Big Cola makes African move: Big Cola, the soft-drink brand controlled by Peru’s Aje Group, is initiating operations in Africa, where it has opened two bottling plants, one in Nigeria and the other in Egypt. Although less than 30 years old (the company was set-up in Ayacucho in 1988), Big Cola is now a significant player in the global market. According to the UK-based Euromonitor, it is ranked number 10 by revenue among global soft drinks producers, with a 1% market share (Coca-Cola is number 1, with a 20% global market share, while Pepsi takes 9.7%). Annual sales are reported…

The trans-oceanic railway, known in Spanish as the Corredor Ferroviario Bioceánico Central, designed to provide an east-west freight transport link stretching across South America from Santos or Açu on Brazil’s Atlantic coast to Ilo on Peru’s Pacific coast, is nothing if not ambitious. Big infrastructure projects can deliver major benefits, but also struggle with major problems. It remains to be seen how the costs and benefits of this one will play out. In May, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang signed a series of agreements designed to get the project in motion.…