PSE eyes 10% hike in profit

The Philippine Stock Exchange is on track to see P200-billion worth of capital-raising activities at its bourse this year, nearly replicating record feats in the last two years.

The PSE is also in line with its goal to grow net profit by at least 10 percent this year, bourse president Hans Sicat said in a briefing Friday night.

In the first semester, the PSE expanded its net income by 34 percent year-on-year to P570.26 million as listing-related income more than doubled.

In the first six months, Sicat said capital-raising activities through the PSE had already reached about P99 billion.

“In the next four to six weeks, there’s another P20 billion to P25 billion coming on board,” Sicat said.

About nine or 10 companies are seen making their trading debut this year, whether through an initial public offering (IPO), listing by introduction or backdoor listing, he said.

In the first semester, two companies conducted IPOs—Double Dragon Properties and Century Pacific Food Inc.

The projected amount of capital-raising activities this year also includes follow-on offerings, stock rights offerings, private placements and other activities aside from IPOs.

“Our estimate is that there will be more fund-raising in the next nine months than in the second half of 2015,” Sicat said, noting that as central banks around the world start raising interest rates in the latter half of next year, companies would want to tap the capital markets ahead of the monetary tightening cycle.

On the PSE’s first semester results, six-month revenues were up by 27.6 percent year-on-year to P909.49 million, on the back of a 109.1-percent surge in listing-related income to P575.77 million.

Trading-related income, another revenue component of the exchange, was down, however, by 17.3 percent year-on-year to P144.92 million due to lower trading volume.

The decline was tempered by a 21.3-percent rise in data feed income and a 61-percent growth in subscription fees.

“We are looking forward to more capital-raising activities this year as market conditions remain ideal for that purpose. We are also optimistic that trading activity will pick up in the remaining months so we can see average daily turnover closer to the previous year’s level,” Sicat said.

Total expenses rose by 13.5 percent to P273.27 million, mainly as a result of higher operational expenses.