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FORMER
stock exchange president Ramon T. Garcia wants the
bourse to study the possibility of regulating the number
and intervals of public offerings and additional sale of
shares, to prevent investors’ fatigue from these
capital-raising activities.
“A
similar situation happened in the early 1990s. History
has a way of repeating itself,” Garcia said in his
letter sent to both Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)
chairman Jose Vitug and president Francis Lim.
If
records of the PSE are checked, he said the market
collapsed in the mid-1990s, and it was the investors who
primarily suffered. “The PSE had to help a good number
of brokers so that they might continue their
operations.”
So far,
five companies went public this year: National
Reinsurance Corp., Pacific Online Systems Corp., Aboitiz
Power Corp., Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, GMA Network
Inc. and Anchorland Holdings. In the pipeline are
Pepsi-Cola, Cebu Air, Splash Corp. and the beer and
packaging units of San Miguel Corp.
Among
the companies which conducted follow-on offerings, on
the other hand, were Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.,
Filinvest Land Inc., Alliance Global Inc., Vista Land &
Lifescapes and the Philippine National Bank. The listed
firms, which are expected to sell additional shares for
the remaining part of the year, are IPVG Corp. and
Filinvest Development Corp.
For the
first five months of the year, proceeds from initial
public offerings amounted to P2.92 billion, while
proceeds from follow-on offerings amounted to P16.63
billion.
Vitug,
in a phone interview with the BusinessMirror, said he
has already submitted for board deliberation the
recommendation of Garcia.
“We
appreciate Mr. Garcia’s suggestion, and it merits a
deliberation,” he said. |
