| Recommended firms |
| Tier 1 |
| Galicia y Robles SC |
| Mijares Angoitia Cortés y Fuentes SC |
| Ritch Mueller SC |
| White & Case |
| Tier 2 |
| Creel García-Cuéllar y Müggenburg SC |
| González Calvillo SC |
| Holland & Knight – Gallastegui y Lozano |
| Jáuregui Navarrete y Nader SC |
| Kuri Breña Sánchez Ugarte Corcuera y Aznar |
| Martínez Algaba Estrella de Haro y Galván-Duque |
| Santamarina y Steta SC |
In 2006, the Mexican initial public offering (IPO) market has grown by over 21 times. January to September saw $1.232 billion of offerings compared to only $58 million in the same months of 2005, according to Dealogic. Such results go a long way to proving predictions that improved corporate governance would increase foreign investment.
Naturally, the figures for 2006 are inflated by the privatization of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (GAP) in March. This IPO of the Mexican airport operator was the largest from Latin America since the Brazilian listing of Petrobas six years ago. On the GAP deal, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and local counsel Ritch Mueller represented the Mexican government in its sale of 85% of the airport operator. On the other side, Shearman & Sterling acted for the underwriters Credit Suisse and Accival. Assisting the firm was Mexican counsel Creel García-Cuéllar y Müggenburg. The IPO raised over $1 billion.
This takes up a huge proportion of the overall IPO figures for Mexico in 2006. However, such a large transaction proves that the capabilities to cope with further investment are there. It is believed that the GAP IPO will strengthen the belief that foreign investment will bolster the Mexican equity capital markets in the coming years.