Second Mayan Train Winning Bids Unveiled

Mario Maldonado’s prediction published yesterday on his column in El Universal turned out to be correct: Carlos Slim became the winner of the bidding round for the construction of the Mayan Train’s second segment. In today’s press conference, FONATUR announced the winning bid for the train segment that will run approximately 235km across the state of Campeche from the southern town of Escarcega to the northern stop in Calkini. The winning bid from Slim’s consortium formed by CICSA (part of Slim’s Grupo Carso corporate agglomeration) and FCC Construcción presented a bid of US$772.03 million. Similarly to Lumat Consortium’s winning bid to build the train’s first segment, this bid is different than the one originally posted when the bids for the second segment were published back on April 15. The original bid, like Lumat’s, was lower at US$768.57 million. However, this difference can be explained by a variation in exchange rates. 

As Maldonado noted on his column, this contract represents President López Obrador’s first major concession toward the notorious Mexican magnate. This is the biggest and most valuable construction and infrastructure contract that Slim has been granted by the administration. His other contractual assignments did not exceed US$292 million. A considerable percentage of this previous sum came from a contract to build offshore infrastructure for PEMEX in the NOC’s flagship KMZ field. 

Today’s volatile market has resulted in several individuals being crowned the “richest man alive” for a few seconds. Long gone are the days in which Slim’s position at the top was solidly cemented. However, he has never left the list’s top spots. According to a Markets Insider article from less than a year ago, his estimated wealth of US$60 billion makes him the fifth-richest person on earth. Considering this, it will be interesting to see what his direct involvement in the Mayan Train project will do for the project’s reputation. Unlike others in Mexico’s prominent billionaire class, Slim has always had an open communication with the president. In fact, it could be stated that this latest contract is perhaps a reflection of a longstanding relationship between the president and Slim that goes back to when López Obrador was Mayor of Mexico City almost 20 years ago. During that time, Slim and the president collaborated in the restoration and rehabilitation of Mexico City’s historic center. A temporary rift in their relationship occurred in 2006 when then presidential candidate López Obrador and his followers occupied and blocked traffic in Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s main avenue, for several months in an effort to protest what he called the fraudulent results of the presidential election that granted a slim margin of victory to former President Felipe Calderón. Slim referred to the situation in a press conference at the time as “Kafkaesque,” seemingly marking a split between the two men that turned out to be short lived. 

Now the President makes regular references to Slim and his few participations in public life, such as his charitable donations, during his daily morning press conferences, affectionately referring to him as “el ingeniero Slim” and implicitly excluding him from his regular critiques of Mexico’s highest socioeconomic classes. This is even more notable given the fact that Slim is usually known as a public person only nominally. He makes very little media appearances and guards his private life very carefully.

Work on the first segment is scheduled to begin today and there has been no press release detailing an inauguration at the time of publication. With that in mind, a press release also claims that work on this second segment of the Mayan Train is set to begin on May 12, if authorized by sanitary authorities. This means work would begin three days before May 15, when the winning bid for the construction of the train’s third segment is scheduled to be announced (the competing bids were published yesterday).