5. Is it true that Carlos Salinas de Gortari sold Telmex to you in exchange for a favor?
A favor in exchange for what? Some said that and it was repeated quite insistently. Let’s see. They said he was a partner. I think that if someone is going to do business it is absurd to buy an over-priced company at 8.600, when he can buy it for one thousand. Do you agree?.
First there were four or five bidders, and then only three, three Mexicans because Mexican majority was a must and there were approximately 14 foreigner bidders; then we, the Mexican partners, were lucky to choose the foreign partner, because we were three and they were 12.
At the end we were actually two Mexicans who chose four foreigners After meeting with almost all of them, we chose two,; I think we met with probably eight or ten and we chose two, the French and the Americans. The French because they had had a very old plant in France, in very poor conditions and had turned it into a highly efficient company.
And the American partners, because of their marketing experience. They had had mobile telephony for several years, and we felt highly complemented; this was part of the selection process.
The bid summon reads: In order to pay the price balance in U.S. Dollars of Series AA shares, the control shares, under a Trust Fund, the winner bidders, by entering a mandate contract with Banco Internacional, may deposit thereunder the Series L shares it owned, so that they could be subsequently sold.
Then, you could pay with money or with L Shares, Who could pay with L Shares,? that is, the party that had L Shares, because we did not have them, we paid cash. I believe, that it was also considered that payment to could be made in six months with an interest payment plus three-percentage points. (Este párrafo está muy confuso, por ello no se puede hacer mucho al respecto).
I do not remember when it was, but instead of paying in January, we paid at the end of December and we decided to pay, I believe 80 per cent, plus three percentage points, and SBC and France Telecom decided otherwise, they paid cash.
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