Cox Energy eyes stronger Mexico business after Abengoa acquisition

The 150mn-euro (US$165mn) acquisition of infrastructure, water and energy multinational Abengoa by Spanish consortium Grupo Cox could help Mexico-based PV solar player Cox Energy América. 

Cox Energy, the first company to list on both Mexico’s technology-focused stock exchange BIVA and Spain's BME Growth, announced Monday that the group formalized the acquisition of Abengoa’s autonomous productive units, which used to participate heavily in Mexican tenders while the company remains active in other Latin American countries.

“The closure of the transaction … will allow Grupo Cox to strengthen its leadership in the industry and expand its presence in new sectors and regions,” Cox Energy president Enrique Riquelme said in a statement. 

The deal was backed by unions, the public sector and several banks, among others, the statement said. 

Last year, Cox Energy América CEO José Antonio Hurtado said in a results call that the company had “more than 500MW of opportunities in Mexico, so we decide this year how the situation – taking into account distribution – evolves when we start launching these projects, developing them, initiating the construction.”

While President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s energy policies scared away new renewable investments in the country during the first couple of years of his term starting in 2018, the administration’s subsequent policy changes and openness to cooperation revived hope for certain international players. 

Abengoa has been present in Mexico since the 1980s, but it last made news in 2021 when it was awarded a contract by public utility CFE to develop four distribution projects in Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Sonora and Baja California states. 

According to its website, the firm has in Mexico more than 6,500km of transmission lines built.

Cox, on the other hand, has 36 solar parks with total capacity of over 1.8GW in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean. In 2021, it was investing mainly in Mexico and Chile.