‘Golden cage’: The billionaire whose fortune is set to plunge in a bizarre market mystery

Ricardo Salinas Pliego is no stranger to controversy and crisis. Over decades, the entrepreneur has feuded with business partners, investors and regulators as he built an empire that has made him Mexico’s third-richest person.

But even for Salinas, the current financial predicament is dire – and also a little odd.

Ricardo Salinas Pliego is in a financial predicament. Credit: Bloomberg

That’s because the bulk of his $US10.5 billion ($16.3 billion) wealth is tied up in a company, Grupo Elektra, that is poised to plunge in value as soon as it begins trading again on the Mexican stock exchange. This is where things get weird. Officials have been trying for days to lift the halt on the stock that was imposed in July, only to give up once buy orders hit trading screens in the pre-market auction.

The problem: the bids are so shockingly low, coming in at less than 50 per cent of the stock’s value in July, that the market circuit breaker designed to limit volatility is immediately tripped, and the stock is halted again without a single transaction taking place. So for official bookkeeping reasons, Elektra’s shares are still worth the same 944.95 pesos they were quoted at on July 26, and Salinas’ wealth remains, precariously for now, intact.

The cause of the initial ban was, like many things involving Salinas, a bit mysterious. Salinas himself had triggered the trading halt in July when he alleged a creditor had used the company shares to fund a $US110 million loan.

Lawyers for the billionaire said most of the shares appeared to have been sold, pushing the stock price down – with the rest allegedly pocketed by the creditor. The creditor has denied any wrongdoing.

Index suspension

What followed the allegations of fraud was easier to understand — after a month of no trading, Elektra got booted from the country’s main stock gauge, leaving it without the crucial support of index-tracking funds needed to support the share price. Which is why traders have been lobbing in such lowball bids when the exchange tried to restart trading.

In another unusual twist, lawyers for Salinas are fighting in court to prevent the stock from trading. On Friday morning, Elektra said that resuming trading would cause “irreparable damage to the company”, adding that the exchange and regulators would be responsible for any “adverse effects”. It was, analysts said, a not-so-veiled play to keep the stock price from collapsing.

Salinas is the third-richest person in Mexico. Credit: Bloomberg

“It’s a golden cage — looks real pretty, but it’s still a cage,” said Carlos Legaspy, chief executive officer of broker-dealer Insight Securities.

A spokesperson for the billionaire didn’t respond to requests for comment on Elektra or his wealth.

Salinas has won legal rulings against the Mexican exchange before. In 2012, his lawyers filed lawsuits against exchange officials and successfully beat back an attempt to kick it off the same index. Officials had alleged the company was manipulating the amount of floating shares to help maintain its inclusion in the benchmark.

Uncle Rich

Salinas controls nearly 80 per cent of Elektra’s outstanding shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and has relied on that holding to borrow money and support the extravagant lifestyle he depicts with his online “Tio Richie”, or Uncle Rich, persona.

His stake in the company, which offers everything from appliances to telephones and motorcycles, and also includes branches of Banco Azteca, represents three-quarters of his net worth, the data show.

“If you use your budding empire as a personal piggy bank, things may eventually turn iffy,” said Diego Ferro, founder of M2M Capital, a New York-based investment firm focusing on emerging markets.

Meanwhile, Salinas is facing another potential blow to his wealth. Since last year, the billionaire has been locked in an increasingly heated confrontation with the government over billions of dollars in tax claims.

The government alleges that four of his companies owe 63 billion pesos ($4.7 billion) in taxes in 17 different cases going back as far as 2008. Salinas has argued that the government is trying to “charge us twice” by not recognising deductions from losses.

After years of court battles, several claims against Elektra are in their final appeals before the Supreme Court, which could rule in the coming months.

Even with the share freeze, Salinas’ net worth has fallen 28 per cent this year from $US15.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

As painful as the financial hit may ultimately be, Legaspy, the chief executive at Insight Securities, said there was one thing he was certain of when it came to someone as resilient and deep-pocketed as Salinas: “He’ll survive.”

Bloomberg

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