Sept. 9, 2026. We had the pleasure of celebrating the launch of Readings on the Philippine Capital Market by the Capital Markets Development Foundation Inc. (CMDFI) at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) headquarters in Makati. The book launch was attended by various personalities in the capital markets such as SEC chair Francis Lim, Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president and CEO Ramon Monzon and Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx) president Stephanie Marie Zulueta, among other friends in the industry. A hot topic that warmed up the gloomy September afternoon was the status of the country’s capital market landscape.
Investment inflows into the Philippines: Philippine stock market
Headline economic indicators have painted a darker picture as the months went by such as inflation remaining elevated, GDP dipping below analyst expectations or the peso-dollar exchange rate remaining above the 60:$1 levels. One datapoint that has been thrown around is the slowdown or “exit” in foreign investors. That is by no means an isolated case among the country’s peers. Net foreign investor position (as of Sept. 8), selling is across Asia except for Thailand, Japan and possibly China (data is now quarterly). Philippines remains a relative bright spot in this challenging economic backdrop from a percentage point basis.
Table 1: Net foreign investor outflow and relative to market capitalization
Investment inflows into the Philippines: Long-term investments
We especially see this from the investment banking side that activity has indeed not slowed down. Interest from foreign investors have not diminished despite the various narratives that have come out saying it’s time to pack up and leave the Philippines. We see long-term foreign interest in the infrastructure and power segment with a mix of global funds, foreign operators and other multinationals looking to deploy their money into the Philippines across these industries. These interests, once finalized, are expected to stay and help cultivate the country over the next few years.
Investment asset shifts: Debt capital market push
On the other hand, economic activities that come from domestic companies have persisted despite what the narrative has been regarding fundraising in the country having slowed down this 2026. Fundraising especially in the capital markets has been a balancing act founded on the basic concept of risk versus return wherein when you see less of equity fundraising, there is often a shift to fixed income markets. From a fundraising perspective, PDEx has seen year to date fundraising exceeding the whole of 2025.
Table 2: New Listings/Enrollment
Apart from typical bond listings, activities with the PDEX in both 2025 and 2026 has seen resurgence of private placement among qualified buyers. Enrolled notes has seen a resurgence as of late 2025 and into 2026 considering the proactive stimulus received from the SEC with its circular (Memorandum Circular 11, Series of 2025) that allows faster execution of private placement among qualified buyers. BDO Capital & Investment Corp. has raised funds for several companies such San Miguel Corp. and San Miguel Global Power in 2025, Megawide Construction Corp. earlier this year and with another power company blowing its way into PDEx later this year.
Philippine delisting against regional peers
The narrative of persistent delisting is not exclusive to the Philippines. The PSE has had a lower count of delisting at three for 2025 and three for the first eight months of 2026. Even from a percentage point against total listed companies, the PSE outperforms nearly all its peers, further dispelling the notion that other exchanges have it much better.
Table 3: ASEAN Exchanges Delisting Data*
* No confirmed/verifiable delisting data for Bursa Malaysia in their website
** 2026 data includes 18 companies with applications for delisting effective Nov. 10, 2026
Developments in the capital markets
In the book Readings on the Philippine Capital Market, we wrote on IPOs and REITs which are the headline potential listings of 2026. Following the historical success of Edgar Saavedra and Oliver Tan’s Citicore Energy REIT Corp. (CREIT) that BDO Capital was fortunate to lead in 2022 and the support of the SEC through amendment of REIT Rules (Memorandum Circular 1, Series of 2026), the groundwork for non-traditional real estate REITs. Following this, Vitro REIT Inc. is the next in the line of non-traditional real estate REITS as the country’s first data center REIT in the PSE’s pipeline. The venture into a new asset class opens other opportunities in the REIT space.
These may open doors for other potential types of REITs such as tower companies, hospitals, tollroads, schools among others.
Another major IPO in PSE’s pipeline is the Mynt Inc. IPO or better known as the GCash IPO, which could potentially be the largest IPO in Philippine history. GCash is heralded as the Philippines’ answer in the tech space IPO receiving interest from local and foreign investors as supported by both domestic and foreign banks alike. This interest serves as a jumping board for interested foreign investors to further deploy funds and for those who have forgotten about the Philippine market, act as a reason to revisit especially given what GCash provides the country as one of the ways to provide banking services to the unbanked Filipino or a Filipino’s initial experience to digital finance.
Non-traditional REITs and GCash in equity space, enrolled notes and all the support from the Philippine regulatory bodies through proactive updates in the rules and regulations act as bright spots in 2026 that should help lighten the dark picture that has been painted about the capital markets. Various stars such as our friends and partners on the regulator side such as Francis (SEC), Mon (PSE) and Stephanie (PDEx) help us develop and push further what can be done to further promote capital market issuers and investors alike. As contributors to Readings on the Philippine Capital Market, we are very excited for what is to come and the evolution of the capital market with the great leadership in the various agencies. Despite all the narrative on a dark economic backdrop, stars will continue to come and shine in the Philippine capital markets.
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Written by Eduardo Francisco and Gabriel S. Edjawan of BDO Capital & Investment Corp. To learn more about SharePHIL, visit https://bit.ly/m/sharephil