FEMSA continues its expansion

Mexican Economic Development (FEMSA), a company with multiple businesses in Mexico, said it plans to open approximately 235 new branches of its discount retailer, Bara, in the country by 2025.

The Monterrey-based company said it plans to increase the pace of Bara store openings once it completes its administrative separation from the Oxxo convenience store chain.

Between January and March of this year, FEMSA opened 31 Bara stores, bringing its total to 510 establishments in Mexico. In the first three months of 2024, FEMSA opened 15 units.

América Móvil , Latin America's largest telecommunications company, said its shareholders approved the payment of a cash dividend equivalent to 0.52 pesos per share.

The company said the dividend will be paid in two installments of 0.26 pesos, one on July 14 and the other on November 10, 2025. The dividend would imply a yield of 3.1%, based on América Móvil's closing share price of 16.9 pesos on the Mexican Stock Exchange on May 14.

On the other hand, the company also announced that its shareholders approved the creation of a fund for the repurchase of its own shares, which will operate over a one-year period, starting this month, for an amount of 10 billion pesos (501.3 million dollars).

Colombian processed food producer Nutresa reported a 15.9% year-over-year increase in net profit in the first quarter, while announcing the sale of its stake in the local subsidiary of Mexican giant Bimbo and the dates for its share repurchase.

Nutresa announced it has agreed to sell its 39.99% stake in the Colombian subsidiary of the baking giant Bimbo to Spanish companies BB Global Investing Holding and Bakery Iberian Investments.

It also announced the sale of its 30% stake in the Starbucks coffee store franchise in the South American country to its Mexican restaurant partner, Alsea.

Meanwhile, Nutresa announced that it will make two share buyback offers for the company. The first will be held between June 3 and 9, and the second between July 1 and 7. These offers were approved by shareholders last March.

Social media app TikTok was accused Thursday by European Union technology regulators of violating EU rules on online content, exposing its owner, ByteDance, to a fine of up to 6% of its global revenue.

The European Commission said it sent its preliminary findings to TikTok following an investigation launched in February last year.

According to the EU Executive, TikTok failed to comply with its Digital Services Act (DSA) obligation to publish a repository of ads that would allow researchers and users to detect fraudulent ads.

The DSA requires online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content and to provide information about their ads.

According to the Commission, the company fails to provide the necessary information about the content of the ads, the users they are targeted at, and who paid for them.