"These opportunities are given once in a lifetime"

Grupo Financiero Banorte has just completed the acquisition of Interacciones, the second largest operation of the banking sector in Mexico in nearly two decades, valued at 16,557 million pesos (mpd ).

The merger of the two institutions financial institutions, which share members of the Hank family on the Board of Directors – Carlos Hank González, president of Banorte, is the son of Carlos Hank Rhon, president of Interacciones – gives way to the second largest financial group in the country and strengthens its leadership in credits in infrastructure and government entities, the specialty of Interactions.

Marcos Ramírez, CEO of Banorte, explains in an interview the plans of the new bank.

Read: Why did Banorte shareholders vote against the merger?

What are your goals for the financial group?

MARCOS RAMÍREZ: We would like to see ourselves as a very comprehensive bank, which will offer the best services to our clients. We complement each other, and now we can give you all kinds of products and cross-sell between Banorte and Interacciones

We are excited because the stars of what we want are aligned. For more than a year, we saw what we could add to the financial group to give it value, and we took on the task of seeing everything on the market. Basically, we are a multimodal financial group: we have a very efficient brokerage house; we have a good bank, which is the biggest part; we have an insurer, a lessor, a surety, private pensions, the most important … The part that was missing a bit, is that we needed infrastructure. Mexico is the 13th country in the world as an economy, but if you measure it in terms of infrastructure, we are 65, imagine all the difference.

The merger with Interacciones adds this part of the infrastructure. Now the name of the game is all that comes from the infrastructure, and "banortizarlo", so that we start to do the cross selling: to all the customers who come from Interacciones, that many are from the government, sell them a mortgage, cars, consumption, insurance … it's our essence of why we made the purchase and why we are so happy.

Lee: Banorte, a "giant" of infrastructure ]

Interacciones to a large part of his business with infrastructure credits for local or state governments. Do not worry about the risk of this?

We are not worried. We were already a lot in government and infrastructure, but we were not in municipalities and states, which is precisely what we want to get.

In all municipalities and states, a micro-infrastructure is needed: public sewage systems, water treatment plants, lighting systems. In everything we are going to focus.

The new government is now asking for austerity. Will the credits continue to grow?

If I understood them correctly, I think what they want is that the expenses are right where they have to go. By austerity, they mean being reasonable and spending what you have to spend. But at no time do they want to slow down the economy, they want to grow an average of 4%. The only way to achieve all that they want is through infrastructure and private investment

What would be the red centers that would slow down credit growth?

That the finances are not respected healthy public or the independence of the Bank of Mexico, that there is no transparency and not insist on the rule of law .

And on infrastructure?

Transparency is necessary, and there is already a law of transparency of governments and states. It's just to respect that. This law will help so there is a lot of competition.

As a result of the merger, how many workers were fired?

They were 362, Interactions

But everything is in context. We, in three years, have hired more than 2,800 people, and what we think is to continue to grow. We have 28,500 employees at Banorte, and the idea is to continue to grow and continue to give more jobs. This was the merger process, but now we must continue to invest in everything that comes: more infrastructure, technologies, and more spaces will be opened. All the staff specialized in infrastructure projects is still there

There were foreign investors who were against the merger. Are you worried about corporate governance, having members of the same family in both companies?

No, there is no conflict of interest. In terms of corporate governance, we take the best prices. And it's going to sound ironic, but part of what they've told us, and I quote, is, "You're doing too well, why are you buying something else now?" They said we should expect another little bit too. They said: "Hey, come six, come, come, wait." What is hard to say, is that these occasions are given once in a lifetime, and that you take them or leave them, and if you do not take them, they are taken by someone else. one on the other. But you will see how much investors will be happy now that they will see the numbers.