(Adds comments from BIVA head, details on market reform,
context)
By Valentine Hilaire
MERIDA, Mexico, March 17 (Reuters) - Mexican
second-biggest stock exchange expects reform legislation to be
ready within the next three months that would encourage more
companies to offer stock to the public, the head of the upstart
bourse said in an interview on Friday.
Maria Ariza, chief executive of the Bolsa Institucional de
Valores, or BIVA, said the proposal would "boost and accelerate
the entry of new entities to the market," particularly smaller
firms.
A consensus among company executives and authorities has
emerged that such a reform is needed, she said, highlighting
that it will include simplified registration and allow a company
to go public in just around three weeks.
The reform has not been proposed to lawmakers, and Ariza did
not provide further details on the steps to come.
Bloomberg News reported on Friday that the government of
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador backs the stock market
reform, quoting the deputy finance minister as saying officials
are evaluating when to present it to Congress.
Mexico's main stock exchange, where shares of heavyweights
like America Movil and Grupo Mexico are traded, is the Bolsa
Mexicana de Valores.
Ariza argued more needs to be done to convince growing
companies, including local unicorns - privately held startups
valued at over $1 billion - to list shares on the local exchange
rather than abroad.
But she said low levels of trading on the two Mexican
exchanges limits the valuation companies are able to achieve by
listing locally.
Nearshoring, the trend of moving production closer to North
American buyers and away from Asia, will make Mexico a more
attractive destination for investors and local companies,
accelerating their path to offering publicly traded shares,
Ariza said.
Mexico's BIVA launched in 2018 in a bid to entice more
companies to go public.
At the time, Ariza said BIVA would lobby the Lopez Obrador
government to make regulatory changes to encourage more initial
public offerings and institutional investment.
(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire and Noe Torres; Editing by
Anthony Esposito, Sarah Morland and William Mallard)
Reuters Messaging:
david.aliregarcia.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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