Mexico's government said on Sunday it will launch a new tender on Monday to auction five state-run sugar mills it was unable to sell in a previous offering. The winners of the auction of the mills, which together produce 10 percent of the country's sugar output, will be announced on November 24, and have a total minimum bidding price of 3.92 billion pesos ($231.35 million).
In June, the privatisation arm of Mexico's finance ministry auctioned off four state sugar mills, selling them for a total of 3.28 billion pesos ($213 million), but the tender for five other mills was declared void after no bids were presented. The tender of the nine sugar mills, which together produce about one quarter of Mexico's annual output, is the latest step in an effort to unwind a government take-over of the mills that began over a decade ago. Mexico expropriated 27 mills in 2001 due to major financial problems with the plants, and has since been gradually selling them to private operators.