The history of Grupo Salinas and Elektra, the credit empire

For decades, millions of Mexicans were left out of the financial system: no credit history, no bank account, no access to a loan. Grupo Salinas built an empire precisely there, among that forgotten population. Its bet was simple and radical: sell them on credit what they wanted to buy and, later, open a bank for them. From a radio factory to a conglomerate of television, telecom and banking, this is its story.

From Salinas y Rocha to the radio factory

The family's commercial roots go back to 1906 and the founding of Salinas y Rocha in 1917, a partnership that pioneered installment selling in Mexico. But the company that would give rise to the modern empire was born in October 1950, when Hugo Salinas Price created Elektra, originally devoted to assembling and manufacturing radios and televisions for a postwar country hungry for affordable electronics.

The decisive turn was moving from manufacturing to retail with credit. Elektra opened its first store in 1956 and began selling appliances in small weekly installments, reaching low-income households that no other chain served.

Ricardo Salinas Pliego takes command

In 1987, Ricardo Salinas Pliego assumed the presidency of the family business and began transforming it into a conglomerate. The Grupo Salinas brand as a holding identity took shape around 2001. Under his leadership, the group would grow far beyond retail.

The first big leap came in 1993. That year, Salinas Pliego's group won the auction to privatize Imevisión, the state broadcaster, for 645 million dollars. Thus TV Azteca was born, breaking Televisa's near-monopoly and creating a duopoly in Mexican commercial television.

Banco Azteca: a bank for the unbanked

The most strategic piece arrived in 2002. On October 26 of that year, Banco Azteca began operations by opening hundreds of branches simultaneously inside the Elektra stores themselves. The logic was brilliant: the bank lived where the customers already were.

Banco Azteca was designed to serve the unbanked, low- and middle-income population, with payroll loans, savings and remittances, without the collateral or documentation traditional banking demanded. It came to have more than 22 million clients.

A conglomerate of many pieces

On that foundation of retail and banking, Grupo Salinas built a set of companies that touch almost every aspect of the Mexican consumer's life.

• Italika, a motorcycle maker that became the sales leader in Mexico.
• Totalplay, the fiber-optic telecom company created in 2011.
• Afore Azteca and Seguros Azteca, the pension and insurance arms for low-income families.
• TV Azteca, the group's media pillar.

Together, Grupo Salinas employs more than 110,000 people and operates in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and other markets, with consolidated sales exceeding 10 billion dollars a year.

Salinas Pliego: fortune, bitcoin faith and tax battles

Ricardo Salinas Pliego is one of Mexico's richest men and a high-profile public figure, known for his active presence on social media and his enthusiasm for bitcoin.

I've got about 70% in bitcoin-related exposure and 30% in gold and gold miners. I don't have a single bond and I don't have any other stocks except my own. — Ricardo Salinas Pliego

His story, however, is also marked by long tax disputes with Mexico's tax authority. In November 2025, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Grupo Salinas companies, including a Grupo Elektra debt of more than 33 billion pesos for fiscal year 2013. The group began paying in installments starting January 2026.

What Grupo Salinas's story leaves behind

In 2024, shareholders approved removing Grupo Elektra from the Mexican Stock Exchange and taking it private, closing a chapter of its public life on the markets. But the model that made it big remains intact: serve those nobody else serves, financing their consumption.

The lesson, beyond the controversies, is clear: there are enormous markets hidden at the base of the pyramid. Whoever designs a product and a credit system for customers everyone else ignores can build an empire. Grupo Salinas turned financial exclusion into its greatest business opportunity.

Sources

• Grupo Salinas (official history) — https://www.gruposalinas.com/home/historia
• CoinDesk — https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/06/17/mexican-billionaire-with-70-of-his-investment-portfolio-in-bitcoin-says-it-s-better-than-real-estate
• Mexico Solidarity Media — https://mexicosolidarity.com/mexicos-supreme-court-resolves-first-grupo-salinas-tax-lawsuit-33-billion-owing/
• Mexico Business News — https://mexicobusiness.news/ecommerce/news/grupo-elektra-delisted-mexican-index-amid-legal-issues
• NextBillion — https://nextbillion.net/banco-azteca-and-elektra-cater-to-the-bop-in-mexico-and-central/