The Philippine Stock Exchange plans to sell 11.5 million common shares through a follow-on offering which could raise up P2.8 billion in fresh capital.
PSE said in a disclosure that its board in a special meeting authorized the issuance of 11.5 million common shares out of the unissued portion of the company’s authorized capital stock offered to the public.
The share sale is a part of the company’s move to reduce brokers’ ownership in the stock exchange to 20 percent as prescribed under the Securities Regulation Code.
Other details of the share sale remain to be finalized including the timetable.
The sale of 11.5 million common shares will generate up to P2.8 billion in proceeds, based on the PSE’s closing price of P245 per share Wednesday.
The local bourse said it would use the proceeds from the fund raising activity to finance the acquisition of PDS Holdings Corp. and working capital requirements of the exchange.
The PSE has been planning to acquire a majority stake in PDS Holdings, which serves as the holding firm for fixed-income trading platform Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., Philippine Depositary and Trust Corp. and Philippine Securities Settlement Corp.
The PDS acquisition was valued at P2 billion.
Newly elected PSE president Ramon Monzon earlier said he would focus on two major programs this year, including reducing brokers’ ownership in the stock exchange to 20 percent and completing the PDS Holdings acquisition.
Stockbrokers still own about 27.9-percent stake in the local bourse. SEC earlier gave the PSE until this year to comply with the ownership limit.
