The first Mexican company to launch an initial public offering this year could do so before Easter, Mexican Stock Exchange Chief Executive Luis Tellez told Reuters on Thursday. Mexico could see a total of 10 deals this year, including other IPOs, secondary offerings and public listings by investment funds, Tellez said.
"We have one very close, probably before Easter, but the rest will have to wait to see what happens," Tellez said. He declined to provide any details on the possible offering. Local media this week said airlines Aeromexico and Volaris could soon list, but Tellez declined to comment. Tellez was optimistic about the bourse's outlook despite recent volatility in global markets.
"If there is not a serious problem in the Middle East and an interruption of oil supplies, markets will start to normalise and we can meet out goal," he said, referring to the 10 expected offerings. Mexico ended a two-year IPO drought last year with four big listings, including the biggest listing in Mexico in two decades - the debut of construction company OHL Mexico , an affiliate of Spain's Obrascon Huarte Lain (OHL).
The exchange placed its first real estate investment trust on Thursday in a 3.6 billion peso ($298 million) offering that was snapped up mostly by local institutional investors. Just 25 percent of the investors in the deal were foreign. "That would have been the other way around five years ago," Tellez said. Mexico's pension funds have become major players supporting the local market in recent years.
Javier Artigas, the bourse's head of strategy who was also present at the interview, said he sees this year's offerings including up to five IPOs or follow-ons and five investment funds, known as CKDs. The local market could also see three more real estate investment trust deals this year, he said. So far the market has seen two of the CKDs placements and a secondary offering from Mexico's No 3 bank Banorte.
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