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The Chinese company whose $4.3
billion high-speed rail contract was canceled by Mexico
threatened legal action amid news reports that one of the bid
partners built a home for first lady Angelica Rivera.

“Our company is extremely shocked” by the revocation,
Beijing-based China Railway Construction Corp. (1186) said, according
to the official Xinhua News Agency. “We will resort to legal
means to protect the company’s legitimate interest when it’s
necessary.”

Mexico rescinded the contract last week, citing “doubts
and concerns” about the winning group, which included four
Mexican partners. One, Constructora Teya, is part of a
construction group known as Grupo Higa that built a home for
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s family in Mexico City, Mexican
news website Aristegui Noticias reported yesterday.

Eduardo Sanchez, a presidential spokesman, didn’t respond
to requests for comment over the past two days. Pena Nieto’s
office said in a Nov. 9 statement the first lady bought “real
estate assets” from Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro and
continues to make payments.

The statement didn’t connect the home of Rivera, a former
soap opera star, to the president’s decision to scrap the train
deal.

The Aristegui Noticias report said the home, which it
referred to as the “White House,” is still registered to
Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro, a unit of Grupo Higa.

Political Risk?

Pena Nieto may sustain some political damage if a large
number of Mexicans suspect the builder got preferential
treatment in the rail bidding because of ties to the
presidential couple, according to Mexico-based political
consultant Alfonso Zarate, who works with public-sector
institutions and business groups.

The house’s opulence also may hurt the president’s image,
Zarate said. Aristegui Noticias reported the home’s value at 86
million pesos ($6.3 million).

“In a country with so much poverty and so much inequality,
this type of mansion is an insult to the majority of the
population,” Zarate said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Pena Nieto, who is visiting
Beijing, he hopes Mexico can treat Chinese companies equally,
according to a statement posted on the central government’s
official microblog. Li expressed regret on the rail tender
cancellation by Mexico.

China Railway won the contract on Nov. 3, and Pena Nieto’s
government announced the cancellation three days later. The
company’s stock sank 5.7 percent in Hong Kong after Mexico’s
decision. It fell 3.8 percent to HK$8.11 today.

The contract would have been the first large transportation
investment in Mexico by a Chinese company and the biggest award
by the public-works ministry under Pena Nieto, who took office
in 2012.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Nacha Cattan in Mexico City at
ncattan@bloomberg.net;
Linly Lin in New York at
llin153@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Ed Dufner at
edufner@bloomberg.net
Molly Schuetz, James Callan