June 1

MEXICO’S TOP 500 COMPANIES.
(Expansión pg. 170-193)
Expansión magazine published its list of the top 500 important companies in Mexico. Gruma is ranked 15.

SECURITY AGENCY REPORTS THAT GRUMA PRODUCTS COMPLY WITH INTERNATIONAL QUALITY GUARANTEES
(Milenio Online)
Products made by the Mexican company Gruma, the world’s leading producer of nixtamalized corn flour, tortillas, and wraps, comply with the highest standards of quality, guaranteeing consumers that the food brought to their table is healthy and nutritious, according to Safe Quality Foods, SQF. The SQF certificate awarded to Gruma plants validates compliance with two food supplier standards: SQF 1000 Code for raw products and producers, and SQF 2000 Code for the manufacture, transformation, and distribution sectors. The certificates must be renewed every year. This certification ensures that the company led by Juan González Moreno complies with food processing standards, from the selection of raw materials such as corn and wheat to the packaging, so the final product delivered to consumers is of the highest quality and nutritional value.

June 5

MEXICAN CORPORATIONS NOT BULLISH ON LATIN AMERICA (Forbes Mexico Online)
In view of the necessarily cautious outlook of Latin America, Mexican executives have set their sights on other parts of the globe in search of growth opportunities. Favorable markets include the United States, Europe, and Asia, which have all recently attracted investments from companies such as Alsea, Bimbo, Gruma, and Mexichem.

June 8

BUSINESS EXECUTIVES PARTICIPATE IN NORTH AMERICAN MAYORS SUMMIT
(Milenio Online) (Primera Vuelta Online — Tamaulipas) (Telediario Online — Mexico City) (López-Dóriga Digital Online) (El Semanario Online)
Executives like Carlos Slim Helú, president of Grupo Carso; Andrés Conesa, Grupo Aeroméxico CEO; and Gruma CEO Juan González Moreno, will participate in the first ever North American Mayors Summit. The business leaders are invited to a panel on private investment and local government, to “discuss the importance of investments for cities and successful strategies to attract growth, investment, and development with the mayors.” The event will take place in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, on June 6-8. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is scheduled to speak on Friday.

June 10

MASECA COMPLIANT WITH MEXICAN HEALTH STANDARDS (SDPNoticias.com) https://noticieros.televisa.com/historia/harina-maiz-maseca-nutritivas/
According to the Secretariat of the Economy, 65% of tortillas that are made and consumed in Mexico are made with the traditional nixtamalization process. While this process enriches tortillas with calcium, they lack other nutrients such as zinc, iron, fiber, magnesium, and vitamins, A, B, C, D, and E, which can be found in tortillas made with nixtamalized corn flours such as Maseca, a brand that has voluntarily fortified its products with vitamins and minerals, since the nineties, to help Mexicans meet their recommended nutritional requirements and reduce and prevent illnesses.

June 11

MONTERREY COMPANIES PRESENT BUSINESS STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES
(El Financiero Online)
Monterrey-based companies Gruma, Arca Continental, and Fibra Inn presented their business strategies in view of possible upcoming challenges and their specific short term plans during the 2019 Monterrey Stock Exchange Gathering. Gruma said the increase in corn costs had not affected the company since they’ve successfully hedged their input costs for the remainder of the year and the first quarter of the following year. “While Gruma is a wholly-owned Mexican company, 56% of its sales and 62% of EBITDA comes from the United States, and its operations in Mexico represent 28% of sales and consolidated EBITDA.”

June 14

PRIVATE SECTOR TO INVEST USD 32 BILLION.
(El Sol De México pgs. 20-21) (La Prensa pgs. 26-27) (El Sol De México Online)
A group of the country’s wealthiest business leaders have pledged to invest USD 32 billion in infrastructure projects in the upcoming years, provided the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration guarantees legal certainty and the rule of law. In making investment a top priority, Mexico’s president signed the Agreement to Promote Inclusive Development and Investment with the Business Coordination Council. The founder of the Morena political party arrived in the Polanco neighborhood in his white Jetta at 2:45 p.m. to talk with the heads of companies such as Alfa, Cemex, Femsa, Gigante, Gruma, Herdez, Kaltex, Kaluz, and others that generate thousands of jobs in Mexico.

June 17 

CORN AND WHEAT UP 30%
(El Economista pgs. 1-10)
Futures on corn and wheat have gone up 30% on the Chicago Stock Exchange from its low this year in May. The increase is caused by poor weather in the United States. (...) Gruma, the world’s leading producer of corn flour and tortillas, is not threatened by the price increase of its main input because it is hedged against price volatility. In a conference call with analysts in April, Raúl Cavazos, the company’s CFO, said they had purchased hedges for 2020, taking advantage of lower product prices.

MARKET OUTLOOK WITH SIGNUM RESEARCH
(El Economista pg. 6)(El Economista Online)
We attended the 2019 Monterrey Stock Market Gathering held at the EGADE Business School in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León June 4-6. The event consisted of a forum gathering the region’s top public corporations in an information exchange that allowed us to make timely investment recommendations. (...) Gruma outlined its performance in 2019, when the company’s growth depended on the Gruma USA division, representing 62% of its cash flow.

June 19

CORPORATE MINUTE / By Roberto Aguilar
(El Sol De México pg. 24) (El Sol De México Online)
Very Healthy. We Want Active Mexicans (Queremos Mexicanos Activos), the organization led by Mariel Hawley, gave out awards to the winners of the Active and Healthy Company Challenge 2018, an initiative intended to promote healthy and active lifestyles among participating companies and be replicated between the company and its consumers. In other words, the goal is for companies to lead by example. Companies receiving awards include Arca Continental, led by Jorge Santos, and Femsa, led by Eduardo Padilla, Gruma, presided by JuanGonzález Moreno, Bimbo (CEO Daniel Servitje), Lala (CEO Mauricio Leyva), Herdez (CEO Héctor Hernández Pons), and KidZania (CEO Xavier López Ancona).

June 20

MONTERREY STORIES (El Norte Online — Nuevo Leon) Monterrey-based companies are on the podium waiting to be awarded for promoting physical activity among employees. Monterrey companies receiving the Active and Healthy Company Challenge award include Arca Continental (CEO Jorge Santos Reyna), Femsa (CEO José Antonio Fernández), and Gruma (CEO Juan González Moreno). The initiative awards efforts by companies to promote healthy and active lifestyles. Let’s see who else joins this initiative.

22 June

GRUMA HEDGES CORN COSTS FOR 2019 AND 2020
(Milenio Online) (SDPNoticias.com)
Following the increase in grain prices, analysts are predicting corn production at levels under that of 2018, which could seriously affect food companies that use corn as one of its main inputs. The rise in corn prices is due to the weather, uncertainty generated by the U.S. election cycle, and political-economic tensions between major world economies. Given this context, Gruma—the Mexican company that leads world production of corn flour, tortillas, and wraps, with operations in more than 110 countries and one of the largest buyers of corn from Mexican farmers—has a sufficient supply of grain for the reminder of 2019 and part of 2020, and this doesn’t expect to be affected by the price hike. According to Intercam Brokerage Firm analyst Alik García, the price of corn has gone up almost 30% in the Chicago Futures Exchange that sets international commodity prices. The price increase will not affect Gruma. The company led by Juan González Moreno locked in a lower purchase price of grains, as hedging against rising costs.