Citisec Online to sell shares to public by June

Citisec Online to sell shares to public by June

Citisec Online, a local online brokerage firm, plans to sell its shares to the public, with an initial public offering (IPO) scheduled by June or July this year.

If it pushes through, the company would be the first purely online broker to go public, and would be the second IPO for the year after First Gen Corp.

Francis Lim, Philippine Stock Exchange president, said the company will offer some 110 million shares to the public or 25.6 percent of its issued and outstanding common stock.

The company filed its IPO requirements with the PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late last week.

“This is a welcome development for us. This is clearly a vote of confidence that companies like CitisecOnline can mobilize capital by making use of the stock market,” Lim told reporters.

Industry sources said that CitisecOnline will sell new shares at a minimum of P1 apiece to a maximum of P1.50 to raise from P110 million to P165 million.

A source said the company will use the proceeds for its market education services to increase its client base to 1,000 by year-end. CitisecOnline has more than 300 clients to date.

The company will offer its shares mostly to domestic buyers. It will also offer shares online but will only do so through the Internet through its website, www.citiseconline.com.

The shares will be listed in the small and medium enterprises (SME) board of the PSE. The SME board currently includes Cashrounds Inc., Makati Finance Corp., and SQL Wizard Inc. This is because CitisecOnline has a total market capitalization of less than P700 million.
--Cai U. Ordinario

Manila Times
Tuesday, April 04, 2006