Hi Keith, Thanks for posting; I was feeling lonely! I've visited Mexico twice over the decade of the '90s, both times for a quick trip (2000 miles!) up the backbone of the nation in a 1955 Jaguar XK 140.
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Each trip I was impressed with how rapidly Mexico was being brought into the late 20th Century. Roads, bridges, power lines, phone lines, you name it. Even Sam's Clubs!
The one individual stock I hold, ICA, is involved in much of this activity. ICA's a construction company building about anything. I thought this would be a good way to participate in Mexico's rapid expansion. ICA also has a convertible bond issue that I also bought at the time. At its current price it probably yields something in the neighborhood of 8%. However, when I bought them, their effective yield was about 15% (they were selling for about $0.30 on the dollar at that time). So, I bought equal amounts of the common and the bond to net about 7.5% overall yield while I waited for the stock to move.
Now the bond has doubled from where I first bought it and the common has cycled from about $4 up to about $20 and back to less than $4 again. In the last 6 weeks it's risen from about $3.50 to about $6.50.
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AIM and I are selling shares at a rapid pace and pocketing the profits. Meanwhile the bond pays me a handsome yield for being involved. I think I'm up about 100% since starting this investment in 1995 not including the yield. Total return probably adds another 50% to the pile.
So far in my travels in Mexico, I've yet to visit a shore, so I really don't know what the usual tourists see. My daughter went with me in the Panamerican Road Race in 1994 and she returned to Mexico in 1998, but this time to Cancun. She said there's not much in common between the interior and the resorts (I think she preferred the interior).
Best regards, Tom |
