Mexico City — Mexican department store and restaurant chain Grupo Sanborns is moving forward in the process to delist its shares from the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV).
The group, owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, will carry out a public tender offer on October 31, according to a document sent to investors. The prospectus states that the company expects to offer the acquisition of 297.08 million Series B-1 shares with ticker symbol GSANBORN, equivalent to 13.2253% of the issuer’s capital stock.
The total value of the tender offer amounts to 7.72 billion pesos ($386.7 million).
The proposed price for the tender offer, established at 26 pesos ($1.30) per share, shows a premium of 8.33% from the closing price of 24 pesos per share on September 30.
On July 26, Grupo Sanborns informed potential investors of its intention to delist the company’s shares after a meeting of the board of directors.
“It was agreed to initiate the processes to launch a voluntary public tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Grupo Sanborns,” the statement said.
Grupo Sanborns has a market value of close to 53.92 billion pesos ($2.6 billion), higher than that of Alsea (ALSEA*), which operates Starbucks coffee shops in Mexico and other Latin American countries, and which is valued at 36.91 billion pesos ($1.84 billion).
It is also higher than the value of the issuer of the Mexican Stock Exchange (BOLSAA), and that of Volaris (VOLARA), the airline with the largest passenger numbers in Mexico, which is worth 16.42 billion pesos ($822.39 million).
The announcement of Sanborns’ delisting from the Mexican Stock Exchange was described by analysts as “unfortunate” due to the company’s high stock market value, and the fact that the Mexican stock market continues to shrink in terms of the number of issuers.
Grupo Sanborns is one of five companies that have announced their intention to delist from the Mexican Stock Exchange in recent months, along with Grupo Aeroméxico, which is seeking a more liquid market; poultry giant Bachoco and, more recently, financial services provider Monex.
Share performance
Nine years since having returned to the stock market, the shares of Slim’s retail business have sparked interest among investors as one of the possible candidates to be among the 35 most-traded companies in the country.
The shares’ all-time high was $32.12 pesos ($1.60), but is a level the shares have failed to attain since, their highest level having been 29 pesos in December, falling to 21 in the middle of this year.
Days before the announcement of the public tender, on July 6, the price of the shares increased 4.20% to 22 pesos, until the following week when the intention to delist was announced, when the shares leapt 11.36%.
From July 27 to September 30, the shares dropped by 3.3%.