| An SI Board Since June 2003 |
| Posts |
SubjectMarks |
Bans |
Symbol |
| 4 |
1 |
0
|
TZA |
| Emcee:
IKM
|
Type:
Moderated
|
|
I would like to revive interest in this company. TZA is controlled by Ricardo Salinas, the eleventh - barely - billionaire in Mexico. The bursting of the bubble brought his family's net worth down from $3.2 billion in 1998, so he has "suffered" along with any long-term shareholders.
As a former bond analyst - TZA was not one of my issues - I have visited their HQ, studios, and sister companies, and met with senior management and Salinas. My observation is that it is a well-run organization that benefits from - dare I say it - synergies with other Salinas companies. With the restructuring of subsidiary Unefon's debt, it will benefit from the still significant demand for wireless telephony in Mexico.
Unfortunately, Salinas' aggressiveness took him into Unefon, falling victim to the telecoms hubris of the time. He is infamous in the analyst community for a dismissive "He's just an analyst," comment he made regarding a Bear Stearns Latam equity analyst a few years back, so I suspect there may be some residual antagonism. However, a lot of people have had to eat crow in the interim, so perhaps he is garnering some support from the go-go crowd on the Street.
The announcements of this past week - separation of TZA from the cash requirements of Iusacell (CEL) and the successful settlement of the Unefon suit against Nortel - would seem to clear the decks for growth sans strings within the still very dynamic Mexican economy, as well as its continuing inroads into the U.S. Hispanic media market.
However, I am out of the loop now. I would love to see comments from Mexican and other consumers of its media products, and those who have had Unefon service. With less of an overhang from Unefon, I would expect TZA to react more forcefully in response to ratings reports. Observations regarding current TV programming vis-à-vis Televisa would be helpful.
Let's keep the cheerleading and bashing to a minimum, and make this as informative as possible.
|
|
|
