The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) sees the initial public offering (IPO) bonanza to spill over into 2023, helping push up equity deals for the year to about P160 billion despite lingering recession worries.
This comes after the PSE achieved a 15-year record in 2022 after nine firms went ahead with their listings amid volatile conditions and surging inflation.
“For 2023, I’m optimistically targeting 14 IPOs,” PSE president Ramon Monzon told the Inquirer.
He said nine of these were larger companies that would list on the PSE main board while three would list on the small, medium and emerging board.
Monzon also expects two real estate investment trusts (REIT) to go public in 2023.
IPOs and other equity transactions would bring the full-year capital raising target to P160 billion, up about 44 percent versus the P110.38 billion raised in 2022, he said.
Uncertain market conditions last year forced several large companies to delay their listing plans.
These include the P28 billion IPO of billionaire Enrique Razon Jr.’s Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc., North Star Meat Merchants Inc. (P4.5 billion) and Upson International Corp. (P5.4 billion), and ORCA Cold Chain Solutions (P1.5 billion).
Another anticipated REIT listing this year includes the assets of real estate and shopping mall giant, SM Prime Holdings Inc. of the Sy family.
The nine IPOs in 2022 were Haus Talk Inc., Figaro Coffee Group Inc., Citicore Energy REIT Corp., Bank of Commerce, CTS Global Equity Group, Inc., Raslag Corp., VistaREIT Inc., Balai ni Fruitas Inc. and Premiere Island Power REIT Corp.
There were also five stock rights offerings, 12 private placements and one introductory listing last year, according to the PSE.
Overall market sentiments were depressed in 2022 as global central banks, including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, turned to aggressive interest rate hikes to curb soaring consumer prices, which were amplified by the postpandemic economic reopening and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The benchmark PSE index closed the year at 6,566.39, down 7.8 percent, while daily average volumes plunged nearly 19 percent to P7.3 billion
Net foreign outflows for the year also jumped to about P68 billion versus P2.75 billion last year, according to the PSE.
“We still consider 2022 a banner year in terms of the number of IPOs, and we look forward to continuing the listing momentum in 2023. We see the equities market becoming a more attractive option for capital raising given the rise in interest rates and as valuations gradually recover,” Monzon said in a separate statement.
“We are optimistic that the stock market can bounce back [in 2023] as the global economy continues to open up and corporate earnings return to prepandemic growth levels,” he added.
The PSE’s market capitalization dropped 8.4 percent to P16.56 trillion last year from P18.08 trillion in 2021.