For the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009. Amounts expressed in millions of U.S. dollars ($) and in millions of Mexican pesos (Ps.).
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
1 Activities of the Company
Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. ("FEMSA") is a Mexican holding company. The principal activities of FEMSA and its subsidiaries (the "Company"), as an economic unit, are carried out by operating subsidiaries and grouped under direct and indirect holding company subsidiaries (the "Subholding Companies") of FEMSA.
On February 1, 2010, the Company and The Coca-Cola Company signed a second amendment to the shareholders' agreement that confirms contractually the capability of the Company to govern the operating and financial policies of Coca-Cola FEMSA, to exercise control over the operations in the ordinary course of business and grants protective rights to The Coca-Cola Company on such items as mergers, acquisitions or sales of any line of business. These amendments were signed without transfer of any consideration. The percentage of voting interest of the Company in Coca-Cola FEMSA remains the same after the signing of this amendment.
On April 30, 2010, FEMSA exchanged 100% of its stake in FEMSA Cerveza, the beer business unit, for a 20% economic interest in Heineken Group ("Heineken"). This strategic transaction, as well as the related impacts, is broadly described in Note 5 B.
The following is a description of the activities of the Company as of the date of the issuance of these consolidated financial statements, together with the ownership interest in each Subholding Company:
(1) The Company controls operating and financial policies.
(2) The ownership decreased from 53.7% in 2010 to 50.0% as of December 31, 2011 as a result of merger transactions (see Note 5 A).