FEMSA to invest USD$1.3 billion in 2018

The Mexican multinational beverage and retail company Fomento Económico Mexicano ( FEMSA ), owner of the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola trademark beverages in the world by volume Coca-Cola FEMSA ( KOF ), the Oxxo chain of convenience stores in Mexico, and a series of drugstores, will invest USD$1.3 billion for the expansion of their different businesses in 2018 , disclosed FEMSA's CEO Eduardo Padilla .

"Regarding the capital expenditure ( capex ), we are expecting to invest the same figure this year, in line with last year's capex, for both Coca-Cola FEMSA and our other retail businesses," said Eduardo Padilla, adding that those resources will be allocated mainly to distribution .

In 2017, FEMSA assigned almost USD$770 million to KOF , USD$390 million for their retail division, USD$60 million for their drugstore chains , USD$40 million for their fuel division , and USD$75 million for overall logistics and refrigeration .

However, it should be noted that FEMSA had a 72.6% drop in net profits from October to December 2017 , despite the partial sale of their Heineken shares, resulting in an overall profit amounted to MXN$1,828 million compared to MXN$6,672 million in the same period of 2016 .

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