Grupo Lala’s shares rose this Monday to a level not seen since February 2020 on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV), after the dairy company announced that a group of partners intends to launch a public offering voluntary acquisition of up to a quarter of its outstanding papers.
The papers of the Mexican company closed with an advance of 12.86% to 16.50 pesos, its best level since February 13.
At the end of last week, Grupo Lala announced that a group of shareholders will present a takeover bid for all the shares of the company that are in circulation, and that are owned by the investing public, a share with which the control of the company would remain in the hands of the majority shareholders.
The shares in the stock market represent approximately a quarter of the securities in circulation, for an estimated price of 17.36 pesos for each one, that is, they will pay about 1,719.3 million pesos.
With this move, the Mexican dairy company could stop trading on the BMV since the shareholders that make up Trust number 410541-7, intend to request the cancellation of the registration of the company’s shares before the National Registry of Values.
The operation, the company announced in a statement, is subject to the corresponding corporate and regulatory authorizations, including the National Banking and Securities Commission.
The group had a good start to the year. Its net sales for the first quarter rose to 20,043 million pesos, an increase of 3.3%, despite starting from a high comparable base, due to the panic purchases derived from the pandemic in March of last year, and the adverse effect due to the 16.9% depreciation of the Brazilian real with respect to the Mexican peso.
In addition, its action has seen a recovery in the stock market, however, it has had problems convincing investors. On the condition of anonymity, several analysts who follow Lala say they are concerned about the rotation of CEOs, the difficulty in finding a leader other than ArquÃmedes Celis and the interference of the president, Eduardo Tricio, in the affairs of the CEO. .
Many large mutual funds prefer companies with strong corporate governance. In the third quarter of 2019, before the departure of Mauricio Leyva, there were 74 funds invested in Lala, according to Bloomberg data. By the first quarter of 2021, after the rotation in the general management, that number had fallen to 36. In that period, 43 investment funds left the company, and only five new ones entered. This ‘rout’ of large investors explains why the lost value in the market is not recovered.
With information from Reuters.
