Mexican telecom titan and billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil on Wednesday announced its spinoff of its Mexican wireless transmission towers shares will begin on December 21, after receiving authorization from regulators, according to Reuters. Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission authorized the listing of Telesites shares on Wednesday, America Movil said. Telesites shares will form part of Mexico’s benchmark IPC stock index, the company said. America Movil said for every 20 AMX shares, investors would receive one share of Telesites. The timing of the distribution was set for December 21. The Telesites shares will be listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. Additionally, the shares of both America Movil and the Telesites Series L shares are to be included as part of the Mexican Stock Exchange’s index. Finally, the company noted that Series A and Series L shares will be opened with an auction process conducted by the exchange on the first day of trading as a mechanism to minimize significant volatility.
America Movil, Latin America’s biggest wireless and pay-TV provider, was knocked off its perch this week as the top-weighted company in the IPC index following a slump in its share price. The company reported its first quarterly loss in 14 years in October due to sharp losses in Latin American currencies and a squeeze on its profit margins by tougher regulation in Mexico, its biggest market, Reuters said.
The share swap was embraced by at least one Wall Street analyst. Barclays telecom expert Amir Rozwadowsku, writing in “The Roz Report” yesterday, said “we believe a unique confluence of factors has created an intriguing infrastructure investment backdrop for the Mexican telecom arena. Our checks have also reinforced our view that the spin out from America Movil will be a value creative event for shareholders – whether management can execute to plan will be the key determinant on how valuable.”
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