It's the law.BANKING Bancolombia, a Colombian bank, paid more than US$7 million in damages to approximately 7,000 minority shareholders of the former Banco de Colombia, which merged with Banco Internacional de Colombia (BIC BIC See: Bank Investment Contract ) to create Bancolombia in 2001. An arbitration court in Medellin ruled that the shareholders did not obtain access to the total amount offered by BIC in a $150 million stock issuance in 1998. Bancolombia says the payment to shareholders will not disrupt its activities or impact its financial statements. FOOD Brazil's antitrust regulator Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica (CADE) ruled that Swiss food company Nestle must sell the stake in Brazilian chocolate maker Garoto that it bought two years ago for approximately US$250 million due to Nestle's high market share, which reaches close to 90% in some areas of the country. CADE says the future buyer of Garoto cannot hold more than a 20% market share in chocolate. Nestle says it is considering an appeal of the regulator's decision. MEDIA TV Azteca TV Azteca is the second largest Mexican television network. It was established in 1968 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión ("Imevisión"), and was privatized under its current name in 1993. Its flagship program is the newscast Hechos. , a Mexican media company, was sued by shareholders who accuse ac·cuse v. ac·cused, ac·cus·ing, ac·cus·es v.tr. 1. To charge with a shortcoming or error. 2. To charge formally with a wrongdoing. v.intr. the Mexican media company of issuing misleading statements to the market and failing to disclose details regarding the sale of its mobile unit Unefon. The United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Securities and Exchange Commission also launched an investigation to determine if there was any wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do . TV Azteca denied the charges. TELECOMMUNICATIONS Embratel, a Brazilian long distance provider, appealed a court decision that required the company to pay nearly US$75 million to telephone operator Telemar for past debt related to the use of Telemar's network between August 2001 and July 2002. Embratel says it has paid all of its debt for the service; Telemar insists that it is still owed money under a contract between the two companies. Embratel also is disputing a second debt with Telemar. Venezuela's National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) conducted an investigation into the country's leading mobile operator Telcel, a unit of the United States' BellSouth, and found the company had failed to pay approximately US$12.5 million in taxes. Conatel ordered Telcel to pay the taxes plus 523.7 million in fines and interest. SOURCE: National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade (natlaw@natlaw.com); Translegal, LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control (translegal@earthlink.net), LATIN TRADE Latin Trade is a monthly magazine covering global business in Latin America and the Caribbean. Similar to Forbes and Fortune Magazine in coverage, the magazine was founded in 1993 and now publishes 87,000 copies 1 each month in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. |
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