MEXICO CITY, April 24 (Reuters) - Mexican lawmakers
could vote as early as this week on a stock market reform bill,
which aims to lure more companies to offer shares to the public,
a source close to the process said on Monday.
The government, along with the country's two main stock
exchanges, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Grupo BMV) and the Bolsa Institucional de Valores (BIVA), put together the
proposal.
Lawmakers in the Senate's treasury and public credit
committee are slated to vote on the measure on Tuesday and then
it would move to the Senate's plenary on Thursday, said the
source, who has direct knowledge of the matter but asked not to
be named.
Mexico has faced a stream of companies delisting and
problems luring other firms to offer IPOs.
"We have a stock market in Mexico that isn't in its best
moment in terms of company listings, but more importantly it's
not of a size fitting of the Mexican economy," Marcos Martinez
Gavica, BMV's chairman, said in a local radio interview.
"That's why we're so happy ... about this possibility of the
new market law being approved which will make accessing the
market easier, more efficient, cheaper, faster," said Martinez.
Maria Ariza, chief executive BIVA, told Reuters in March the
reform 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.
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.
(Reporting by Anthony Esposito and Raul Cortes Fernandez;
Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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