Stock market elections seen to usher in new faces in PSE board

Philippine Stock Exchange will undertake a revamp as it slates its annual election to select a new 15-man board of governors on Saturday, March 10.

A total of 15 stockbrokers, including six re-electionists, will contest the seven slots available to the members while three non-broker nominees will fill up the seats to be left vacant by three incumbent governors.

Under the new Securities Regulation Code, the PSE board is required to constitute a majority of non-brokers to represent the interests of the listed companies, investors and other market participants. There used to be only three non-broker representatives to the board but this was expanded last year to eight, with only the remaining seven seats reserved for brokers.

Heading the list of outsiders, who have yet to confirm their nominations, are former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr., ABS-CBN chairman and CEO Eugenio Lopez III and former Meralco president Mario Camacho.

The three will replace former Congressman Margarito Teves, former Finance Secretary Vicente Jayme Jr. and former Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president Federico Pascual. Teves and Jayme have served the maximum term of two years in the board while Pascual, who was elected only last September, will leave his post following his resignation from the state pension fund.

The holdovers from the ranks of the non-brokers, meanwhile, are: Ateneo de Manila University president and renowned Constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas; top businessman and PLDT president Manuel Pangilinan; textile magnate and Filsyn Corp. president Patricio Lim.; auditing guru and SGV founder Washington Sycip; and incumbent PSE president Ramon T. Garcia.

Except for Garcia, who has a fixed three-year term, the rest of the PSE governors, both brokers and non-brokers, are given a maximum term of two consecutive years to sit in the board. They can only run for reelection after serving a one-year hiatus.

On the part of the broker-members, six will be seeking a bid for their second and last term, led by incumbent PSE chairman Felipe Yap of F. Yap Securities. Joining him are re-electionists Ang Biao of BA Securities Inc., Filomeno Francisco of AB Capital Securities, David Go of David Go Securities Corp., Gregorio Kilayko of ABN Amro Asia Securities, and Vivian Yuchengco of First Orient Resources Management & Securities Corp.

Expected to challenge the incumbents are former PSE governors themselves: former chairmen Robert Coyiuto Jr. of R. Coyiuto Securities and Harry Liu of Summit Securities; Omar Cruz of Citicorp Securities; Joseph Roxas of Eagle Equities; Paulino Soo of Abacus Securities; and Emmanuel Edward Co of Aurora Securities.

Other candidates for the brokers’ post are Eddie Gobing of Lucky Securities; Federico Lim of Belson Securities and Juanita Cueto of Yaptinchay Securities.

The PSE will also hold a general membership meeting on the election date to ratify the bourse’s new by-laws following its conversion into a stock corportation last year. Under the SRC, the PSE is also required to demutualize or transform from an exclusive broker-owned organization to a publicly-owned corporation by August this year.