Unified PSE trading floor debuts in BGC

PSE celebrates relocation to new home in BGC

For the first time since the merger of two rival local stock exchanges 25 years ago, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) opened a unified trading floor in its new headquarters in Bonifacio Global City on Monday, auspiciously timed on the first trading day of the new Lunar Year of the Dog.

“This is really history in the making. We’re finally all here,” PSE chair Jose T. Pardo said during the bell-ringing ceremony held to mark the PSE’s relocation to its new home.

Even as the old Makati and Manila stock exchanges merged to create the entity called PSE 25 years ago, two trading floors continued to operate until this unification in BGC.

Dubbed as the PSE Tower, the new building is located at 5th Street corner 28th Avenue in BGC. The building has an external ticker board on its façade that displays real-time stock prices and market data.

“I know that the journey towards to having this home in BGC took years to materialize. But as I looked around the offices, I knew it would turn out something worth waiting for,” Pardo said.

The new trading floor is about two-thirds the size of the old trading floor in Makati where the PSE used to hold fort prior to this relocation, based on the estimate of some floor traders. But Pardo said it would have bigger offices for the PSE, improving its ability to grow and support initiatives to launch new products.

Pardo also announced that the PSE’s new home in BGC would have a new museum that would showcase the rich history of the local stock exchange. The PSE is one of the oldest stock exchanges in Asia, having been in continuous operation since the establishment of the Manila Stock Exchange in 1927.

“What better way to witness this unification than pursue our operations to become a world-class exchange right here at the world-class Bonifacio Global City, one of the most modern and progressive places in the country,” Pardo said.

Pardo and the PSE’s board of directors and management toasted the opening of the new trading floor on Monday while a dragon dance was also held to commemorate the Lunar Year turnover. Taguig City mayor Lani Cayetano graced the ceremonies as chief of the host local government unit.

“The move is symbolic of the thrust towards a unified capital market. After the unification of thw two trading floors, the next step would be for PSE to complete its acquisition of the PDS group which would also unify the country’s capital markets,” said PNB Securities president Manuel Lisbona.

PDS Group is the holding firm for fixed-income trading platform Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., Philippine Depositary and Trust Corp. and Philippine Securities Settlement Corp.

“That’s the one last piece that confirms that Bonifacio (Global City) has replaced Makati as the finance center,” said veteran property consultant David Leechiu, president and founder of Leechiu Property Consultants.

The relocation to BGC had taken over two decades due to a series of negotiations and renegotiations of terms with Fort Bonifacio Development Co.

The PSE was originally promised to have a new building in BGC by 2004, with the donor convincing the bourse to set up shop in this part of the metropolis to add prestige to what was then a former military camp that was to be developed into a new central business district. The local bourse agreed to waive the original commitment after much haggling. Ayala Land Inc., which took over the Fort Bonifacio project from the Metro Pacific group in 2002, further deferred the construction of the future PSE headquarters given the previous slump in the high-end property market and also negotiated to move to a new site within BGC.