Favila, Gan join PSE board

The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) elected new independent directors former Trade Secretary Peter Favila and Andrew Jerome Gan to its 15-member board.

Also reelected during the exchange’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Saturday were Jose Pardo as chair and Ramon Monzon as president and CEO of the bourse.

Favila was head of the Department of Trade and Industry during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and a former PSE director. He recently finished his second stint as Monetary Board private sector representative.

Gan was a director of the Capital Markets Integrity Corp. from 2014 to 2023. He is co-founder and managing director of Beacon Holdings Inc., Beacon Advisors Inc. and Beacon Management Group Inc.

The PSE also elected PLDT Inc. chief legal counsel Marilyn Victorio-Aquino as the telco’s representative to the board. Aquino replaced former PLDT chief financial officer Anabelle Chua, who retired following a P48-billion budget overrun mess.

“The new directors are excellent additions to our board given their notable backgrounds and range of expertise and experience. I, together with the rest of the board, look forward to working with them as we continue to push reforms and initiatives to further develop and deepen our capital market,” Pardo said in a statement.

The PSE board is comprised of one president-director, five broker directors, and nine nonbroker directors. Of the nine nonbroker directors, at least five are independent directors and at least four are directors representing the interests of issuers, investors and other market participants.

The rest of the board was comprised of former Chief Justice Teresita De Castro and Vicente Panlilio as independent directors.

Relected as broker directors were Diosdado Arroyo, Eddie Gobing, Wilson Sy, Anthony Te and Ma. Vivian Yuchengco while directors representing investors were San Miguel Corp. chief finance officer Ferdinand Constantino, Government Service Insurance System president and general manager Jose Arnulfo Veloso; and Tomas Alcantara as director representing other market participants.

The PSE also announced over the weekend that net income during the first half of 2023 rose 11.6 percent to P417.51 million mainly on higher investment income. Operating earnings were slow given the decline in listing and trading related fees.

“The capital raising pipeline in the first half was not as robust as expected. There are offerings targeted in the next two months and hopefully, there will be additional [initial public offerings] before the year ends,” Monzon said in a statement. INQ