
In the nineties most Argentine companies were purchased by companies with headquarters in New York or Madrid but in this decade they come from less glamorous countries: China, India, Brazil, Russia and unsuspected places such as Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

Chilean wood pulp producer Celulosa Arauco y Constitucion SA seeks to continue its regional expansion as it develops plans for a new pulp mill in Uruguay, Arauco's corporate director, Franco Bozzalla, said this week.

China's direct investment in Brazil has surged, putting China on course to be the biggest foreign direct investor in Latin America's largest economy this year.

Jean Paul Luksic, executive president of Chilean company Antofagosta PLC, met this week with authorities and the press at the Minnesota Twins’ Target Field in Minneapolis to present the joint mining project developed with Duluth Metals – a venture now estimated to cost 2 billion US dollars.

Chinese auto-maker Chery Automobile Co. will spend 700 million US dollars on a plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil's wealthiest state, the local newspaper o Estado de S. Paulo reported in its Thursday edition.

Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced Wednesday that its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded an owner’s engineer contract for a new LNG receiving terminal (the “GNL Del Plata” facility) to be built in Uruguay’s capital Montevideo.

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera made his Mercosur debut this week at the regional trade association’s summit in San Juan, Argentina, delivering a well received speech and holding separate meetings with Bolivian President Evo Morales and Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner.

Next Thursday will see the launching of works for Uruguay’s Science Park, an undertaking targeted to attract high tech medical and pharmaceutical industries linked to the production of drugs both for exporting and the domestic market, plus the promotion of scientific research and highly qualified jobs.

Argos Resources with exploration licences in the North Falkland Basin expects its shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on Thursday 29 July. Argos Resources has raised £22 million (£20.6 million net of costs) in a placing of new ordinary shares at 31 pence per share which will give the company a market capitalisation of £67 million.

Rockhopper Exploration (AIM: RKH) announced that on Friday early morning it had spudded Ernest 26/6-1 exploration well in the North Falkland Basin, the second well the British company is drilling following the successful discovery of oil in its Sea Lion prospect.