The Corporación Interamericana de Entretenimiento (CIE) has been listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange since 1995 and is the leading live event company in Latin America. Founded in 1990, CIE now runs entertainment parks, horse racing, trade shows and gaming halls. It is one of the world’s top ten amusement park operators and has interests in film and radio. Outside Mexico the company has a presence in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia Chile and the United States. CIE prides itself on creating top-level attractions that persuade people to leave their homes to visit the arenas, stadia, theatres, parks, zoos and racecourses where the company operates.

CEO of CIE is Alejandro Soberón Kuri, a man credited with proving to the Mexican government that big concerts, banned in 1990 when large public gatherings were limited to soccer matches and bullfights, could be safely staged. He is now opening up electronic bingo to the Mexican market and will be in London next week to charm possible investors. The new bingo operation will boost EBITDA earnings by an estimated 60% in 2 years and the installation of the electronic bingo machines is scheduled for some locations in Mexico City and elsewhere by the end of the year. The electronic Yak (the name by which the number raffle of bingo is known locally) will replace the traditional pre-printed paper card Yak and the company expects to have 5,000 terminals in place at 45 locations by 2007.

CIE and US giant International Game Technology (IGT) have recently formed an alliance whereby IGT will lease the terminals and CIE will have exclusive distributor rights in Mexico for the technology. The investment in electronic Yaks will be between US$32 million and US$34 million and additional EBIDTA generated should be US$25 million in 2006 and over three times as much again in 2007. CIE presently has annual revenues of over US$700 million.

In the grey area of Mexican gambling laws, the validity of the new licences has yet to be determined. In the meantime, CIE is moving from the traditional bingo game that takes up to ten minutes to the electronic version that takes much less than one. Seven million played at CIE outlets in 2004 and the company is confident that the electronic Yaks will increase demand. In a country where slot machines and casinos still are banned legally, it is probably right. (E-09.30.05)

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