PSE bullish on targeted P200-B fresh capital

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Stock Exchange sees companies braving the market again after the elections and remains optimistic it will still be able to hit its P200 billion fund-raising target for the year.

PSE president Hans Sicat said transactions are likely to resume in the second half of the year.

“We are targeting about P200 billion. We think we can meet this fund- raising target. We’re hoping the first transaction will begin in the second half,” Sicat said.

He said market conditions are reasonably better than the country’s neighbors in the Southeast Asian region.

These fund-raising activities range from initial public offerings (IPO), follow-on offerings, and private placements.

So far this year, there have been no fund-raising activities  in the local bourse.

Last year, four companies went public -- Crown Asia Chemicals Corp., SBS Philippines Corp., Metro Retail Stores Group Inc., and Italpinas Development Corp.

Two construction giants D.M. Wenceslao and Datem planned to list last year but deferred their listing due to market jitters.

Among the companies that may still list this year are technology firm Pointwest Technologies Corp., and Philstocks Financial, a brokerage company.

Last year, the amount of capital raised via the local bourse stood at P184.6 billion, lower than the earlier estimate of the 2015 target of P200 billion. In 2014, total funds raised amounted to P153.08 billion.

An investment banker said investors are waiting for the listing of two big companies, Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc, a unit of Mexican cement giant Cemex; and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., the Philippine subsidiary of Netherlands based Royal Dutch Shell.

Cemex is looking to raise as much as P39.745 billion, according to its registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It plans to offer up to 2.34 billion common shares at up to P17 per share.

Shell, meanwhile, is aiming to do its IPO this year as mandated by RA 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998.