PSE income up 10.7% to P91.3M in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported a first quarter net income of P91.3 million, or 10.7 percent higher than in the same period last year.

In the first quarter last year, the PSE posted a net income of P82.5 million.

In its report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the PSE said revenues also grew 17.2 percent to P218.4 million from the P186.4 million generated in the same period last year.

Income came mainly from listing fees, which rose 14 percent to P96.2 million during the quarter.

“The revival of the listing by way of introduction rule, the re-imposition of the minimum public ownership (MPO) rule and the revision of the policy on index management should spur more follow-on offerings and give us confidence that a pipeline of activity should be quite robust in this area in 2011,” PSE president and chief executive officer Hans Sicat said.

Among the major public listings this year include the initial public offering (IPO) of Megawide Construction Corp., San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc.’s follow-on preferred shares offering, San Miguel Corp. (follow-on), Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. (private placement), Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (stock rights), and SM Development Corp. (stock rights).

Similarly, trading-related fees also grew 26.9 percent to P47.4 million as a result of higher trading volumes. Service fees generated by the Securities Clearing Corp. of the Philippines, a 100-percent wholly-owned subsidiary of the PSE, increased to P58 million from P41.4 million also due to higher trading volumes.

Meanwhile, operating expenses for the period were higher by 21.6 percent to P93.2 million largely due to expenses related to PSEtrade, the bourse’s new trading system, as well as market development.