Top Mexican bank seeks Chinese partners for diverse projects

MEXICO CITY - Mexican banking and financial group Interacciones is looking to partner with Chinese companies to financially back infrastructure, energy and transport projects in Mexico, according to the group's general director Carlos Rojo.

Mexico's eighth-largest bank is mainly interested in promoting joint projects with other Chinese banks or construction companies, Rojo told Xinhua.

"We have been looking for both Chinese banks that could be interested in funding many of these infrastructure projects, and Chinese construction companies that are coming to the country to see this whole topic of energy-sector projects," said Rojo.

"We would love to be able to grow at the same rate as China is growing, which is partly due to investments in infrastructure," Rojo added.

Projects in the transport sector are also in the group's sights, though to a lesser degree.

Partnerships between Chinese and Mexican companies are at a very incipient stage and have a way to go, but Interacciones has already made some headway, he noted.

The bank has secured funding for several infrastructure projects from a Chinese bank, said Rojo, though he declined to say which.

Interacciones has also financed two water treatments plants through a partnership "with one of the world's largest Chinese companies," which he also declined to name for legal reasons.

"There is great similarity between the vision of country and infrastructure development that China has and that we want to have," said Rojo.

"We are just getting started. I am convinced that what we need to do is to find a way to build those bridges, so that once the language restrictions are gone, we can show them what we can do and how we do it," Rojo said.

Interacciones executives plan to travel more frequently to China to increase their proximity to investors there.

"While we may be different or far away, we are very close in terms of our vision of country," said the executive.

Grupo Financiero Interacciones, which is in the process of merging with Mexican bank Banorte-Ixe, saw a 12.4-percent rise in net profit in 2017 to 2.704 billion pesos ($145 million).