Funds raised via stock market hit P67B in Q1

The Philippine Stock Exchange said that capital raising at the bourse hit a new high in the first quarter of 2017, a period that coincided with BDO Unibank Inc.’s P60-billion stock rights offering.

It said the capital raised via the stock exchange during the period hit P67.04 billion, up from P55.9 billion a year ago.

Another major capital raising transaction in the first quarter was Wilcon Depot’s initial public offering, which raised over P7 billion.

In a statement, PSE president and CEO Hans Sicat said the bourse was expecting to see P200 billion worth of fund-raising transactions this year, partly from six to eight IPOs.

“We hope the additional fund raising mechanisms we have worked on in the past months will provide further support to our targets,” he said.

The rules for the listing of dollar denominated securities and Public Private Partnership projects were released in November. Del Monte Pacific raised $150 million via the country’s first US dollar-denominated share sale in April this year. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS