| EQUITY generated by publicly traded companies via various capital-raising activities went up by 20 percent to P28.65 billion from January to April this year from P23.87 billion in the same period last year, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported over the weekend.
Year-to-date stock prices, as tracked by the PSEi, have so far gained 12.8 percent as of last Friday. The surge so far this year comes on top of the 42.3-percent annual growth in 2006, the 15-percent hike in 2005, the 26.4-percent advance in 2004 and the 41.6-percent jump in 2003.
“I am confident we can sustain the PSEi’s advance and the buildup in fresh and additional capital for the listed companies, provided the country succeeds in holding peaceful and credible elections,” said PSE president Francis Lim.
The PSE said that proceeds from two initial public offerings (IPOs) amounted to P2.57 billion from January to April this year or 71.7 percent lower than the P9.09-billion level chalked up a year ago. National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines completed a P2.46-billion IPO, while Pacific Online Systems Corp. conducted its own P104.78-million IPO in April.
“But the slack in IPO was more than made up for by a dramatic increase in stock rights offerings,” Lim noted.
Equity raised from stock rights offerings from January to April this year hit P14.43 billion or a whopping 44,500 times bigger than the P324,050 recorded for the same period last year. Megaworld Corp. made a P10.79-billon stock rights offering last January; EEI did the same to raise P540 million last March; while Alliance Global Group Inc., completed its own P3.11-billion stock rights offering in April.
Proceeds from follow-on offerings surged by 11.1 percent to P11.6 billion from P10.44 billion a year ago to likewise help offset the drop in IPO equity. The follow-on offerings were made by Filinvest Land, Inc. (P5.92 billion on February), and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (P5.67 billion on February).
“I am very confident we can match, if not surpass, the amount of equity to be raised this year via the sale of primary shares through an IPO. That’s because we already have in the pipeline several pending IPO applications worth P16 billion,” Lim said.
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