The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) said it still expects fresh funds raised from its platform to reach close to P200 billion this year as it will see a record number of initial public offerings (IPO).
PSE President Ramon S. Monzon, however, said they may not be able to hit the P234.48 billion in funds raised from its platform last year, when there two blockbuster offerings—the IPO of Monde Nissin Corp. and the follow-on offering of Synergy Grid and Development Phils. Inc.
“At the rate we’re going, we think we will be having a record number of IPOs in a given year for 2022. However, we do not believe that we will be able to break the same amount of capital raised last year,” Monzon said in a briefing after the bourse’s stockholders’ meeting on Saturday.
Many of the IPOs this year are listed on the PSE’s Small, Medium and Emerging board, some of which were a product of the bourse’s program that assists small firms in going public.
So far, some P76.17 billion in funds have already been raised at the PSE, composed of IPOs, private placement and stock rights offer (SRO) as of July. The biggest fund raising this year was the P40-billion SRO of Union Bank of the Philippines and the smallest was Balai ni Fruitas Inc.’s P288.75-million IPO.
The bourse is expecting some P86 billion more in the pipeline this year, including Globe Telecom Inc.’s P32-billion SRO and Enrique K. Razon Jr.-led Prime Water Infrastructure Capital Inc.’s P28.2-billion IPO. Other pipeline listing include Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp.’s P3.3-billion SRO; the IPOs of Upson International Corp. at P5.43 billion; ISOC Cold Chain Logistics Inc., P1.5 billion; and Alternergy Holdings Corp., P2.18 billion
“Our listing pipeline remains robust. We are hoping that we can at least reach the P200 billion level in terms of amount of capital raised,” Monzon said.
Meanwhile, Monzon said the PSE may again revive its shelved plans to acquire the Philippine Dealing System, the country’s fixed income trading platform, after the previous administration had not pursued its acquisition through state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines.
“I would say it is still on the table. As you know, we had definite plans to acquire PDS in 2018 and we had to put our acquisition plans aside because, at that time, there was a move by the Secretary of Finance to have Land Bank buy PDS,” he said.
“But in the two and a half years since that expression of interest by the secretary of Finance to have Land Bank acquire PDS, nothing has really happened. So, we feel we will be in a position to pursue this acquisition again shortly.”
During the PSE stockholders’ meeting, two new directors were elected to the board: Anthony Te of Armstrong Securities as the fifth broker-director and Government Service Insurance System President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo Veloso as a non-broker director.
Te will occupy the seat vacated by Eusebio H. Tanco, while Veloso replaced former GSIS President and General Manager Rolando Jose Macasaet.
The rest of the PSE Board of Directors retained their seats, led by Jose T. Pardo as chairman, Monzon as president and CEO, former Supreme Court chief justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Consuelo D. Garcia, Vicente L. Panlilio and Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr. all as independent directors.
Anabelle Lim-Chua was also voted as non-broker director representing issuers, Ferdinand K Constantino as non-broker director representing investors, while Tomas I . Alcantara is the non-broker director representing other market participants.
Also elected were broker-directors Diosdado M. Arroyo, Eddie T. Gobing, Wilson L. Sy and Ma. Vivian Yuchengco.