During the third quarter of the year, companies in Monterrey experienced an increase in their total combined debt, reaching 677 billion 757 million pesos, which represented an increase of 7.36% compared to the same period of the previous year. In this regard, companies such as Cemex and Femsa reported the highest amounts of debt, with 147 billion 911 million and 146 billion 73 million pesos, respectively.
On the other hand, Soriana and Alpek showed the highest annual percentage increases in their debt levels, with 44.15% and 31.72%, reaching 43 billion 454 million and 18 billion 500 million pesos, respectively. Soriana explained that the increase in its debt was intended to finance capital investment projects for this year. Nemak also recorded a significant increase in its debt, reaching 25.48%, totaling 39 billion 990 million pesos, eight billion 120 million more than the previous year.
"We have pending commercial collections that we expect to settle during the fourth quarter, which affected our working capital," said Alberto Sada, Nemak's finance director, explaining that while there were improvements in cash flow, these were offset by the impact of the euro's appreciation on loans denominated in that currency. Nemak's net debt at the end of the quarter was 1 billion 770 million dollars, reflecting a sequential increase of 12 million dollars.
