Mexican trucker Traxion to sell stock amid nearshoring trend

Mexican trucking and logistics firm Grupo Traxion said it would sell new stock amid a revival of share offerings from companies seeking to tap the buzz over the migration of manufacturers to the country. 

Traxion will offer up to 164.9 million shares in Mexico, it said in a filing on Tuesday. That represents about 30% of outstanding stock, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The share sale is planned for Aug. 10 following a series of roadshows in Mexico, the US and Europe, the company’s head of investor relations Antonio Tejedo said in a message. 

Based on Monday’s closing price, the value of the sale would be around 5.9 billion pesos ($351 million). Traxion shares slipped around 2.34% in Mexico City Tuesday.

Mexico hasn’t seen a secondary share offering in more than two years, excluding real estate investment trusts and private equity vehicles. There have been no major initial public offerings since 2017. However, optimism about the so-called nearshoring trend has fueled a spate of secondary offerings by real estate investment trusts and industrial property developer Vesta, which raised the most money in US markets by a Mexican firm in more than a decade at the end of June. 

Traxion is one of the handful of listed Mexican companies directly exposed to the growth of manufacturing in Mexico, besides industrial property companies. 

JP Morgan and Bank of America are global coordinators for the Traxion sale with BTG Pactual as a bookrunner, Tejedo said.  

Citigroup analyst Stephen Trent said in a note to clients that the lack of details made drawing conclusions hard at this point, but that the sale would increase liquidity in the stock. 

“Traxion’s expected share sale seems to be an attractive opportunity,” Trent wrote. “However, the short-term overhang could be significant.”