THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Monday said it will come up with the final offer sheet for all the remaining shareholders of the Philippine Dealing System (PDS).
The PSE is trying to buy and merge the two trading platforms of bonds and the equities market.
PSE President Hans Sicat said the previously Announced P2.25 billion is their “base offer,” while due diligence on the PDS is still being conducted.
“We are in middle of discussing [the terms] with the BAP [Bankers Association of the Philippines]. We’ll find out in the next two to three weeks and give the final offer sheet to all owners and give them about a month to accept,” Sicat told reporters in a briefing. “We do want to get most, if not all, of the shares tendered to us.”
Sicat, however, said the PSE is not expecting major changes in the deal, or any of the current owners of the PDS—or the PSE—will walk away from the deal.
The BAP, which previously owned 28.9 percent, already agreed to sell its shareholdings. The PSE in November was also able to seal the deal to buy San Miguel and Golden Astra’s respective shares.
Aside from the BAP, other owners of the PDS include Singapore Exchange Ltd., 20 percent; Tata Consultancy Services Asia, 8 percent; the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co., 4 percent; San Miguel Corp., 4 percent; Financial Executive Institute of the Philippines, 3.1 percent; Social Security System, 1.5 percent; Investment House Association of the Philippines, 1.1 percent; and Golden Astra Capital, 0.4 percent.
When the PDS, which owns the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., was incorporated in the late 1990s, it was viewed as a trading platform for the capital markets and is owned by the financial community.
Other PDS subsidiaries, including the Philippine Depository and Trust Corp., the Philippine Securities Settlement Corp. and the PDS Academy for Market Development Corp.
Sicat said that, during the project life, the PDS may have made some income money, but it wasn’t able to give dividends to the owners.