UPDATE 1-Mexico eyes tracking stock for state's Pemex-sources

(Adds comment from Finance Ministry)

By Robert Campbell

MEXICO CITY, March 27 (Reuters) - Mexico is studying the creation of a special class of shares for state oil company Pemex that would trade on the local stock market, according to two people who have seen a government presentation on the subject.

They declined to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The plan, which is in its early stages, calls for Pemex to issue a "tracking stock" which would pay a dividend based on the company's performance but which would not grant the holder any ownership interest in Pemex or a vote at corporate meetings.

The shares would represent the closest thing to a direct investment in Pemex available to investors since Pemex's creation after the nationalization of the sector in 1938.

"The finance ministry has a whole presentation on this tracking stock idea. They have been talking to banks and lawyers about it. They use the English term 'tracking stock' to describe what they want to do," said one person who saw the presentation earlier this week at a seminar held for energy lawyers.

The tracking stock plan is apparently the way the government intends to implement the "citizens' bonds" provision of the energy reform package that was enacted last year. The bonds were meant to improve Pemex's corporate governance and transparency by putting securities in the hands of ordinary citizens.

"There is no plan to issue any security other than the citizens' bonds called for in the law," said Finance Ministry spokesman Rodrigo Brand.