Scotiabank expects to finance $10 bn in energy projects in Mexico

Canadian banking giant Scotiabank plans to finance oil industry projects worth $10 billion in Mexico over the next four years, a high-level executive said.

Oil giants BP and ExxonMobil are among the companies interested in developing projects in the Gulf of Mexico, Scotiabank’s Latin America director, Paul D’Agata, told Efe.

A large number of mid-sized firms will participate in the huge oil projects, D’Agata, who attended the 77th Mexican Bankers Association, or ABM, annual convention in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, said.

Scotiabank has provided financing for some of the world’s largest companies in the mining, infrastructure, automotive and other industries, the banker said.

The bank has helped companies in these sectors obtain about $10 billion in financing in the past three or four years, D’Agata said.

Mexico’s Lamosa obtained $900 million in financing, while Cementos Chihuahua received $260 million, the Scotiabank executive said.

Scotiabank’s investment portfolio has grown about 20 percent this year, D’Agata said, adding that it could finish 2014 up 30 percent.

Scotiabank has experience working with the oil industry in the western Canadian province of Alberta, which has estimated petroleum reserves of 350 billion barrels, the executive said. EFE

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