(Bloomberg) — The family behind one of Mexico’s largest diversified fortunes is increasing its long-term bet on a U.S. regional bank, joining the wave of the country’s super-rich expanding their foreign investments.
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According to regulatory filings, Antonio Del Valle Perochena and his family have built up a roughly $250 million stake in the ownership of Chicago-based Byline Bank and have repeatedly bought up shares over the past year even as the U.S. lender’s shares plunged.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Del Valles are already Byline Bancorp Inc.’s largest shareholder, with their 26.7% stake the largest U.S. asset in their roughly $4 billion fortune. Other assets include Mexican bank Ve Por Mas and chemical giant Orbia Advance Corp.
“We always invest together in what we believe is key,” Del Valle, 55, chairman of his family’s Kaluz holding company, said in emailed comments. “Byline is the core.”
The Del Valles’ buying spree comes with a stronger peso against the U.S. dollar, making it easier for Mexican investors to purchase assets outside the country. Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest person, increased his stake in Spanish real estate firm Realia Business SA last month, while the billionaire family behind tequila Jose Cuervo recently increased its real estate investments in the United States.
The so-called super peso has also helped boost the ranks of Mexico’s mega-rich, including the Del Valles. Her wealth has more than doubled since the start of 2020, with nearly half of her wealth now tied up with Mexico City-based chemical maker Orbia, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.
The family has announced more than 20 purchases of Byline shares since the end of 2022, including just last month. This is the first time they have increased their stake since the lender began trading publicly in 2017, filings show.
Byline is “a balance to their various other international investments,” said Nathan Race, a senior equity research analyst focused on financial services at Piper Sandler & Co.
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“Good franchise”
The Del Valle family began building their fortune in the 1970s through a bank that they later had to hand over to the Mexican government as part of an industry-wide nationalization. Under the leadership of Antonio Del Valle’s father of the same name, they invested part of the proceeds from this business in the chemical sector and construction. They returned to the Mexican banking sector in the early 1990s as part of a privatization offensive.
The financial crisis prompted them to deal with US lenders. After analyzing about two dozen community banks, they bought into Byline’s predecessor, Metropolitan Bank Group, in 2013. A firm controlled by Del Valle, MBG Investors I LP, took the lead in recapitalizing the bank, according to the filings. He joined the board along with his then partner Roberto Herencia, who remains chairman.
The Chicago lender’s total assets topped $9 billion in the first quarter, according to its earnings report last week, nearly double what it had five years ago. Shareholder equity exceeded $1 billion, the first time it had been that high in at least a decade.
Byline’s shares rose 3.3% on Friday following the report, bringing its total gain since its 2017 IPO to 15%. That means it underperforms the Russell 2000 Index over the same period, but is better than many of its small-cap financial sector peers.
Del Valle, a former managing director of ING Groep NV, remains optimistic about the bank.
“Every investment we make is long-term,” he said. “We believe Byline has a very good franchise.”
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