The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to release rules that will increase the minimum public float requirement of listed companies to 15 percent from the current 10 percent, a top official said.
SEC commissioner Ephyro Luis Amatong told the Manila Standard the new rules, subject to comment by affected sectors, would give listed companies one year to comply with the higher public float requirement.
Herbosa said aside from the issuance of the new rules on minimum public float, the corporate regulator would also issue the required 15-percent minimum public offering requirement for all initial public offerings.
“Once the policy rules go out, all IPOs must have minimum public float of 15 percent and all other listed firms will have one year to comply with the 15 percent public float requirement,” Amatong said.
Amatong said the SEC approved the P9.2-billion initial public offering of Eagle Cement even though it was floating only 11 percent of shares to the public because the company expressed willingness to increase the public ownership to 15 percent once the final SEC rules came out.
The increase in the minimum public float to 15 percent is in line with the SEC’s goal to bring the figure up to 30 percent to boost liquidity in the stock market and make the Philippine capital markets at par with neighboring countries.
The Philippine Stock Exchange earlier opposed the plan of the SEC to increase the public float requirement for listed firms, claiming that the average public float of listed companies was already more than 30 percent.
The PSE said it would better to let the companies decide for themselves when to sell additional shares additional to the public.
The SEC and the PSE imposed a 10-percent minimum public ownership for all listed companies in 2011. This move resulted in the voluntary delisting of several listed companies because of their failure to comply.
Among these companies were San Miguel Brewery Inc., San Miguel Properties Inc., Eton Properties Philippines Inc., Cosmos Bottling Corp., First Metro Investments Corp., PLDT Communication and Energy Ventures Inc.
Other listed firms will public float of less than 10 percent were able to comply with the rule, including Filinvest Development Corp., Integrated Microelectronics Inc., PAL Holdings Inc. and San Miguel Purefoods Co. Inc.