Aeroportuario del Pacifico Advances on Ruling: Mexico City Mover

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB, Mexico’s biggest publicly traded airport operator, climbed the most since August after saying a court ruling bolstered efforts to stop Grupo Mexico SAB from buying more of its shares.

Shares of the Guadalajara, Mexico-based company rose 1.9 percent to 49.05 pesos, the biggest advance since Aug. 29. The benchmark IPC index of Mexican companies fell 0.1 percent.

The company said a ruling by a Mexican federal court was “in favor” of its efforts to stop Grupo Mexico SAB, a Mexico City-based mining and transportation company, from boosting its holdings of the airport operator. The airport operator says Grupo Mexico’s purchase of its shares through the open market is in violation of its bylaws that limit holdings by outside companies, while Grupo Mexico has said the purchases are legal and denied it’s aiming for a takeover.

A lack of clarity about whether Grupo Mexico will seek control of the airport operator has been a drag on Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico shares, said Elizandra Cardoso Azcoitia, an analyst with Grupo Financiero Interacciones.

The court ruling “could have been taken as an excuse to push the price up,” she said from Mexico City.

Grupo Mexico fell 0.1 percent in Mexico City. Company spokesman Juan Rebolledo declined to comment, saying lawyers were reviewing the case.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan J. Levin in Mexico City at jlevin20@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net