Mexico. AMLO Plan to Unleash Pension Fund Investing Has Critics Worried
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s plan to let Mexico’s giant pension funds invest in more diverse assets, including private equity funds, is sparking concern that the populist president will steer the funds toward his own pet infrastructure projects.
“The worry is that this could be a way to finance projects of interest of the government, for which it lacks fiscal funds, but that are economically controversial,” said Gustavo Rangel, the chief Latin America economist at ING Financial Markets LLC in New York.
The plan, submitted to Congress last week, is among a raft of measures floated by the government this month to deepen Mexico’s lackluster capital markets — including a proposal to slash taxes on profits from initial public offerings to encourage more companies to go public. The administration is eager to lure more investment and build on a market rally since Lopez Obrador took office at the beginning of December.
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