Mexico's president offers to buy US company's coastal property for $375 million to end dispute

[Backseat Driver]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexicos-president-offers-buy-u-192353636.html

Updated Thu, July 27, 2023 at 8:44 PM EDT
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Thursday that he has offered to buy an American company’s Caribbean coast property for about $385 million to end a bitter, years-long dispute.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a formal offer would be presented to Alabama-based Vulcan Materials. The company operated gravel extraction pits at the Yucatan peninsula site before López Obrador's administration closed them.

The company said it had not yet received the president's proposal or responded to the idea. In papers filed for a case before an international arbitration panel, Vulcan Materials valued the almost 6,000-acre (2,400 hectare) property, located just south of the resort town of Playa del Carmen, at $1.9 billion.

López Obrador said his much lower offer was fair and based on a government assessment. He said the most attractive part of the property was the freight shipping dock, which he plans to turn into a dock for cruise ships. snip - Read lots more at the link.
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Hmmmm...seems a real low-ball offer...but don't know the history of this dispute. President Obrador's got some interesting future ideas for infrastructure and tourism, but doesn't President Obrador have more important issues to consider? People seem to want to leave Mexico.

Adding yet another headache for Joe's US State Dept?

Anyone got more insight on this?

[marble falls]

1. They've set goal lines at $1.9B and $385M. The Mexican government knows there is some US tax ...

... relief and a favor or two from Congress for Vulcan. And Vulcan knows if it goes too far south in negotiations the Mexican government could possibly just nationalize it.

The number will fall in the middle, possibly with the Mexican government offering a participation in the tourist business and cutting some of the property out of the deal for Vulcan. Selling gravel in Mexico can't be one Vulcan's big money makers, bit the value of the property in the future is what Vulcan wants to hold into the future. There's a deal for both of them here.