Japanese investors remain keen on investing in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - Japanese investors remain keen on investing in the Philippines despite the prevailing market volatility, Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president Hans Sicat said over the weekend.

“We are pleased that Japanese investors remain very interested in the Philippine market despite the volatilities experienced by equities worldwide since the start of the year,” Sicat said.

The PSE held its annual Philippine Corporate Day in Tokyo, Japan on Jan. 28 and 29 in partnership with DBP-Daiwa Capital Markets Philippines.

The so-called Corporate Day is an annual roadshow organized by the PSE to provide a venue for Japanese investors to meet with representatives of some of the country’s listed firms.

Seven listed companies participated in the road show: Ayala Corp., International Container Terminal Services Inc., JG Summit Holdings Inc., Manila Electric Co., Metro Pacific Investments Corp., San Miguel Corp., and Universal Robina Corp.

The 2016 Philippine Corporate Day is already the fourth roadshow to Japan by the PSE.

Sicat said the roadshow generated over 70 meetings with fund houses and investors.

“I am confident that we were able to highlight the compelling growth story of the Philippines especially since the composition of our listed companies in the roadshow provided the Japanese investors a very diverse representation of the industries we have,” Sicat said.

The economy grew by 6.3 percent in the last quarter of the year, bringing the average full-year growth to 5.8 percent.

Although lower than the target for the year of at least six percent, economists still lauded the economy’s performance, saying it is an achievement given the difficult external environment.

“The acceleration of growth from the first quarter to fourth quarter has been very encouraging, bringing the average full-year growth to 5.8 percent. Though this is lower than what we targeted for the year, this growth is respectable given the difficult external environment, the onset of El Nino, and the challenges in government spending in the first semester,” Arsenio Balisacan, Economic Planning Secretary and NEDA director-general had said.

For this year, the PSE is optimistic that election-related spending would boost economic growth and encourage investors to go back to the stock market.

Several companies are expected to list this year, possibly after the second quarter of the year.

These include D.M. Wenceslao, Datem, Philstocks Financial Inc., Pointwest Technologies Corp. and Gweilo Corp. Several other companies are in the pipeline including a mining company and possibly oil giant Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., which is targeting to list either before or after the May elections.