PSE expects 3 more IPOs in 2nd half

MANILA, Philippines -  The Philippine Stock Exchange, the operator of the local bourse, expects at least three more initial public offerings in the second half of the year including previous IPO hopefuls and financial technology company ExpressPay.

In a chance interview last week, PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon said next in the pipeline is the P8-billion IPO of Dennis Uy’s Chelsea Logistics Corp.

“The next big one is Chelsea and at least two others after that,” Monzon said.

Chelsea is expected to list on July 28 from an earlier plan to list on July 5. The offer period will run from July 17 to 21.

Monzon did not identify the two other companies, but industry sources said

ExpressPay has already filed its application with the PSE after earlier filing a separate application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the corporate regulator.

ExpressPay plans to raise P528 million through its IPO of 193.453 million common shares at P2.73 per share.

Another IPO hopeful is celebrity games provider Xeleb, a subsidiary of listed gaming technology company Xurpas Inc.

The PSE is hoping that there would be more that would list in the exchange this year. It hopes to see at least twice the number of companies to list in the exchange to eight from just four in 2016.

Last year’s listings comprised of the Villar family’s Golden Haven, which raised P778 million; Cemex Holdings Philippines with a P25 billion IPO; Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., which raised P18.4 billion ,and Shakey’s which had a P4 billion IPO.

So far, companies that went public this year are Wilcon Depot Inc. (P7 billion); Eagle Cement (P8.6 billion) and Cebu Landmasters Inc. (P3 billion).

Others in the pipeline include Audiowav Inc. (P2.7 billion); Pure Energy Holdings  (P1.5 billion) and The Big Chill (P500 million to P600 million).

Monzon, meanwhile, said the PSE continues to lure investors to park their funds in stocks.

He noted for instance the total number of stock market accounts -- both online and traditional accounts -- grew 8.5 percent to 773,187 last year from 712,549 accounts in 2015.

Online accounts, alone went up 27.8 percent to 302,516 from 236,669 in 2015.

 “The numbers show that more investors are finding out that participating in the stock market is actually an affordable investment,” Monzon said.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), the local stock barometer, is seen hitting the 8,200 mark this year, according to First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) on the back of improving corporate earnings and the country’s economic fundamentals.

At the same time, FMIC said the index would go through a cyclical downturn first in the coming months.