The Philippine Stock Exchange will revisit plans to acquire a controlling interest in the country’s fixed equities bourse after its earlier attempt was thwarted, a top official said over the weekend.
PSE president and chief executive Ramon Monzon said in an interview the company remained interested in acquiring more shares in Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. and would revisit the plan next year.
“Our interest in PDS for the depository has not waned. It is just a question of timing but [we are] determined to pursue that because we still think that the depository needs to be owned by an exchange or risk management,” Monzon said.
PDS is the holding firm for fixed-income trading platform Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., Philippine Depositary and Trust Corp. and Philippine Securities Settlement Corp.
The PSE in 2013 expressed interest in acquiring more shares in PDS Holdings in a bid to unify the country’s capital markets.
It conducted a P3.1-billion stock rights offering in preparation for the planned acquisition. However, Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018 thumbed down the PSE’s request for exemption from the 20-percent cap in the ownership of a single industry in an exchange.
The SEC said the PSE failed to present clear and convincing evidence that it is competent to operate and manage the fixed-income market.
Meanwhile, Monzon said the local bourse was also reviewing plans to delist delinquent companies, whose shares remained suspended for a long period of time.
Monzon said initial review showed that at least 8 to 10 listed firms could be effected by this clean-up.
He said most of these firms whose shares were suspended from trading failed to submit reportorial requirements or have capital deficiency and negative stockholders equity.
The local bourse has 270 listed companies, but only 80 to 90 firms are being actively traded.
Among the companies whose trading were suspended for more than three years were Unioil Resources & Holdings Co. Inc., Globalport 900 Inc., Asia Amalgamated Holdings Corp., IP E-Game Ventures Inc., Philab Holdings Corp., Primetown Property Group Inc. and Export and Industry Bank Inc.
Other firms that were previously removed by PSE were Calata Corp., Gotesco Land Inc. and Marsteel Consolidated.
The PSE said capital-raising activities at the stock market this year could match or even exceed the record P228.3 billion in 2012, as companies continued to search for funds to finance expansion.
Monzon said capital raised in the first half of 2021 already reached P122.46 billion, with several huge fund-raising activities lined up in the second half.
These include the three real estate investment trust offerings of Filinvest REIT Inc. (P14 billion), RL Commercial REIT Inc. (P26.7 billion) and MREIT Inc. (P27.3 billion).
