THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) wants the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow brokers to exercise full voting rights during the bourse’s annual shareholders’ meeting in April.

In an interview, PSE president and chief executive Francis Lim said they petitioned for a stay order with the corporate regulator as they have been implementing other steps to address the exchange’s ownership cap issue among member brokers.

“The exchange has been taking steps towards the 20 percent limit and having said that, we’ve formally asked the SEC to stay the voting rights of the brokers,” he said.

Citing the Securities Regulation Code (SRC), the SEC is enforcing the provision that “no industry or business group may beneficially own or control, directly or indirectly, more than 20 percent of the voting rights of the Exchange, provided, however, that the commission may adopt rules, regulations or issue an order, upon application, exempting an applicant from this prohibition where it finds that such ownership or control will not negatively impact on the exchange’s ability to effectively operate in the public interest.”

Stockbrokers, however, dispute the provision citing a rule of the Corporation Code of the Philippines that voting rights should correspond to percentage of ownership.

Last week, the PSE board approved an ownership-restructuring plan to comply with the mandated 20-percent industry ownership cap in the bourse.

The PSE, whose shares are traded at stock market, said the restructuring plan involves the issuance of new shares—up to 25 percent of the outstanding capital stock—that currently stands at 15.27 million shares.

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THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) wants the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow brokers to exercise full voting rights during the bourse’s annual shareholders’ meeting in April.

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