Alpek Rises after Debut

Mexico’s Alpek traded up Thursday following the late Wednesday night pricing of its MXP10.44bn ($794m) IPO at the bottom of its range. In the country’s first IPO since July, the Grupo Alfa-controlled petrochemicals producer sold 379.8m shares, including an overallotment, at MXP27.50 each, versus a MXP27.50-MXP31.50 range. The shares finished Thursday at MXP27.92, up 1.53%. The deal was oversubscribed, and went 50% to domestic accounts and 50% to international accounts, according to a banker on the deal, contrary to plans for 75% to be sold outside of Mexico. At the low end of the range, the deal implies a valuation of 6.9x-7.3x 2012 earnings, analysts say, compared to Mexichem’s 7.6x and a 7.3x-7.5x sector average. The polyethylene and polypropylene producer, many of whose products are used in the food and beverage industry, is raising funds to repay debt and for general corporate purposes. Credit Suisse, Citi, HSBC and Morgan Stanley managed the sale. The deal was be the first Mexican IPO since BanRegio raised MXP2.09bn in July, and is the second-largest ever IPO on the Bolsa, after OHL Mexico’s MXP11.2bn sale in 2010, according to Dealogic. Larger debut sales from Mexicans, including Fresnillo, GAP and Telmex, were done on foreign bourses as ADRs or GDRs. There are not any other registered upcoming equity deals in Mexico, through a second-ever Fibra real estate trust and an IPO for Santander’s Mexico unit appear to be the most notable deals in the planning stages.