Héctor Quezada, Director General, Victaulic • Interview

is changing the fire protection industry.

Is there a particular sector that you are targeting to diversify your current portfolio?

BECK CELEBRATED ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2018.

We are a unique blend of a US-based company with a full time Mexican subsidiary. We have been able to disrupt the industry here. We have been trying to bring different ways to collaborate in the industry and different ways to deliver our projects. What we have been trying to do is integrate the different phases of the delivery process. So, we not only build projects, but design projects. We are the pioneers of the integrated delivery process in the Mexican industry. When a client has an idea for a project, they could come to us and we help them through the design phase, the preconstruction process, and the construction. At the beginning, we were only a construction company, but seven years ago we decided to become an integrated firm. We decided to do it at that time because we have seen that many of our clients have been frustrated with the traditional process and they wanted to have a different solution. We are a commercial design and building company so we do not do any infrastructure. We build stadiums, museums, universities, healthcare facilities, office buildings, hotels, large corporate interiors, and residential towers. We do some industrial plants when a client comes but it is not our main business. We do retail projects and mixed-use projects so we are a commercial real estate design and building company.

WE ARE FOCUSED ON THE URBAN BUILDING SECTOR,

which has felt the impact of new regulations. For example, in Mexico City, regulatory changes have stalled many projects. Until 2019, we had been growing notably in recent years, predominantly concentrated in Mexico City. We have an urban building division that deals with offices, residential projects, hospitals, and hotels. In Mexico City, we participate in major urban works. We had projects such as the Chapultepec tower, with four other towers to follow. Our history is closely related to the history of high-rise buildings in Mexico City. That gave us a platform to build projects such as the Torre Mayor, Reforma tower, and Chapultepec Uno. Traditionally, Bovis' portfolio in Mexico had concentrated on urban construction but now we are considering a greater infrastructure role. We have secured alliances and are working with people who can add value to the development of these projects. We mitigated the prevailing slump by looking to the interior, including Monterrey, Guadalajara, Tijuana, and Mérida, which has worked well. We already had a modest presence in those cities, but now have a permanent footing. We also have another multi-site line of business involving many smaller projects nationwide. For example, we have built bank branches for BBVA and gas stations for British Petroleum. We are taking advantage of the second half of the year to reorganize ourselves before the decline in workload. We want to be stronger once the tempo resumes.

WE SHARE THE GOVERNMENT’S DECISION

to tackle and eliminate corruption. We have strict policies that come directly from our headquarters in Spain regarding this matter. We aim to lower the barriers between the poor and the rich and women and men. Infrastructure development plays a key role in that. Infrastructure is one thing we excel at, and we are here to help improve Mexico's development. In Mexico, one of our goals is to promote local talent. Our team is made of more than 300 direct employees and around 3,000 indirect employees. Sacyr’s operations started in Latin America in Chile in 1996, and today, Mexico is one of the company’s main markets in the region. We are currently finishing construction works for two projects. One is the Pirámides-Tulancingo-Pachuca roadway, which is part of the government’s project to improve road quality. It has been a challenging project; however, we have been able to put into operation eight out of 10 segments on time, and we expect to finish all the works before the end of 2019. We brought our own machines, and formed partnerships with Mexican operators. We are also building a 250-bed hospital in Tlahuac. The hospital will be fully operational in 2Q2020. Based on our experience in building hospitals in earthquake prone countries, such as Chile, we installed earthquake dissipaters, which basically separate the building from its foundation. Projects such as these prove the benefits of PPPs.