Rancho Santiago, Mexico Bank Plan to Aid Businesses

An Orange County community college district signed an agreement Wednesday with the Mexican national development bank to train Mexicans to aid small businesses in that country and to encourage deals between firms on either side of the border.

The agreement with the Rancho Santiago Community College District is Nacional Financiera’s first with a U.S. college.

In the initial stages, Mexican officials will study how to run a small business with ties to U.S. markets. They would then start training centers in Mexico to pass on that knowledge.

As part of the deal, Nacional Financiera also is establishing a $50-million Hispanic Private Equity Fund to finance businesses on both sides of the border.

Patricio Marcos Giacoman, the bank’s director of promotion and technical assistance, said Mexican officials had explored colleges in New York, Chicago and Texas.

What sealed the deal for the community college district was that it already had established a California-Mexico Trade Assistance Center in downtown Santa Ana aimed at helping local businesses establish markets in Mexico.

“[Nacional Financiera] wants to start working with an established network in the U.S., which we have, and we want to continue working with an established network in Mexico, which they have,” said Enrique Perez, director of the college’s trade assistance center. “It’s a perfect partnership.”

Since opening in July 2000, the center has helped 225 small Orange County companies develop strategies for entering the Mexican market, providing government, business and educational contacts and helping them navigate Mexican regulations. It also has assisted 65 Mexican companies.

The Mexican government plans to establish small-business information centers in each of its 32 states, each of which will concentrate on links to the U.S. market. The officials running those centers will be trained at Rancho Santiago’s trade assistance center.

The first people to arrive from Mexico will be representatives from the states of Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Puebla.

“They’re sending those people here to learn our methods, how we take a company from step one to a success story,” Perez said. “Everything from how we’re sitting on boards, to networking, to how we’re able to outreach to the business community.”

Perez said those people will provide additional contacts for Orange County businesses. “Establishing 32 information centers gives me a strategic person in every [Mexican] state,” he said. “It means a vast network to assist us.”

Edward Hernandez, chancellor of the community college district, which includes Santa Ana and Rancho Santiago colleges, said one of the jobs of two-year schools is economic development of their communities. “People forget that’s one of our missions,” he said.

To bring the community college district and the bank closer, Nacional Financiera will open an office a floor above the trade assistance center’s office in Santa Ana, a mile or two from campus. The office will be on the 10th floor of the International Business Center, the same building that houses the Mexican government’s first U.S. trade center.

Mark Bock, an owner of Zen Electronics in Laguna Hills, is one of several business owners meeting with Nacional Financiera representatives today. The company, which employees 11 people and sells products to cable TV system operators, plans to open a branch soon in Ensenada.

“International trade is a heck of a lot more difficult than trade across state or county lines,” Bock said. “There’s always some sort of trick. These guys know where to go.”

Greg Watkins, an owner of Watkins/Baile and Associates in Newport Beach, also is meeting with the bank. The three-person architectural and development firm is involved in several Mexican projects, including building a new port in the resort city of Manzanillo.

Like Bock, he has his eye on financing from the $50-million fund.

“We’re small, and that’s why we need help,” he said.

The fund is being organized by Wasatch Bank in Salt Lake City and will raise money mainly from institutional investors. The minimum investment is $250,000. Nacional Financiera will provide 20% of the funds.

The fund will focus on Latino-owned companies here that want to do business in Mexico or Central America and Mexican companies that want to enter the U.S. market. The fund will lend to companies or take an ownership position in them.