Aboitiz Power, Deutsche Regis win 2017 PSE Bell Awards

Aboitiz Power wins the 2017 Bell Award (publicly listed company category)

The Philippine Stock Exchange honored publicly listed companies and trading participants which have excelled in their corporate governance (CG) programs and practices.

At the 2017 PSE Bell Awards for excellence in corporate governance held on Thursday at the Makati Shangri-La, the stock exchange named Deutsche Regis Partners as the Bell Awardee in the trading participant category while Aboitiz Power won the Bell Award for the listed company category.

Deutsche Regis bags the 2017 Bell Award (trading participant category)

Deutsche Regis also won a special citation as the best trading participant in terms of compliance program while BPI Securities was honored as the best in retail investor program.

The following publicly listed companies were likewise given the following citations:

– Pilipinas Shell: best in initial public offering program for small investors;

– First Philippine Holdings: best in sustainability program;

– Aboitiz Equity Ventures: best in compliance and ethics program;

– SM Prime Holdings: best in investor relations; and,

– SM Investments, for becoming the second company to breach the P1-trillion market capitalization (after SM Prime).

A special citation was given to China Banking Corporation for having been a PSE Bell Awardee for five consecutive years.

“In the PSE, we remain committed and we will continue to espouse good corporate governance. Many issues that best markets both here and abroad would have been avoided if companies practice the tenets of corporate governance. But clearly, while there are lapses on some occasions, there are also examples of excellence in many others,” PSE chair Jose Pardo said in his opening remarks during the awarding ceremony.

In his president’s message, PSE president Ramon Monzon said: “As you know, our stock market index, the PSEi, has set new record highs 12 times already this year. This could not have happened if both foreign and local investors do not have confidence in our market. Confidence is built on trust and investor trust is earned by companies with good corporate governance standards and practices.”

This year’s panel of judges was chaired by PSE director Edgardo Lacson. The members are: Securities and Exchange Commission chair Teresita Herbosa, Canadian ambassador John Holmes, University of the Philippines president Danilo Concepcion, Capital Markets Integrity Corp. officer-in-charge Daisy Arce and Governance Commission for GOCCS (government-owned and -controlled corporations) chair Samuel Dagpin Jr.