Billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliegos' Elektra languishes after $5 billion one-day fall

For a while, it looked like Grupo Elektra, one of Mexico's largest appliance retailers, was set to become a zombie stock. The shares stopped trading in July at the request of its controlling holder. When regulators wanted to lift the ban, the company pushed to extend it, setting up a tug-of-war and leaving investors in limbo.

Then on Monday trades began appearing - trades that valued the shares at 50% less than where they were in July. That low a bid would normally trigger a circuit breaker at the stock exchange, but securities regulator CNBV ordered an override, defying a court order won by the lawyers for Elektra's controlling shareholder, billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.

By the end of the session, Elektra shares tumbled 71%, vaporising $5.5 billion of Salinas' fortune. The blow, which represents half of his wealth, knocked him off the world's top 500 wealthiest list.


Salinas himself has blown off the debacle, joking about the hit to his wealth. On Wednesday, as he flew from Mexico City to Buenos Aires in his private plane, he posted on X "this poverty that they say I've fallen into doesn't feel too bad." The prolific social media personality - with 1.9 million X followers - had already derided those commenting about his wealth, on paper, as idiots, adding that the decline was due to his decision to privatise the stock.

On Friday, the stock surged as much as 34% in afternoon trading, triggering brief trading halts due to the volatility, before paring gains. It still ended the week down nearly 70%, closing at around 288 pesos per share compared to 945 pesos in July.

Luciano Pascoe, a spokesman for Grupo Salinas, wrote on X on Tuesday that it was natural for the stock to fall given the company's plan to delist shares amid the fraud investigation. "Is this what Elektra is worth? No, it is worth much more and its financial statements prove it," he posted.