Capital-raising activities via bourse seen at P185B

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) expects capital-raising activities through its bourse to end the year at about P185 billion, matching last year’s level.

The last-quarter boost would come from the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and some other smaller IPOs and private placement deals on the way, PSE president Hans Sicat said at the Latham & Watkins conference Tuesday.

Although the PSE earlier announced a P200-billion target on capital-raising activities this year, Sicat said that based on conservative estimates, around P185 billion could be raised for the full year.

In the first nine months of the year, equity raised through the PSE dropped by 39 percent year-on-year to P92.21 billion.

But with Pilipinas Shell IPO and some other equity deals, Sicat said he was confident that the PSE could match last year’s level.

The local unit of century-old Royal Dutch Shell plans to sell as much as P29.7 billion worth of shares in what could be a landmark IPO deal. The offering will run from Oct. 19 to 25 this year while listing under the ticker “SHLPH” is scheduled on Nov. 3.

If the company is able to issue the maximum amount of shares at the maximum price, it will be the biggest stock market debut in the history of the PSE. The three largest IPOs so far in the local market were completed by the following issuers: retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (P28.11 billion in 2013), Sy family-led conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (P26.25 billion in 2005) and Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. (P25.1 billion in 2016).

Two IPOs have been completed by the PSE this year. Prior to cement-maker Cemex, the Villar family’s death care provider Golden Haven Memorial Park raised P778 million from its stock debut.

Since the start of the year, Sicat reported that total market capitalization of the PSE had risen by 11.8 percent to P15.05 trillion while domestic market capitalization has grown by 15.1 percent to P12.87 trillion.

Despite the wave of foreign selling seen in the last two months, there was still P37.55 billion in net foreign buying at the stock market.