The shares of Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico SAB DE CV (NYSE:BSMX) surge by more than 9 percent on its first day of trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday afternoon. As of 3:30 PM EDT, the Santander Mexico’s stock price is around $13.15 per share.
On the other hand, shares of the company in the Stock Exchange in Mexico rose by 8 percent of its offering price to 33.90 pesos. Santander Mexico’s IPO price was 31.25 pesos per share in Mexico while $12.185 at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Banco Santander, the parent company of Santander Mexico decided to sell shares of its Mexican subsidiary to raise extra funds in anticipation for possible losses from Spain’s housing market bubble, a part of the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis.
According to reports, Santander Mexico’s IPO was the largest in Latin America while the second largest IPO in the United States behind Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). The company’s market value was $16.54 billion.
In its filing with the Mexican Exchange, Santander Mexico reported that it raised $4.12 billion after selling approximately 1.7 billion shares during its public offerings.
Marcos Martinez, chief executive officer of Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico SAB DE CV (NYSE:BSMX) described the public offering of the company as nearly five times oversubscribed particularly from American and European investors. Its stock was the most actively traded at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
In an interview with Reuters, Martinez said, “The interest for the bank and the country is good news for us. It was exactly the right time to do this in our country.”We put in a lot of effort, but we are even a little bit surprised because of the response of the investors.”
He also emphasized that Banco Santander has no plans in selling more shares of its Mexican subsidiary, thus investors has nothing to worry of possible devaluation of their holdings in the company.
According to Reuters report, the funds raised by the company in its public offering at the Mexican Exchange would be used to increase Santander’s capital in Spain. The company was slightly affected by the economic crisis in the country.
The independent stress test on the banking industry in Spain revealed there is a need for capital infusion as much as $77.7 billion. Despite the situation of Spain’s banking industry, Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico SAB DE CV (NYSE:BSMX) expects to present a clean balance sheet, according to the report.
Analysts estimated that Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico SAB DE CV (NYSE:BSMX) would experience 4 percent growth this year year and in 2013 due to a growing middle class that are starting to open new bank accounts and applying for first time loans.
