(Bloomberg) — Grupo Elektra shares halted trading Friday as the company asked regulators to maintain a long-standing ban on the transaction, saying lifting it would cause “irreparable” damage.
Read more from Bloomberg
Bids were more than 15% below the stock’s previous price, which bypassed the circuit breaker that triggered the automatic stop. A spokesperson for the program declined to comment.
The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores imposed a trading ban in July after its billionaire owner Ricardo Salinas Pliego accused the lender of stock manipulation. Regulators ordered the exchange to lift the ban on Friday, although Elektra said it had won a court order keeping the ban in place. Regulators are yet to be notified of that decision, the stock exchange said on Friday.
“The measure, in addition to breaking the law, will cause irreparable damage to the company, create instability and distortions in the markets, causing conditions contrary to healthy consumption and market practices and putting all investors at risk,” Elektra said in a statement.
The back-and-out is the latest in a long saga related to Elektra, which includes Salinas’ nearly $11 billion fortune, making him Mexico’s third-richest person, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The suspension was briefly lifted on Oct. 22, but no trading took place in order to “avoid activities inconsistent with market processes,” the exchange said in a statement dated Oct. 23.
Elektra was cut in August from the country’s benchmark index, setting up a steep decline when trading resumed given the large number of index-tracking funds holding the stock.
Best Reads in Bloomberg Businessweek
©2024 Bloomberg LP
Source link
