Mexico Billionaire Pledges $400 Million Argentina Invest In '06

BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- Mexican billionaire businessman Carlos Slim has pledged to invest $400 million next year in two telecommunications companies operating in Argentina: Telefonos de Mexico SA, or Telmex, and America Movil's CTI.

Speaking Wednesday at a "presummit" for business leaders and government economic planners in Buenos Aires - held a day before the Summit of the Americas begins Thursday - Slim also said user rates wouldn't rise during 2006, as long as interconnection costs don't increase.

The offer to freeze rates is likely to score points with President Nestor Kirchner's inflation-wary administration. October consumer price index data are slated for release at 1900 GMT, and are expected to show a month-on-month rise of between 0.8% and 1.0%.

The Summit of the Americas, to be held in the coastal city of Mar de Plata from Thursday through Saturday, brings together 34 heads of state from the Western Hemisphere.

-By Drew Benson, Dow Jones Newswires; 5411-4311-3127; andrew.benson@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 3rd November 2005