Fomento Económico Mexicano SAB de CV, as Femsa is called when advertised, was founded as a brewery in 1890 and is a listed Mexican company with headquarters in the metropolis of Monterrey. The company is not only the largest beverage manufacturer in Mexico, but also in the entire Latin American region.
The group, with annual sales of a good 27 billion US dollars, employs around 320,000 people worldwide and operates more than 25,000 sales locations in 13 countries.
According to Femsa, it is the world’s largest franchise bottler for Coca-Cola products (Coca-Cola Femsa) in terms of sales and the second-largest shareholder of the Dutch Heineken Group. The conglomerate also operates Oxxo, the largest convenience store chain in Mexico and Latin America. There are also over 3,600 pharmacies in four Latin American countries.
Since the turn of the millennium, Femsa has also been driving international business forward. Due to its expansion plans in markets outside of Latin America, the group has now come across the Swiss company Valora, according to the joint statement on Tuesday.
Femsa’s shares are listed on the Mexico and New York Stock Exchanges. Femsa can raise the purchase price for Valora from cash itself. It is an investment grade company that has a solid financial profile with significant liquidity and access to international capital markets.