Consolidating control: PSE buys additional 4% PDS stake from AIA
The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) will get another slice of the country’s bond trading platform after reaching an agreement with AIA Philippines Life and General Insurance Co. Inc.
In a disclosure on Monday, the operator of the local bourse said it would buy AIA’s 4-percent shareholding, or 250,000 common shares, in Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS).
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This will raise PSE’s ownership in PDS to 88.44 percent, which already includes its existing 20.98-percent stake.
PSE likewise closed its share purchase agreements with Financial Executive Institute of the Philippines Research and Development Foundation (1.54 percent) and Investment House Association of the Philippines (0.65 percent).
“These transactions are part of PSE’s plan to acquire up to 100 percent of [PDS],“ it said in its disclosure.
P2.53B invested so far
Apart from these companies, PSE has also acquired the PDS shares of Bankers Association of the Philippines, Singapore Exchange Ltd., Whistler Technologies Services Inc., San Miguel Corp., Golden Astra Capital Inc. and Mizuho Bank Ltd.
The shares of PDS—operator of Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., Philippine Depository and Trust Corp. and Philippine Securities Settlement Corp—were priced at P600 each.
PSE’s investment has now totaled P2.53 billion.
More than a decade in the making, the deal will allow the country to have a unified marketplace for the trading of both debt and equities.
According to PSE, this unification will make it “easier for companies to tap both equities and debt markets” while enhancing risk management and achieving “operational efficiencies.”
PSE’s takeover was first proposed in 2012, but the company had to hurdle several regulatory challenges.
It nearly completed its acquisition in 2017 after the Bankers Association of the Philippines had agreed to sell its shares in PDS, but the Securities and Exchange Commission blocked the transaction, saying that it would breach the 20-percent ownership cap under the Securities Regulation Code.
The SEC en banc later reversed this decision and allowed the bourse to apply for exemptive relief. —Meg J. Adonis INQ
