Cap Cities Buys Mexican Business Magazine : Media: The purchase of Expansion, No. 1 in Latin American advertising, continues a trend of foreign acquisitions.

In the latest foreign purchase of a Mexican media outlet, Capital Cities/ABC announced Monday that it has bought the publisher of the country’s leading business magazine, Expansion.

While the purchase price is not huge--sources close to the company estimated the undisclosed price at between $10 million and $20 million--the deal is still seen as significant because the magazine has a select readership of about 27,000 and is ranked No. 1 in advertising pages in Latin America, with close to 2,000 pages last year.

By that measure, Expansion would be 18th in Advertising Age magazine’s ranking of U.S. magazines. The parent company, also named Expansion, publishes a construction trade magazine and owns several information services as well.

Cap Cities was an unsuccessful bidder in last month’s auction of two government-owned national television networks. Following the attempt at getting into the broadcasting business, buying a publisher was a natural move for a company that already has a $1-billion-a-year magazine group, said Jeff Logsten, an analyst who follows Cap Cities for the Seidler Cos.

Expansion Publisher F. Harvey Popell said he decided to sell the company because “for the company to be able to realize its full potential, it would do better in the hands of an international media corporation.”

The purchase follows Spanish publisher Grupo Editorial Santillana’s $90-million acquisition last month of a 49% interest in La Prensa, Mexico’s largest-circulation newspaper. Mexican financier Carlos Abedrop bought the majority interest in the former cooperative.

The involvement of foreign publishers accustomed to operating media outlets as businesses is expected to give increasing independence to Mexican publications that are traditionally dependent on government advertising--which makes them sensitive to government pressures.

Over two decades, Expansion has built a solid reputation for reporting on an often hermetic business community. The magazine is a respected source for rankings of importers, exporters and company sizes based on various measures, such as sales or assets.