The Philippine Stock Exchange asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to act on its request for exemptive relief to pursue the acquisition of the bond exchange as the share purchase agreements with shareholders of Philippine Dealing System and Holdings Corp. are set to expire on March 31.
PSE president Ramon Monzon said in an interview following the listing ceremony of P2.9-billion rights offering that he wrote a letter to the SEC regarding its request for the exemptive relief and that the exchange completed the rights offering.
“We sent the letter last Friday but we have yet to receive a reply,” Monzon said.
Stock brokers’ stake in PSE was now down to 21.38 percent, but excluding the 2.2-percent shares held by inactive brokers which were going through the process of revocation by the SEC, brokers’ ownership in PSE would be less than 20 percent.
Monzon said the PSE was hoping that it would finally get the exemptive relief from the SEC before the end of month as the share purchase agreements it signed with various shareholders of PDSHC owning 72 percent of the bond exchange would expire on March 31.
Shareholders of PDSHC could entertain the offer of state-run Land Bank of the Philippines, once the SPAs with PSE expired.
LandBank earlier said it was willing to acquire a 66.7- percent stake in PDSHC at P360 per share, or 12 percent higher than the P320 offer of PSE.
LandBank would also need to get an exemptive relief from the SEC and an approval from the Philippine Competition Commission.
The Securities Regulation Code provides that no single group can own up to 20 percent of an exchange.
One option being considered by PSE is to extend the closing of the date of SPAs. “We could extend, but I don’t know if that is the right thing to do. What is the extension for? What will change?” Monzon said.
Monzon said the PSE was not willing to engage the government in a bidding war by increasing its offer price for PDSHC.
Another option for PSE is to build its own depository after it raised P2.9 billion from the rights offering.