(Bloomberg) — The family behind one of Mexico's largest diversified fortunes is increasing its long-term bet on a U.S. regional bank, joining a wave of the country's super-rich expanding their foreign investments.
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Antonio Del Valle Perochena and his family have built up a roughly $250 million stake in the owner of Chicago's Byline Bank, repeatedly snapping up shares over the past year as the U.S. lender's shares have fallen in value, according to regulatory filings.
The Del Valles are already the largest shareholders of Byline Bancorp Inc., with their 26.7% stake the largest U.S. asset in their roughly $4 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Other assets include Mexican bank Ve Por Mas and chemical giant Orbia Advance Corp.
“We always invest as one in what we consider essential to us,” Del Valle, 55, chairman of his family's Kaluz holding company, said in an emailed comment. “The byline is the core.”
Del Valles' buying spree coincides with a strengthening peso against the U.S. dollar, making it easier for Mexican investors to acquire 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 Jose Cuervo tequila recently expanded its real estate investments in the US.
The so-called super peso has also helped boost the ranks of Mexico's mega-rich, including the Del Valles. Their fortunes have more than doubled since the start of 2020, with nearly half of their wealth now tied up in Mexico City-based chemicals maker Orbia, according to Bloomberg's wealth index.
The family has announced more than 20 purchases of Byline shares since late 2022, including last month. This is the first time they have built up their stake since the lender began trading publicly in 2017, the documents show.
Byline is “a balance between their various other international investments,” says Nathan Race, a senior equity research analyst focusing on financial services at Piper Sandler & Co.
Read more: Mexico's billionaires piled up their wealth as AMLO railed against them
'Good franchise'
The Del Valle family began building their fortune in the 1970s through a bank that they later had to transfer 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 that deal in the chemical sector and construction. They returned to the Mexican banking sector in the early 1990s as part of a privatization drive.
The financial crisis prompted them to look at American lenders. After analyzing about two dozen community banks, they acquired Byline's predecessor, Metropolitan Bank Group, in 2013. MBG Investors I LP, a firm that controls Del Valle, took the lead in recapitalizing the bank, according to the documents. He joined the board together with his then partner Roberto Herencia, who remains chairman.
According to last week's earnings report, the Chicago lender's total assets surpassed $9 billion in the first quarter, nearly double the level five years ago. Shareholders' equity exceeded $1 billion, the first time it has been that high in at least a decade.
Shares of Byline rose 3.3% on Friday after the report, bringing its total gain since its 2017 IPO to 15%. While that lags the Russell 2000 Index over the same period, it is better than many of its small-cap financial peers.
Del Valle, former CEO of ING Groep NV, remains optimistic about the bank.
“Every investment we make is focused on the long term,” he says. “We think Byline has a very good franchise.”
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