Holland & Knight’s Mexico City Office Advises Fibra Educa on Initial Public Offering
MEXICO CITY (June 27, 2018) – Holland & Knight represented Fibra Educa (MxEDUCA18) in its debut on the Mexican Stock Exchange on June 27. Despite difficult market conditions created by the Mexican presidential election, Fibra Educa raised almost MX$9.43 billion (close to US$500 million). Its real estate certificates (CBFIs) were listed at $20 pesos each.
Punto Casa de Bolsa and Credit Suisse participated as lead underwriters and Santander and Banorte participated as co-lead underwriters.
Fibra Educa is the 14th FIBRA (Mexican real estate investment trust) to be listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange and its initial public offering (IPO) is the biggest capital placement of the year done by a private entity.
This is the first FIBRA established to primarily acquire, own, develop, lease and operate real estate assets predominantly in the educational sector in Mexico. Fibra Educa intends to rent substantially all of the acquired properties to educational institutions.
"Given the market uncertainty created by the Mexican electoral process, this is a highly important transaction signaling the strength of Fibra Educa and the quality of its assets," said Holland & Knight Partner Guillermo Uribe. "Additionally, the success of this offering relied on the high corporate governance standards established by Fibra Educa, which perfectly aligned with the interests of the investors."
Mr. Uribe and Senior Counsel Adrián Gay Lasa led Associates Jorge González, Mirna Ordaz, Santiago Soldevilla and Alonso Ramirez in advising Fibra Educa.
Mr. Uribe, Mr. Gay and the rest of the Mexico City-based team have been important counselors to Mexico's FIBRA market since the inception of the first Mexican FIBRA in 2011. The Fibra Educa IPO marks the sixth time the Holland & Knight team has advised on FIBRA market debuts. Those issuances include Fibra UNO (2011), Fibra Inn (2013), Fibra Shop (2013,) Fibra HD (2015) and Fibra Plus (2016).
The team also has counseled on several significant follow-on transactions and debt offerings, including the first global bond, the first long-term bond program, the first rights offer made by a FIBRA and the first American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program and advised on the establishment of the Mexican Association of FIBRAs (AMEFI) in December 2015.