March 8, 2010 | Bloomberg

Billionaire Carlos Slim’s construction company is poised to win the biggest of three toll- road contracts in Mexico, beating Empresas ICA SAB, the nation’s largest builder, Credit Suisse Group AG said.

Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina SAB, the finance arm for Slim’s Carso Infraestructura y Construccion SAB, will probably win a competition to build the Pacific South highway after staying away from more expensive contracts at the end of Mexico’s economic expansion in 2008, according to Pablo Riveroll, a Credit Suisse analyst in Mexico City. The 8.52 billion peso ($673 million) project is the largest of three toll-road deals the government will start auctioning tomorrow.

“It’s a typical Slim investment: When everything is quite expensive and the bull market is there, projects are coming out and they just let them go,” Riveroll said in a telephone interview. “Now things are more reasonable and they have the cash.”

Slim’s Mexico City-based financing company, known as Ideal, will probably increase sales this year at triple the pace of its competitor, ICA, Riveroll said. Ideal shares climbed 157 percent in the past year, more than double the gain for ICA. Ideal won contracts such as the 3.22 billion-peso offer in October for the Pacific North project, which topped an ICA-led consortium’s bid.

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