El Globo, bakeries,
Home Depot-Home Mart, home improvement retailers,
Kimberly-Clark – Georgia Pacific, tissue paper producers, and
Nemak-Teksid, autoparts companies.
Preparation and presenting of a winning bid in an auction of two threads of dark fiber of the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission, for the consortium Grupo de Telecomunicaciones de Alta Capacidad (Telefonica-Televisa-Megacable).
Economic development of:
New pricing schemes, based on advanced econometric models, for a major global consumer goods company, covering three different product categories in Mexico. Results of these schemes served brand/category managers as a useful quantitative support to confirm or gauge their pricing decisions.
Sales models (including those using structural variables) per store format, for a major retailer in Mexico. Said models served to refine and update corporate sales forecasts of the company.
A new fee schedule for the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) for services rendered to regulated financial entities, based on the thorough implementation of activity-based costing (2015-16). Moreover, this project was an update and expansion of a previous project (2003) and included a new costing/fee evaluation software module connected to the institutional platform.
A cutting-edge, detailed model of the setting of interchange fees (paid by point of sale/merchant banks to card issuer banks) in the payments system with credit and debit cards in Mexico. This model, first of its kind, provided a useful benchmark to the Banker´s Association to assess the historical methodology hitherto used by commercial banks for settling off-us card transactions, and allowed a better understanding of the inner workings (e.g. key structural variables in play) of such a complex multi-sided platform.
An assessment of effective protection rates in a category of personal hygiene products sold by a multinational company, which served as quantitative support to have the Mexican government actually realign import tariffs of inputs and final goods, and thus promoted production of the latter in a domestic plant of the same company.
A study for the regulator of pension funds administrators (CONSAR) in Mexico, which provided the technical framework, considering multiple criteria, for setting commissions that each pension fund administrator (AFORE) could charge to its clients. Said study provided technical support to the regulator for a review of its policies regarding the acceptable commission levels of the AFORES over time, and also offered a detailed insight of the market drivers for the competition dynamics.
Implementation of activity-based costing in order to provide support for pricing policies and economic efficiencies, which contributed to reduce the competition/antitrust risk of:
A major Mexican credit information company, and
A so-called switch of transactions in the payments system in Mexico.
Statistical evaluation of store personnel Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for a major retailer in Mexico (human resources), which provided the quantitative support for the simplification of the KPI to be applied overall by the company in its Mexican operations.
Estimation of the prison population in Mexico for federal crimes with projections until 2020, based on probabilistic models, which were used by the government to determine the required investment amounts for the construction of federal corrections centers (CEFERESOS), in 2009.
Coordination of antidumping investigations which led to the following specific achievements:
Setting of countervailing duties from 25.7% to 127.5% for chicken thigh and leg imports from the Unites States.
Setting of countervailing duties for the difference between the import price and the reference price of US$12.10 per kilogram for blanket imports from China.
Setting of countervailing duties of US$12.88 and US$18.64 apiece for blenders imported from China.
Design and coordination of the development of statistical systems:
Information for the shoemaking industry, which provided the necessary elements to negotiate an agreement with China that specified reference prices, to prevent undervalued imports. For the latter, it was required to design and coordinate on-line questionnaires for more than 500 firms, and afterwards to calculate and estimate sectoral indicators.
System of Early Alerts for foreign trade unfair practices, which would timely detect unfair imports and the start of the respective investigations. Said system involved the design of alert indicators, the processing of foreign trade databases of Mexico, China and the United States, and the calculation of indicators for more than 300 tariff items in the textile, garment and shoemaking industries.
Design and implementation of new customer service processes for a large telecommunications firm, in its Monterrey, Mexico, offices, which led to a reduction of waiting times and to increase service quality.
Financial valuations of a number of commercial banks, which were actually used as inputs by the Mexican government for their privatization auctioning.
Performing of re-engineering projects which led to significant operational cost reductions (leading firms in aviation and software development).
Transfer pricing, sales and cost analyses, which led to profitability improvements in important product lines, and the streamlining of the product portfolio.
Development of international procurement projects of lamp holders from China and terminals and connectors from Argentina, which led to a better-quality portfolio of products offered at competitive prices in Mexico.
Leading of forensic analysis investigations of information technologies, for global consumer goods firms, which allowed them to verify their degree of compliance with economic competition/antitrust regulation in Mexico.
Preparation of a stochastic model to evaluate projects in mining, simulating extraction, beneficiation, cost structures, liquidations proformas, and credit evaluation processes. Such model achieved a reduction in the time required to approve loans and allowed better scenario and stress evaluations.
Negotiation within the monthly Pricing Committee (1995-2002) of the pricing formulae based on economic market analysis of a large number of products (refining, petrochemicals, natural gas, LPG) sold by the Mexican state oil company, Pemex. Committee members were representatives of the involved Mexican government ministries, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and Pemex´s various then functioning subsidiaries, and who usually had conflicting interests.
Drafting, negotiation with other ministries, and implementation of the rules to evaluate projects and assign the Federal Tax Incentive for Research and Development (R&D) on eligible expenses. This was the first such incentive ever granted by the Mexican government, and heavily relied on OECD best practices.
Drafting, integration and coordination with other ministries of the Industrial Policy and Foreign Trade Program 1996-2000. This was a key federal program of the Mexican government that clearly specified the strategies and objectives to improve competitiveness of firms, just in the aftermath of the 1994-95 crisis, and in light of the productive restructuring already taking place with the coming into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.
Interaction with and direction of a multidisciplinary team, in charge of markets intelligence for the detection of anticompetitive practices and the start of ex officio investigations; design and implementation of a data laboratory and of statistical or econometric screenings that would reveal patterns of behavior of economic agents. It is noteworthy that the team achieved eight such investigations on the basis of the market reports it generated.