PSE signs agreement to buy more PDS shares

MANILA, Philippines — Another shareholder of the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS) has agreed to sell its stake in the company to the Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE).

The PSE said that it has entered into a share purchase agreement with the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines Research and Development (FINEX) Foundation on top of the agreements signed with various shareholders owning 61.92-percent stake in PDS last week.

FINEX Foundation agreed to sell its 96,388 common shares of stock in PDS equivalent to 1.54 percent of the total issued and outstanding stock of the holding company that owns the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx).

With the addition of the FINEX Foundation shares, the PSE is now set to add 63.46 percent to its existing 20.98-percent stake in PDS.

At an acquisition price of P600 per share, PSE will be purchasing a total of 3.97 million PDS shares for P2.38 billion from sellers such as the Bankers Association of the Philippines, Singapore Exchange Ltd., Whistler Technologies Inc., San Miguel Corp., Investment House Association of the Philippines, Golden Astra Capital Inc., Mizuho Bank Ltd. and FINEX Foundation.

The transactions are part of the PSE’s plan to acquire up to 100 percent of PDS to align the country’s capital market with other markets globally, which have a single exchange structure for fixed income and equities.

Aside from being the holding company that owns the PDEx, the operator of the fixed income exchange, PDS also owns the Philippine Depository and Trust Corp. which serves as the depository for equities and fixed income securities.

By integrating the equities and fixed income exchanges, the PSE aims to provide investors with a facility to trade fixed income, equities and other products in a unified marketplace as well as a single venue in the country for listing and capital-raising to make it easier for companies to tap both equities and debt markets.

“These signed agreements bring us a step closer to achieving our objective of consolidating the equities and fixed income exchanges and realizing the synergies and efficiencies from this unified setup,” PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon said.