Philippine Bourse President Sees Record Number of IPOs This Year

The number of initial public offerings at the Philippine Stock Exchange will probably rise to a record this year, with a value of at least 150 billion pesos ($2.7 billion), bourse President Ramon Monzon said in a virtual briefing.

The guidance is based on existing IPOs in the pipeline and share sales that have already take place, including eight in the first half of the year that raised a total of 76.17 billion pesos, according to Monson. The value of offerings in the southeast Asian country could reach 200 billion pesos if the companies that indicated interest submit applications, he said.

While the number of IPOs this year would probably be the highest ever for the exchange, Monzon said, the capital raised will not match the record 234.48 billion pesos last year, when just two share sales brought in a total of almost 70 billion pesos.

Planned IPOs include Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc.’s 28.2 billion peso share sale and Globe Telecom Inc.’s 32 billion peso follow-on offer, Monzon said. 

Other highlights

• The bourse is looking at reviving its offer to buy the rest of the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. as a rival offer from Land Bank of the Philippines to acquire the nation’s bond exchange and a depository hasn’t been successful.
• The exchange will proceed with a minimum 20% public float requirement for index stocks by December and has urged the three companies in the benchmark with a public float below this level to comply.
• The plan to boost the public float of listed companies to 25% and expand trading liquidity is on hold as the market may not be able to absorb this, given the current weak investor sentiment.
• While the bourse is the ideal platform for trading of crypto currencies because it has the capability to protect and educate investors, it will hold off until rules and regulations have been established.