PSE income drops slightly

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported a slight drop in net income last year to P406.19 million, weighed down by higher costs related to the development of new products and a new trading engine.

In a statement issued yesterday, the PSE said operating revenues rose 9.5 percent to P900.76 million. Of the total, P202.86 million came from trading-related fees, which increased 15.2 percent, and P254.03 million from service fees generated by subsidiary Securities Clearing Corp. of the Philippines (up 17.8 percent).

Listing-related income amounted to P429.29 million, 6.8 percent higher than the 2010 figure.

Capital raised from initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, stock rights and private placements grew 26.6 percent to P107.5 billion, the highest amount ever raised in a single year and 19.3 percent more than the previous record posted in 2007.

Five companies went public last year, raising a total P9.04 billion from the market. These were Megawide Construction, Puregold Price Club, Cirtek Holdings Philippines, Calapan Ventures and Touch Solutions.

Philex Petroleum Corp., a unit of copper-gold producer Philex Mining Corp., listed by way of introduction.

Money raised from private placements, stock rights issues and follow-on offerings stood at P42.85 billion, P40.61 billion and P15 billion, respectively.

Meanwhile, the PSE said total costs and general expenses climbed 8.2 percent to P440.59 million largely due to the newly-installed PSEtrade which replaced the old Maktrade trading system.

Other income likewise decreased to P36.95 million due to the absence of one-time gains on available for sale investments.

However, PSE president and chief executive officer Hans B. Sicat expressed confidence that the bourse would bounce back this year on strong macroeconomic fundamentals and reforms put in place.

“We believe the fruits of investments we have been undertaking in the past years are now showing. We are highly encouraged by the increase in trading activity this year and we hope we could leverage on this momentum in our plans to introduce more products and services in the market,” Sicat said.