The Philippine Stock Exchange may hit its P200-billion capital raising target in 2016 due to a healthy pipeline of initial public offerings and other fund-raising activities by listed companies in the second half of the year.
“If everything in pipeline materializes, we will end up meeting the P200-billion target,” PSE president and chief executive officer Hans Sicat said in an interview at the sidelines of the listing ceremony of DoubleDragon Properties Corp.’s P10-billion preferred bond offering.
Sicat said the level of interest in the Philippine stock market had been on the upward trend, with volume of trading at the stock exchange increasing since the successful initial public offering of Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. last week.
“Clearly it has been a good series of fund raising so the calender is quite busy in the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year” Sicat said.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc., on Monday filed an IPO application with the Securities and Exchange Commission that will enable it to raise as much as P29.7 billion in proceeds.
Pilipinas Shell said it would sell up to 300 million in primary and secondary shares, with an option for another 30 million shares in case of overallotment. The shares will be offered at P90 apiece in November.
Sicat said he hoped other companies that previously deferred their IPO plans would finally proceed with their fund-raising activities given the current upbeat trend in the capital markets.
“The current volumes on the exchange… give bankers a lot of impetus to say it is a good time to raise funds and also because valuations in the Philippines and investors interest are quite high,” Sicat said.
