The tycoon Carlos Bremer, director of Grupo Financiero Value, was the winner of the bid held at the auction of the mansion of businessman Zhenli Ye Gon.
At a press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the director of the Property Administration Service (SAE), Ricardo Rodríguez, said on August 12 that the businessman acquired the property for MXN 120 million, or USD 5 million.
They also indicated that the property would not be used personally by the man from Monterrey. Rather, it will be part of the Fundación Butaca Enlace facilities, which the businessman directs, and is dedicated to supporting Mexican athletes.
The organization’s objective is similar to the one to which the resources obtained from the sale of the mansion will be allocated. The president of Mexico recently said that the proceeds would be used for scholarships for the Pan American Games medalists, a sporting event that ended yesterday, August 11.
Carlos Bremer is a recognized figure in the Mexican business world not only for having created the most profitable company in the financial sector. His participation in the Shark Tank program has also boosted his public image.
In the television series, he appears in the company of other great experts in the business sector, such as Arturo Elías Ayuub, Patricia Armendáriz, Luis Harvey, Rodrigo Herrera, and Marcus Dantus.
The program tries to make the “sharks,” businessmen with long experience, listen to the business proposals of entrepreneurs who seek to ally themselves with them. Carlos Bremer stands out for trying to help small businessmen when he considers that his colleagues are not making fair deals. Until 2018, the businessman born in Nuevo León supported 54 projects presented in the program.
Carlos Bremer already had a small savings account when he turned 10, and at 12, he began his business career. At that age, he sold calculators to Monterrey businessmen every year-end. At 19, he joined the Grupo Banpaís brokerage firm, and in 1985, at the age of 25, he participated in the founding of Ábaco Casa de Bolsa. In 1988, at 28, he started Fina Factor, Value in 1993 with Javier Benítez Gómez.
The entrepreneur is defined as a man who concentrates on doing things in the best way in his specialty business sector. “I like to see that my clients do well. That, for me, is the most important thing. I also like to be useful to my city and country and try to do it in ways I think I can contribute. How are they my chances,” he told Fortune magazine in Spanish in 2018.
But in addition, he recognizes himself as a sports lover, one of the reasons that prompted him to buy Zhanli Ye Gon’s mansion: “When we started in the financial part, we decided to start supporting small projects focused on this. It is very good for the city that young people are entertained by playing sports. I believe enormously in Mexican athletes,” he explained.
Much of his life has been dedicated to supporting athletes through trusts and foundations. He had managed to promote the careers of around 50 young people. Some great stars like Paola Longoria, who won her ninth silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games in racquetball, Eduardo Nájera, the second Mexican basketball player to play in the NBA, and boxer Saúl, “El Canelo” Álvarez, one of the highest-paid athletes in the world.
But they are not the only celebrities with whom the name of Carlos Bremer has been linked. The singer Luis Miguel also received financial support from the businessman to pick up his career. In association with Carlos Slim Domit and Miguel Alemán Magnani, he planned to save his career and settle his debts. Although they never gave details about it, extra-official sources have said that the support was given by financing the Luis Miguel series broadcast on the streaming platform Netflix.
The relationship between “El Sol” and Bremer was seen when, on the 25th anniversary of Grupo Financiero Value, the singer performed songs for the workers and friends of the businessman.
He has also ventured into the world of cinema. In 2010, he premiered the film “The Perfect Game” as a producer, telling the story of a Mexican baseball team winning in the United States. It also supported the filming of Campeones, presented in Guadalajara in 2018, at a gala that narrated how the Mexican U-17 team won the World Cup against Brazil in 2005.