FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: ChedrauiLeaks : info@chedrauileaks.com
April 3, 2017 — Publicly traded Grupo Comercial Chedraui SAB de CV has not specifically disclosed to its shareholders that in January 2016, Westhill Inc., a company with ties to its co-founding board members Alfredo and Antonio Chedraui Obeso, became landlord of an El Super grocery store in Las Vegas when the store’s underlying land and surrounding shopping center were purchased for $11.55 million. Rather, Grupo Chedraui as it is known, merely has made general statements that the company has engaged in related party transaction in its periodic financial reports. The grocery building was already owned by another company with ties to Alfredo and Antonio Chedraui Obeso (Bodega Latina Las Vegas LLC). ChedrauiLeaks.org uncovered the transactions through records filed with state and local Nevada and Texas agencies.
Grupo Chedraui similarly failed to specify that a third company with ties to Alfredo and Antonio Chedraui Obeso (Latin Real Estate Inc.), together with the shopping center purchaser, received an $8.25 million loan against the El Super grocery building, its land, and the surrounding shopping center two days after the $11.55 million purchase of the El Super at 1255 S. Lamb Boulevard in Las Vegas (“El Super #20”).
Westhill Inc. owns the land underneath El Super #20, and it owns the shopping center surrounding the grocery. Westhill leases the land to Bodega Latina Las Vegas LLC, another affiliate of Alfredo and Antonio Chedraui that owns the El Super #20 building, within which Bodega Latina Corporation (the US retail subsidiary of Grupo Chedraui) operates the El Super store.
Westhill Inc. has ties to Alfredo and Antonio Chedraui Obeso. Westhill was formed in June 1987 and the following month acquired Houston real estate from an offshore company whose president was Antonio Chedraui. Westhill’s vice president is a senior Grupo Chedraui executive and its president is a longtime manager of Chedraui family business interests.
Westhill Inc., which was the sole purchaser of the grocery land and shopping center, and Latin Real Estate Inc., which does not directly own any of the property, co-borrowed $8.25 million secured by the El Super building, underlying land, and surrounding shopping center. Bodega Latina Las Vegas LLC was the sole owner of the building. Alfredo and Antonio Chedraui Obeso were the founding directors of Latin Real Estate Inc. and have served as its President and Vice-President/Treasurer since at least 2011.
Latin Real Estate Inc. had by January 2012 become the sole member of Bodega Latina Las Vegas LLC which owns the El Super #20 building. Bodega Latina Las Vegas LLC purchased the building in 2009 for $2.54 million when its sole member was Bodega Latina Corporation, the Grupo Chedraui subsidiary. ChedrauiLeaks.org was unable to find any publicly available explanation to Grupo Chedraui investors as to how Latin Real Estate Inc. came to be the sole member of Bodega Latina Las Vegas LLC. Latin Real Estate Inc. reported that it had no parent companies owning 10% or more of its stock – not Bodega Latina, Grupo Chedraui, or any other company – according to its Texas state filings reviewed by ChedrauiLeaks.org.
The documents mentioned in this press release can be found at http://chedrauileaks.org/names-documents/westhill/?lang=en
The questions raised by these transactions and Grupo Chedraui’s lack of transparency concerning the transactions are especially timely given its annual shareholder’s meeting will be held April 3.
About ChedrauiLeaks.org
ChedrauiLeaks.org is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers, to investigate the connections between the Chedraui family and other Mexican elites and their links to business and property in the United States, and provide information about the struggle of El Super workers for a better life.