Prodemex's quest to become Mexico's new infrastructure giant

Mexican construction firm Promotora y Desarrolladora Mexicana (Prodemex) is attempting to become one of the country’s new infrastructure giants by snatching up some of the country’s megaprojects.

Founded in 1996, Prodemex has consolidated a portfolio of about 100 works, 50 hospitals, seven concessions and 40 architectural design projects through its five subsidiaries (Prodemex Construcción, Concesiones, Inmobiliaria, Operación y Servicios and Maquinaria).

But aside from buildings and highways, the firm led by Mexican businessman Olegario Vázquez Aldir has shown its intention in recent years to expand its portfolio by bidding for some of Mexico’s largest projects such as the US$6.7bn Maya train.  

The company, which is part of Grupo Empresarial Ángeles, said in its mission statement for 2020 that its goal for the year was to consolidate itself as a leading company in the construction and development of public-private partnership projects. It also said that it plans to expand its presence throughout Latin America. 

BNamericas takes a look at Prodemex's most recent project bids and high profile contracts.

BIDS

– Maya train

The company’s most recent attempt at earning a megaproject was on August 13, when it presented the only bid along with US investment firm BlackRock to construct a highway related to stretch five of the rail line.

While the consortium’s 14.9bn-peso (US$709mn) offer was declared void on September 8 due to the financing plan that BlackRock suggested – involving 11.6bn pesos and the government being able to pay in annual installments of 2.2bn pesos – the US company still has a 10-point advantage trump card in the tender and could join forces with Prodemex once again when the new tender is launched. 

The bid was Prodemex’s third attempt at winning one of the seven stretches of the 1,500km passenger and freight railway project. The firm also presented bids for stretches two and three this year, but it did not win either. 

The fifth stretch involves an 18-year concession contract to rehabilitate, maintain and operate the 120km Cancún-Tulum section of federal highway 307 in Quintana Roo state, which will run along the same route as the rail line so is considered part of stretch five.

– La Libertad dam

Prodemex also presented at the beginning of August a 4.13bn-peso offer to construct the La Libertad dam in Nuevo León state, a project budgeted at 5.3bn pesos. The work involves building an almost 2,000m wide and 47m tall dam wall at a 4,000ha site in the municipalities of Montemorelos and Linares.

However, the contract went to a consortium comprising local firms Desarrollo y Construcciones Urbanas and La Peninsular Compañía Constructora.

– Indios Verdes Cetram 

Another project in which the company has recently shown interest is the 849mn-peso Indios Verdes modal transfer center (Cetram) that will connect seven public transportation systems in Mexico City. 

While the firm has not presented a bid for the project yet, it has sent inquiries to city authorities. A date for the presentation of technical and economic proposals has been postponed indefinitely, public records on government procurement site Compranet show. 

The center’s upgrade will require adding an area of 85,500m2, excavation and demolition on 117,000m2, and the erection of buildings on 18,000m2, according to the city’s mobility ministry (Semovi), which confirmed the project on July 2.  

– Mexico City Cablebús No. 1

Prodemex was also among the 13 companies that expressed an interest in bidding for the US$153mn contract to build Mexico City's Cablebús cable car system line No. 1. However, the project was awarded to Austrian ropeway, cable car and ski lift manufacturer Doppelmayr. 

CONTRACTS WON

Prodemex won contracts for at least two signature projects under the previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto. But those contracts faced a series of political, financial and technical obstacles that resulted in their cancellation.

One was the Mexico City-Querétaro high-speed rail link, which was awarded to a consortium led by state-owned China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC) and seven other firms including Prodemex in November 2014. 

Cancellation of the project came after local media questioned the political connections of some of the firms involved. However, the project could see a comeback as it is being discussed by the federal and state governments.

The second was the cancellation of the 285bn-peso new international airport for Mexico City (NAIM), which awarded at least 16 large contracts to several Mexican firms including Prodemex. 

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who made the cancellation of NAIM one of his campaign promises, met with the biggest contractors involved in the airport’s construction in November 2018 to reach an agreement on terminating their contracts.

ALSO READ: Mexico completes key step in cancellation of Texcoco airport

But there are several examples such as the 1.49bn-peso Villahermosa general hospital on which the firm continued construction despite the change in administration. 

And under the AMLO government, Prodemex has been awarded package 5 of the construction of state oil company Pemex’s Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco state along with Canada’s Keller and Mexico-based firm Menard. The project involves building the refinery’s storage facilities on a 140ha plot.

It also has underway since 2016 a 10bn-peso expansion project to add a 4.6km tunnel to Mexico City metro line No. 12, which recently reached overall progress of 68%. The expansion is designed to reach Observatorio station on line No. 1 in the heart of the city by building a tunnel and adding two stations – Valentín Campa and Álvaro Obregon. 

Last but not least, the company won in February 2019 an 80.6mn-peso contract to resurface one of the two runways at the existing Benito Juárez international airport (AICM) that serves Mexico City. 

BNamericas reached out to Prodemex to request an interview, but the company did not respond. 

Pictured: Construction of metro line No. 12 in Mexico City. Photo: Prodemex