The emergence of Latin multinationals

Abstract

The corporate world has changed remarkably in the past 10 years.New multinationals are appearing in countries with emerging marketssuch as Brazil, India, China, South Africa and Mexico, which are not onlytop recipients of foreign capital, but have fast become major investorsthemselves. An important part of the remarkable story of emergingmultinationals has been the eruption of world-class Latin multinationals(or multilatinas); from Mexico and Brazil, in particular, following the pathtaken by their Spanish counterparts in the 1990s. In all these cases,classical push and pull factors have been driving their emergence. Buta decisive helping hand for these multilatinas over the past decade hasbeen the declining cost of capital. This financial dimension is driving theleap from overseas sales to overseas acquisitions, a phenomenon that willbe explored in this article.