The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) will remove conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and Aboitiz Power Corp. from the benchmark index—the PSEi—as both firms fell below the minimum public float requirement of 20 percent.
The two firms will be replaced by Enrique Razon Jr.’s Bloombery Resorts Corp. and tuna canner Century Pacific Food Inc.
Bloomberry’s public float is at 33.94 percent, while that of Century Pacific is at 34.44 percent.
PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said in his memorandum that all changes are effective on September 26.
“The index constituent update is based on the requirements for inclusion in the PSE Index Series under the exchange’s policy on index management,” the memorandum read.
In order to qualify for PSEi and sector indices inclusion, a listed firm must be among the top companies in terms of liquidity and market capitalization and it should also have a free float level of at least 20 percent of its outstanding shares. Relevant financial criteria as well as eligibility for early inclusion are also taken into account by the PSE in the index review.
MPIC is in the middle of a delisting process as its public float is now at 2.78 percent after the consortium acquired 19.04 percent of the company’s outstanding capital.
AboitizPower’s public float, meanwhile, fell to 19.98 percent, due to its ongoing share buyback program as well as acquisitions by its directors and officers from the market.
On Thursday, it’s public ownership is back at 20.05 percent.
AboitizPower will also be removed from the PSE Dividend Index and will be replace by Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. The Aboitiz unit is set to exit the Industrials sub-index without a replacement.
PSE said MPIC will be removed from the Holding Firms index without a replacement while Bloomberry will be replaced by DDMP Reit Inc. in the PSE Mid Cap Index.
