Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-17)

E C O N O M I C S

32

Nowadays,thatcod

thana boon.OnJun

gradedPemex’sbon

company’s fallingoil

debt,andcutMexico

well.Moody’sInvesto

similarone-twopunch,

Pemex’soutlooktonegat

Overthecourseofa r terviewlast

month,Romerooutlinedhisplanstoshoreup

thetotteringgiant,whichhasanannualbudget

of$24billionandemploysabout128,000people.

Althoughhe’sbeenonthejobforonlya bitmore

thansixmonths,Romerotoutedthesuccessof

someofhissignatureinitiatives,includingappoint-

inghonestpartyloyaliststoseniormanagement

postsandclampingdownonthemultibillion-dollar

tradeinstolenfuel,whichreliesoncollaborators

insidethecompany.

A60-year-oldagronomistwithnooilindus-

tryexperience,Romerohasn’tmanagedtocon-

vinceinvestorsthathis“cleanhands”campaign

amountstoa viablebusinessplan.Prioritizingthe

battleagainstcorruptionis “amistake,”saysLuis

Maizel,a seniormanagingdirectoratLMCapital

GroupinSanDiego,whichholdsPemexbonds.

Maizelarguesthatisa jobnotfortheCEObut PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY 731; PHOTOS: BLOOMBERG; GETTY IMAGES. DATA: PEMEX; BLOOMBERG

Edited by

Cristina Lindblad

Bloomberg Businessweek June 17, 2019

dependencyis moreofaliability

ne6,FitchRatingsInc.down-

ndstojunkstatus,citingthe

lproductionandballooning

o’ssovereigndebtratingas

rs ServiceInc.delivereda

shiftingbothMexico’s and

tive.

two-h r t

dh

“Will passenger Octavio Romero Oropeza please

come to the ticket counter,” blares a loudspeaker at

Veracruz airport, briefly drowning out the clank of

ancient air conditioners and the cacophony of pas-

sengers grousing about delayed departures.

The chief executive officer of Petróleos

Mexicanos is running late—again. That’s a feature,

not a bug. One of Romero’s predecessors, Emilio

Lozoya, regularly commandeered a company heli-

copter to commute to work and to travel to nearby

destinations, racking up a bill for 9.8 million pesos

($511,000), according to a federal audit.

Romero is on the front line of a campaign by his

boss, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to

rid the country of endemic corruption. The strat-

egy involves leading by austere example, and

that’s what Romero is trying to do at Mexico’s

most important company. Taxes and fees paid

by the state-owned Pemex contribute 20% of the

government’s budget, so its fortunes and those

of the country are inextricably bound together.

○ Investors ask if the boss

of Mexico’s most important

company has his priorities right