In March Luke headed to Mexico and to Argentina – both for the first time – for five days of meetings with local corporates after having spent a few days in the U.S. with colleagues.

Mexico was an opportunity to check in with some longstanding names in the Hosking Partners portfolio such as Cemex, once a distressed casualty of the financial crisis, now an investment-grade peer of other aggregates companies who share a focus on North America but trade on a big premium to Cemex. Escalating tariff talk and uncertainty over the USMCA free-trade agreement provided a further reason to visit this country with a 130 million population on the doorstep of the U.S.’s fastest growing region.

We had initiated positions in a couple of Argentine companies in 2024 soon after the election as president of reforming outsider Javier Milei. A visit was in order to check in on them as well as to meet other companies for the first time, while testing the thesis that this time really may be different in Argentina - a dangerous proposition.

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