Tres Marias IPO Goes Late

Tres Marias was expected to price late Tuesday the third IPO in 2 years from Mexico, which saw a 3.4% drop in the bolsa amid global equity weakness. The developer was seen pricing around 1030 EST up to 32m shares at MXP30.00-MXP34.32 with the intention of reaching a MXP1bn deal size. Like many smaller Mexican companies seeking growth capital, Tres Marias sought last year to raise funds through a CCD transaction, but decided to go the IPO route after regulatory changes allowed the liquid Afore pension funds to invest in IPOs. The issuer had originally hoped to issue in May and tried again earlier this month. The process had been delayed due to market conditions, but also by the Bolsa’s work on creating a subgroup of small- and mid-cap stocks with looser initial restrictions in areas such as corporate governance than are in place for larger issuers. The issuer is developing a “city within a city” mixed-use project in Michoacan state. Ixe managed the IPO. Grower Proteak hopes to follow today also with an approximately MXP1bn IPO, through Bulltick Capital.