Elated stakeholders reelect stock exchange board

MANILA, Philippines—The 15-member Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) board led by chair Jose Pardo and president Hans Sicat has obtained a fresh mandate from stockholders for another one-year term as guardians of the bullish local stock market.

This is the third term for the Pardo-Sicat tandem whose board has been elected every year. All 15 board members ran unopposed for a second straight year.

“We had a pretty straightforward annual stockholders meeting. All of the current directors were reelected to another term,” said Sicat in a press briefing after the PSE’s annual stockholders meeting on Saturday.

“We’re quite happy with the results of 2012 and we’re all quite excited for other opportunities that are in front of us for the rest of this year. As part of my own discussion, the big challenge for PSE is to actually get us to a stage where we have more products traded in the exchange, continually increase the float and participation of issuers and, as a result, of investors as well,” Sicat said.

The PSE has been on an upswing for a fifth straight year and has benefited from the Philippine sovereign investment grade rating recently given by two global credit rating agencies, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s.  At the same time, a good stream of corporate earnings, a buoyant economic backdrop and a record-low interest rate regime are allowing equities to outperform other investment outlets.

This year, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index has continued to hit multiple highs.

The 15-member board includes seven brokers and eight nonbrokers.  Of the eight nonbrokers, three are independent directors including Pardo, an entrepreneur and a former finance and trade minister.  The other two are Cornelio Peralta and Dakila Fonacier.

The stockbrokers on the board are Eddie Gobing (Lucky Securities), Eusebio Tanco (Venture Securities), Emmanuel Bautista (Deutsche Regis Partners), Ma. Vivian Yuchengco (The First Resources Management and Securities Corp.), Francis Chua (BA Securities) and Alejandro Yu (R. S. Lim & Co.).

The other board members are Anabelle Chua (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.), Robert Vergara (Government Service Insurance System), Amor Iliscupidez (San Miguel Corp. Retirement Plan) and Edgardo Lacson (Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries).