Blackrock And Mexico's Largest Mining Group Merge Power Assets To Create 4,510 MW Generation Giant

(MENAFN- The Rio Times) Key Points

- Grupo México, the conglomerate of Mexican billionaire Germán Larrea, told the Mexican Stock Exchange on Monday it will combine its power-generation assets with Saavi Energía, the country's largest private power producer, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the BlackRock-owned infrastructure fund. The Grupo Mexico Saavi Energia platform will operate 14 plants with 4,510 megawatts of installed capacity in Mexico's highest-demand industrial zones, plus a development pipeline of nearly 5,000 additional megawatts.

- After closing, Grupo México will hold 70 percent of the combined entity and GIP will retain 30 percent. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to Mexican antitrust approval. Grupo México shares opened the session down 0.42 percent at 199.14 pesos on the BMV, a moderate reaction reflecting both the scale of the deal and the regulatory uncertainty around private power consolidation in Mexico.

- The transaction caps a string of moves by Larrea to refocus the conglomerate on mining and core infrastructure. On April 16, Grupo México sold 80 percent of Concesionaria de Infraestructura del Bajío and an indirect 99 percent of Operadora de Infraestructura del Bajío for 8,223 million pesos. The Saavi alliance also opens what Grupo México described as a long-term commercial relationship with GIP to explore further infrastructure collaboration in Mexico and abroad.

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The Grupo Mexico Saavi Energia combination creates Mexico's largest private generation platform at 4,510 megawatts and gives Germán Larrea a strategic partnership with BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners - a deal that effectively redraws the country's private power map.

Mexico's private power sector got its largest consolidation move of 2026 on Monday morning. The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that the Grupo Mexico Saavi Energia combination announced through a regulatory filing with the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores will integrate the power-generation portfolios of Germán Larrea's mining and infrastructure conglomerate with the largest privately held independent power producer in the country, owned by BlackRock subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners.

The combined entity will run 14 plants in Mexico's highest-demand industrial zones with 4,510 megawatts of installed capacity, according to the documents Grupo México filed with the exchange. A development pipeline of close to 5,000 additional megawatts brings the long-term scale toward roughly 9,500 MW if the projects are built out. Closing is expected in the third quarter of 2026, conditional on Mexican antitrust review.

How the Grupo Mexico Saavi Energia Structure Splits

Grupo México will own 70 percent of the new vehicle once the deal closes. Global Infrastructure Partners - which acquired Saavi Energía outright from London-based Actis in August 2021 in its first direct equity investment in Mexico - will hold the remaining 30 percent. Saavi was originally created in 2018 when Actis bought InterGen's Mexican portfolio for US$1.256 billion and rebuilt the platform around six combined-cycle gas turbine plants, three gas-compression stations, 65 kilometers of natural-gas pipelines, and a wind farm.

The deal also creates a long-term commercial relationship between Grupo México and GIP that Larrea's group described as a platform for exploring further infrastructure collaboration "in Mexico and abroad." That language matters because BlackRock's $12.5 billion acquisition of GIP, completed in 2024, made the global manager one of the largest infrastructure investors in the world - and gave Larrea a counterparty with the financial capacity to scale the next phase of Mexican generation.

The market response was muted. Grupo México shares traded at 199.14 pesos in early Mexico City hours, down 0.42 percent, reflecting the cautious mood around private power consolidation under the Sheinbaum administration's energy framework rather than any rejection of the strategic logic.

Larrea's Portfolio Refocus

The Saavi tie-up arrives ten days after Grupo México's other major April move. On April 16, the conglomerate announced the sale of its toll-road business - 80 percent of Concesionaria de Infraestructura del Bajío, operator of the Salamanca-León highway, plus an indirect 99 percent of Operadora de Infraestructura del Bajío - for 8,223 million pesos, subject to working-capital adjustments.

Read together, the two transactions describe a portfolio refocus. Larrea is exiting a passive concession asset and consolidating leadership in active power generation, where his existing thermal plants overlap geographically with Saavi's combined-cycle fleet across the country's industrial corridors. The rejected $9.3 billion Banamex bid Grupo México made in October 2025 had already signaled that Larrea was prepared to deploy capital into financial-and-infrastructure rather than mining-only expansion - and Citi's refusal pushed the strategy toward bilateral industrial deals like this one.

Grupo México's mining business - particularly Southern Copper Corporation, in which it holds a controlling stake - remains the single largest contributor to group earnings. The power assets historically operated as captive supply for the mining division. The Saavi combination changes that math by creating a market-facing generator with national scale.

Why BlackRock Stays In at 30 Percent

For GIP, the move is a partial monetization rather than an exit. The fund retains 30 percent and gains a domestic Mexican operating partner with deep regulatory relationships - useful in a country where private generators have spent the past five years navigating shifting CFE policy under both AMLO and now Sheinbaum.

CFEnergía CEO Miguel Reyes had publicly identified Saavi as holding an 89 percent share of the northern Mexico private generation market in 2022, citing the company specifically when CFE was lobbying for the AMLO-era electricity reform. Combining Saavi with Grupo México's power assets under a 70-30 structure dilutes that singular concentration narrative while keeping BlackRock-aligned capital inside the country's biggest private generator.

The 30-percent retention also positions GIP for the next phase. The roughly 5,000 megawatts of development pipeline in the combined company will require multi-billion-dollar capex commitments over the second half of the decade. Larrea brings the operating control; BlackRock brings deep capital pools and global infrastructure expertise.

Regulatory Path and Closing Risk

The deal still requires antitrust clearance from the Mexican competition authority. Given Saavi's prior dominance in the northern grid and Grupo México's existing thermal capacity, regulators will examine the combined market position closely. The 70-30 structure was likely designed in part to manage that review.

The Sheinbaum administration's broader energy posture - favoring CFE while signaling pragmatism toward private capacity that the state cannot replace - sets the political backdrop. Mexico's industrial demand is growing faster than CFE can build, and consolidating private capacity in a domestically-controlled vehicle gives the federal government a single, accountable counterparty rather than fragmented foreign owners.

Q3 2026 closing puts the consolidation completion just before the US midterms and the 2027 USMCA review window. For Grupo México shareholders, the deal is the largest power play in the company's history. For BlackRock and Global Infrastructure Partners, it confirms Mexico as the anchor of their Latin American infrastructure strategy at a moment when most private capital is more cautious about the country than at any point in the past decade.

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