PSE’s P3.16B follow-on offer ok’d

PSE president Ramon Monzon and PSE chief operating officer Roel Refran

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a plan by the Philippine Stock Exchange to raise as much as P3.16 billion from the sale of shares to existing “eligible” investors.

Based on a document issued by the SEC on Thursday, the PSE was authorized to sell as much as 11.5 million new common shares at an offer price of as much as P275 per share to existing eligible investors.

Net proceeds from this offering will be used to repay debt to be incurred in connection with its plan to acquire Philippine Dealing Systems Holdings Corp. (PDS Group) PDS, the holding firm for fixed-income trading platform Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., Philippine Depositary and Trust Corp. and Philippine Securities Settlement Corp.

The stock rights offering is open only to “eligible” shareholders. It will not be open to stock brokers to achieve the PSE’s goal of diluting the combined ownership of trading participants. This is in compliance with a provision in the securities regulation law capping single-industry ownership of any operating exchange in the country at 20 percent.