Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. booked a net income of P825 million for the full year of 2017, up 18 percent from P702 million in 2016, on increased trading activity at the stock market.
PSE said in a disclosure operating revenues and other income in 2017 increased 10 percent to P1.63 billion from P1.48 billion the previous year.
Average daily turnover in 2017 rose over three percent to P8.06 billion from P7.81 billion in 2016, while subscription fees and market data income climbed 26 percent as a result of more investors using the online trading service of the exchange and the successful introduction of new data products.
Operating income, however, fell three percent in 2017 due to lower listing-related income from initial public offerings..
“The exchange’s successful execution of its major initiatives in 2017 resulted in this positive financial performance of the company. The new products and services that were introduced provided more mechanisms for capital raising and supported our thrust of expanding the retail investor base,” PSE president and chief executive Ramon Monzon said.
Meanwhile, the PSE said it was on track with a scheduled stock rights offering aimed at reducing the brokers’ ownership in the exchange to the 20 percent limit set by the Securities Regulation Code.
The SEC approved the PSE stock rights offering scheduled from February 26 to March 2, 2018.
“We have set even bigger targets and milestones for the exchange in 2018. With our stock rights offering proceeding within schedule, we hope to finally get the exemptive relief from the SEC for our acquisition of PDS. The consolidation of the equities and fixed income markets will result in a bigger and more efficient capital markets for the country,” Monzon said.
Monzon said the PSE would continue to pursue other initiatives this year including the introduction of the name-on-central depository (NODC) program, launch of the short selling facility, creation of new indices and the introduction of structured warrants and derivative products.
