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By Likha Cuevas-Miel, Reporter
The board of the Philippine Stock Exchange
approved on Friday the less stringent rules on listing by way of
introduction, which offer companies the alternative of joining the
bourse without the pressure of selling their shares immediately.
In a chance interview, Francis E. Lim, PSE
president, told The Manila Times on Sunday that the revised rules
will allow firms that have securities already listed or traded or
will simultaneously be listed in another trading market to join the
local stock exchange.
Firms with securities that are distributed by
way of property dividend by a listed issuer to its shareholders can
also opt for listing by way introduction. Another circumstance that
this option can be allowed is during the formation of a holding
company and its securities are issued in exchange for the securities
of one or more publicly listed firms, and the listing of the former
is simultaneously withdrawn.
The new rules also include firms that receive
tax incentives from the government such as those listed with the
Board of Investments and situations wherein listing by way of
introduction as a vehicle to go public is mandated by law.
However, the PSE wants firms to go public within
a year after joining the bourse via alternative means and to comply
with the minimum public ownership requirement of the PSE. In case of
inability to make an initial public offering within the period, a
firm can apply for an extension of at least 60 calendar days before
the deadline lapses.
The penalties for noncomplying issuers include
trading suspension, doubling of annual listing maintenance fees,
buying back of its securities and delisting.
Besides the new rules on listing by way of
introduction, the local bourse has also proposed rules on listing of
exchange traded funds (ETF), which covers existing and newly formed
local and foreign funds. Under the proposed rules, an exchange
traded fund is defined as an open-ended fund that issues and redeems
securities on demand whenever investors put money or take out from
it. The fund tracks indexes or a basket of securities that are
listed and traded in the local bourse or on a foreign stock exchange
acceptable to PSE.
The underlying securities of PSE-based ETF
should be limited to listed securities of the local bourse with no
limit to the number of securities the fund can issue. Among the
proposed rules, a peso-denominated fund should have an asset size of
at least P250 million and at least 25 percent of the ETF’s share
capital or trading unit is held by at least 250 security holders. A
foreign-currency-denominated fund should have an asset size of at
least $10 million. A foreign ETF should have facilities for the
transfer and registration of securities in the Philippines and be
listed or approved for listing on a foreign stock exchange
acceptable to the PSE.
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