THE Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx) said it may achieve another record-breaking listing of debts this year, if the funding for the public-private partnership (PPP) projects of the government were accelerated.
PDEx President and CEO Cesar B. Crisol said it could be another banner year for the country’s main-trading platform for corporate bonds, though Philippine listings are still far from the
country’s neighbors.
“It’s still basically looking at the big conglomerates undertaking this project. You’ve seen the conglomerates tie up for big PPP projects, so they’ll probably be tapping the market to finance these large PPPs,” Crisol said.
In 2014 listings in PDEx reached P191.85 billion, but still below the P200-billion expectations of the exchange, as many deals were not able to materialize.
“We haven’t really developed the corporate bond market that much compared with our neighboring countries. We’re basically behind Malaysia, Thailand, even Indonesia. So, we can still develop; we have investors available to invest in these bonds,” Crisol said, adding that listing pace may start by next month.
For the first quarter, only two firms listed in the PDEx, and these two came from the applications made during the previous year. Corporations have only this year to raise cheap funds, as the market prices are expected to be volatile by 2016, when the Philippines holds its national elections.
Crisol said the past few years saw some new companies that listed their debt at the exchange but these were also the subsidiaries of large firms, many of which are also listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
He, however, said companies should list larger amounts in order for them to become meaningful to trade. At a smaller amount of about P1 billion to P2 billion, even if listed in PDEx, bond holders decide to hold it to maturity, as the value is not enough to trade at the secondary market.
“I think, starting April, we have some already lined up. Right now, I think, there are three or four already lined up,” he said, declining to name the firms.
Crisol said these firms eyeing to raise money from bond issuances are part of big conglomerates under-
taking PPP projects.
“You’ve seen the conglomerates tie up for big PPP projects, so they’ll probably be tapping the market to finance these large projects,”
he said. PDEx celebrated its 10th anniversary last week.
This could be the last time the exchange can celebrate as an independent institution, after the PSE is moving to merge the two trading platforms.