Corporacion Multi Inversiones recently issued the following announcement.
Enrique Crespo is, since February 2018, CEO of CMI Capital, business division of Multi Investment Corporation (CMI), which covers renewable energy generation projects; development of real estate projects and financial services businesses. Before that, he was Executive Director of the Corporate Office.
CMI Capital closed 2019 with the inauguration of the Vistares Mixed Use Complex, which with an investment of US $ 50 million and developed in partnership with the Tecun Group, is the first comprehensive mixed-use real estate complex in zone 11 of the Guatemalan capital.
It has more than 90,000 square meters distributed in two areas: residential, consisting of 118 apartments in two towers that will be delivered at the end of 2020 and Pradera Vistares, the 14th Shopping Center of the Pradera brand developed and managed by Multi Proyectos, the unit of real estate development of CMI.
As for energy generation projects, clean energy - mainly wind and solar - are its big bets.
To what does the conformation of CMI with CMI Capital respond as one of the business divisions?
Corporación Multi Inversiones has two business groups, one is CMI Alimentos, and there we have our businesses in all the countries where we operate that have to do with the wheat and corn value chain. We develop industrial flours, pasta, cookies and the entire manufacturing and marketing value chain. We do the same for meat, pork and meat products. We also produce and sell food for animals and have our restaurant unit with the best known brand that is Pollo Campero. That is the world of CMI Alimentos.
At CMI Capital, we serve businesses that are not related to the food value chain, but to businesses that are capital intensive, such as Renewable Energy Generation, Real Estate Development that is Multi Projects and the Financial business.
The strategic premise behind business groupings is that it is much more efficient and much more focused. In the food value chain there are many synergies, a lot of potential and value capture if we do things in a grouped way, the same in capital businesses, that is what reorganization responds to.
What have been CMI Capital's Business bets in Central America during 2019?
2019 has been a very intense year in investment and in the execution of projects both in our Energy Unit and in our Real Estate Development unit.
As for Real Estate Development solutions, we are concluding a year full of new projects.
The Pradera Vistares mixed-use complex in the capital of Guatemala is one of them. In addition, we recently developed and inaugurated the new Shopping Center, Pradera Zacapa in the municipality of Zacapa (147 kilometers northeast of Guatemala City).
We made important extensions to our Shopping Centers in Chimaltenango. In Quetzaltenango, we are finishing the execution of an office tower in the same complex of Pradera Xela and we are remodeling in Pradera Escuintla.
In Our Energy Unit we started the operation of RENACE IV, the fourth hydraulic generation plant in Guatemala. We also recently opened the third phase of a project of 10 solar plants of 10 megawatts each in El Salvador, the Bosphorus Project in conjunction with the multinational AES. So we have been quite busy.
Where is the expansion and diversification of CMI heading? Its strengthening as a Multi-Latin company?
We currently have investments in the Caribbean in CMI food. We are in the business of industrial flours, pastries and cookies, in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and from there we export to the rest of the Caribbean. As for CMI Capital, we have high expectations for expansion in our Capital for the Caribbean businesses. We will continue to invest in Renewable Energy, we are now evaluating renewable solar energy options in Central America and the Caribbean, new projects in the Caribbean and we will continue to evaluate investment opportunities more oriented to solar technology in the rest of Central America.
More wind and solar energy What projects stand out in 2019 on the theme of energy? What are the investments and advances?
In Renewable Energy, we have our hydraulic energy platform in Guatemala, with the RENACE plants, and the Bosphorus project, of solar energy, already in operation in partnership with AES in El Salvador.
We have wind and solar energy in Honduras, wind energy in Nicaragua and Wind Energy in Costa Rica. We are throughout the region with a diversified matrix and an installed capacity of almost 900 megawatts between different countries and different technologies.
A third is in hydraulic energy, 60% in wind energy and 10% in solar energy. This energy reaches all consumers in the region, the way it is distributed depends on the country.
Our buyers are the large energy distribution companies, some private and some state-owned, that distribute it to the final consumer.
We were born as an energy unit in Guatemala with the RENACE Complex, which is for the generation of Hydraulic Energy. However, solar technology is becoming more efficient in terms of the power generation capacity of solar panels and becoming cheaper.
That makes the investment in solar generation, and eventually wind generation the future of our countries. We will continue to invest in solar and wind generation in Guatemala and in the other countries of the region.
In 2016, they bought Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy, a leader in renewable energy in the region (it included the Cerro de Hula project in Honduras, Eolo in Nicaragua, PESRL, Orosi and Alisios in Costa Rica).
What is your balance of said investment?
We acquired the assets of the Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy company and that allowed us to become a Multi-country and Multi-technology company, since the platform we acquire is wind and solar assets in Honduras, Winds in Nicaragua and Winds in Costa Rica. Once the energy business unit is integrated, we developed the solar project with AES in El Salvador.
The investment balance is very positive, we are the largest private renewable generator in the region and we are agents of change. Our region - I speak not only of Central America but also of the Caribbean - has many natural resources, we are not fossil fuel generators but we do have a lot of sun, a lot of wind and a lot of water, which are renewable resources.
We are committed to the care of the Environment and to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in that context we are investors in Renewable Energy and we believe that the generation of Renewable Energy positively impacts the development of our countries because it generates cheap, efficient and efficient energy. It makes us energy independent.
In January 2019, the fourth phase of RENACE entered into operation. What has been the impact of the project, the contribution of energy to the national network?
RENACE has more than 325 megawatts of installed capacity, it is very efficient energy, we generate around 16% of the demand in Guatemala, with very cheap energy and with long-term contracts. We are important contributors in the country's competitiveness by providing long-term cheap energy.
Our Energy Unit is already one of the largest in the portfolio of CMI Business Units, it already represents a significant percentage not only of the investment but of the generation of profitability.
If it was a business unit that was one of the small ones 10 years ago, today it is one of the largest in the context of the CMI portfolio.
We believe that there are still many opportunities to generate value in the region, in Central America and in the Caribbean and we have important growth expectations in the next 5 and 10 years. We will continue to invest in renewable energy. There are great opportunities to generate investment in Guatemala and the rest of the region.
REAL ESTATE PROJECTS
How much is the investment made by CMI in 2019 in real estate projects?
During 2019 we added to our profitable area platform about 50 thousand additional square meters, this implies significant investments that exceed US $ 60 million in our Shopping Centers platform and in the office tower of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
A good part of its shopping centers were developed inside Guatemala
Being a leading business group in the region we must be agents of change. It is not usual that there is real estate development in the interior of the country, with commercial solutions such as those we have developed, but we do not do the usual.
We always aim to do new things and generate value proposals throughout the country.
There was an unsatisfied demand for shopping center solutions in the interior of the country for many years and we have made a strategic investment, with very positive acceptance. The best indicator of success of a shopping center is the level of occupation, when it has over 90% occupancy, it has a successful commercial complex. Our shopping centers in the interior of the country and in the capital have occupancy levels above 90%.
We also have business partners in our shopping centers, which have been with us for many years, with whom we feel very comfortable and with whom we have developed a long-term mutually beneficial business relationship, which are also relying on that vision to grow, in addition from in Guatemala City, in the interior of the country.
How was the offer of a housing complex -Vistares- received together with a Shopping Center?
Very good. The Atanacio Tzul corridor, on Petapa Avenue in zone 11, which had a mostly industrial vocation, is beginning to transform.
With these new offers of commercial and residential value we are initiating and leading the change of vocation of the sector. There are several real estate projects that will enrich the value proposition in the Capital city in office solutions, vertical housing and commercial apartments. One of them is the IQ 10 apartment building.
Original source: http://www.cmi.co/es/item/587-cmi-capital-un-ano-de-grandes-inversiones
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