Grupo México退出阿根廷Belgrano Cargas货运铁路私有化竞标，Milei引资受挫

Mexican billionaire German Larrea’s conglomerate won’t bid for Argentina’s cargo rail network despite receiving US support, a setback for President Javier Milei’s efforts to lure investment through privatizations.

Grupo Mexico SAB dropped out of the race to take over state-run Belgrano Cargas SA on Wednesday after more than a year of lobbying Argentine officials to reconsider the rail model that would be implemented. The company had secured US support and partners in a bid to appeal to Milei’s strong ties with President Donald Trump’s administration, ultimately to no avail.

A Grupo Mexico representative in Argentina confirmed it wouldn’t bid without providing further information. Bloomberg Linea first reported on the decision earlier Wednesday. Alejandro Nuñez, head of Belgrano Cargas, said the privatization is an open process and companies are free to decide whether or not to participate.

Belgrano Cargas owns about 14,000 kilometers of freight rail across Argentina’s farmlands but due to decades of disrepair only 7,600 kilometers are operational. Milei wants to privatize the rail system as part of a broader economic overhaul to boost exports and reduce logistical costs. Almost all of Argentina’s freight cargo is transported by truck.

The key issue revolved around Milei’s insistence to continue with a rail model that Grupo Mexico considered a dealbreaker. Under the government’s “open access” model, multiple freight companies would be allowed to operate on the same track, a decision directly attributed to the libertarian’s free-market philosophy.

Milei’s officials referred to a law from 2015 that stipulates the cargo rail must operate under open access if it’s ever privatized, even though as a state-run entity it controlled the entire operation. Despite the president’s deregulation campaign, his government has no interest in repealing that law at the center of the privatization.

“The open access law was kept because it’s totally aligned with the principles and values of this government. It’s a law that promotes competition,” Nuñez said in April as he led the privatization.

In the US, Mexico and Brazil, cargo rail companies operate under a different system known as vertical integration in which one company controls the infrastructure, trains and operations.

“If they don’t make a radical change in how they plan to tender, we’re not going to bid,” Fernando Lopez Guerra, chief executive officer of Grupo Mexico’s transport unit, said in an April interview. At the time, Lopez Guerra had pledged to invest an initial $3 billion to revamp Argentina’s decaying rails.

Without Grupo Mexico, the only other top contender is a consortium that includes a local Argentine rail operator and another group of grain exporters led by Cargill Inc. and Bunge Global SA. Investments in Belgrano Cargas would qualify for Milei’s marquee investor program known as RIGI, which gives companies tax breaks, legal guarantees and other benefits.

Grupo Mexico, which has a US-based subsidiary, received support from the US Commerce Department to lobby on its behalf and also partnered with Pittsburgh-based Wabtec Corp. to shore up support in Washington for a contract pitched as benefitting American jobs.

The process has drawn out over about two years. The government first announced a privatization in October 2024. It began pulling together an inventory of physical assets like tracks and workshops in July 2025, and published a formal call for bids hits August. Privatizing Belgrano Cargas is part of a push to upgrade Argentina’s transport infrastructure, which included a government auction for a $10 billion dredging contract to deepen a key waterway for exports, the Parana River.

In that auction, Belgian dredging firm DEME Group NV partnered with US-based Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., which also sought out lobbying support from the US government. They lost out to rival Belgian giant Jan de Nul NV in a process marked by accusations of ties to China that Jan de Nul denies.

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