The shares of the Mexican firm Sitios Latinoamérica, owned by tycoon Carlos Slim, fell sharply on Thursday after its debut on the local stock market.
At mid-day, the titles of Latin American Sites, which operates the tower business of América Móvil in some countries of the region after its split from the telecommunications giant, plummeted 30.04% to 11.55 pesos, compared to its starting price of 16.51 pesos.
The firm was born from the spin-off of América Móvil’s tower business. The shares of the company of the largest telecommunications company in Mexico received one share of Sites for every 20 titles of América Móvil.
On the day, América Móvil shares rose 1.66% to 17.74 pesos.
Some analysts already expected Sites shares to fall on their debut, though not by as much. However, for specialists, this decline represents a buying opportunity.
Bloomberg noted in a note that America Movil investors will need a Mexican agent to hold the new Sitios Latam shares, or will have to sell them, creating uncertainty about the tax implications for US shareholders, according to a Credit Suisse document cited by Bloomberg, and it is that around 20% of the company’s shares are outside of Mexico.
“Not all foreign investors want to deal with tax issues or hold a stock that is traded in Mexico, where there is much less liquidity than in US markets,” notes Bloomberg.
This situation may be the cause of the collapse of the shares of Sitios in its debut of the firm that operates telecommunications towers in 13 Latin American countries and that is focused on building, operating and marketing towers and other structures for the installation of communication equipment. telecommunications.
The abrupt devaluation forced the Mexican Stock Exchange to momentarily suspend the negotiations of the titles to carry out volatility auctions.
In the course of 2022, the domestic stock market accumulates a drop of 14.5%, one of the worst performances in the period among the main stock markets in the region.
In addition, some 10 companies, including dairy maker Grupo Lala and paper maker Bio Pappel, have exited the market, or announced plans to do so, in the past year.
With information from Reuters.
