The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said Wednesday it revived plans to acquire a controlling stake in Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. to unify the country’s equities and fixed-income bourses.
PSE chief finance officer Roel Refran said in a virtual forum the local bourse re-initiated talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the planned acquisition of PDS.
Refran expressed hope the PSE would secure regulatory clearance by early next year.
“In terms of timeline, the process is something we have re-initiated with our SEC. The timelines we are looking at clearing, for the purpose of getting regulatory hurdles, hopefully by 2024 as early as we can in the first or second quarter,” Refran said.
He said the acquisition of PDS would make PSE a multiple asset class. It is also more aligned with the practices in developed markets, he said.
The PSE expressed interest in acquiring more shares in PDS Holdings as early as 2013 to unify the capital markets. It signed in 2017 a new share purchase agreement for the acquisition of the PDS stake owned the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP), BAP Credit Bureau, certain member banks and other banks.
The planned acquisition did not push through as the SEC thumbed down the PSE’s request for exemption from the 20-percent cap in the ownership of a single industry in an exchange.
Meanwhile, Refran said capital raising activities at the stock exchange reached P91.88 billion in the first nine months of 2023, down from a year ago as fewer companies tapped the capital market amid the challenging market conditions.
Only four companies conducted an initial public offering this year, down from eight in 2022.
One big fund-raising activity slated before the end of the year is the P50-billion preferred shares offering of conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
