Jose Cuervo's IPO sold a minority stake but left the family with 86.7%

Jose Cuervo, officially Becle S.A. de C.V., is the world's biggest tequila maker, holding about 30 percent of the global tequila market. The business has stayed in the Beckmann family for more than 250 years; Juan Domingo Beckmann Legorreta inherited a roughly 51 percent stake from his father Juan Francisco Beckmann Vidal and runs the company as CEO.

In 2016 the family decided to list the company on the Mexican Stock Exchange — the first big test of that plan came when Donald Trump's march to the White House sent the peso to a string of record lows, and Cuervo put the IPO on hold twice. By early 2017 they chose to go ahead anyway, betting that tequila's dollar-denominated earnings would outweigh political noise.

The IPO priced in a 30-to-34-peso range and closed on February 9, 2017 having raised about 18.64 billion pesos ($912.6 million) including the overallotment option — the largest Mexican listing in more than three years and the country's first big IPO since Trump's election. Aranda, a subsidiary of Singapore's Temasek, took a 20 percent stake in the listing, putting a floor under demand; the deal was said to be about eight times oversubscribed.

Even after selling, the Beckmann family retained an 86.7 percent stake excluding green-shoe options. Bloomberg's estimates put Juan Domingo Beckmann's and his father's combined wealth at about $5.9 billion after the debut, up from roughly $3.4 billion before the share sale.

The IPO raised 18.64bn pesos ($912.6m), about eight times oversubscribed; the family kept an 86.7% stake and the Beckmanns' wealth jumped from $3.4bn to $5.9bn.

Investors wanted exposure to tequila's boom because the category's earnings are dollar-based and demand is not heavily dependent on price — a natural hedge for peso-averse capital.

Listing a minority float let the family capitalize a booming valuation without giving up a controlling stake, keeping succession and strategy inside the family.

The Temasek anchor order de-risked a politically awkward window — a sovereign fund taking a fifth of the listing signaled quality to other buyers.

Going ahead despite record-low peso prints signaled management conviction; twice delaying had already shown the market the deal would wait for the right conditions.

A family firm can monetize a demand boom without ceding power: sell a small float at peak valuation, bring in a sovereign anchor investor, and keep the decisions — and the premium — in the family.

The listing made the Beckmanns tequila billionaires almost overnight, with their combined wealth estimated at $5.9 billion on debut day, and left the family in control of Becle with roughly 86.7 percent of the shares. Juan Domingo Beckmann remains CEO of the company he took public, which still describes itself as the world's largest tequila producer.