PDS Group pays tribute to top performers

MANILA, Philippines - The PDS Group paid tribute to the members of its community and market stakeholders at the 9th PDS Annual Awards Night. This celebration affirmed the wide distribution and abundance of excellence, leadership, and commitment among the Philippine market players.

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) won this year’s Cesar EA Virata Award for Best Securities House, Bank Category. The award is given to a bank trading participant that has an exceptional performance in trading, distribution, and settlement activities for the year.

Metrobank president Fabian S. Dee said: “We, in Metrobank are committed to partnerships and while we are honored by being awarded tonight, we take more pride in being called your partner. A partner with the government in its efforts to improve the lives of the Filipino people; a partner with the Bureau of the Treasury in providing funding solutions to fuel our economic development; a partner of the PDS Group in developing the markets and instituting best practices; and a partner with the rest of the dealing and brokering participants here in our joint dream to create a vibrant and robust market.”

Metrobank bagged five other awards including Top 5 PDDTS/PvP Participant (4th), Top 5 Fixed-Income Dealing Participant (2nd), Citation for Best Execution Through Active Use of Fixed Income Broker Internet Order System (FI-BIOS), Top Dealing Participant Corporate Securities, and Top Brokering Participant Retail Transaction.

First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), the investment banking arm of the Metrobank Group, continued its winning streak as the Best Securities House in the Investment House Category. The award is given to an investment house trading participant that has an exceptional performance in trading and distribution for the year, and in the origination, underwriting, and market making of outstanding listed corporate securities.

FMIC received five other awards, ranking first in the following categories: Top Brokering Participant Corporate Securities, Top Corporate Issue Managers/Arrangers, Top Corporate Securities Market Makers, Top Fixed-Income Brokering Participant, and Top Fixed-Income Dealing Participant.

With the vigor of the issuer community in 2013 came in a new set of awards to recognize the role Issuers play in introducing innovative bond offerings that further diversify the corporate securities market. The new awards were citation for the first listed 20-year bond issue and citation for the first bond issue with both a put and call option. Ayala Land, Inc. and Manila Electric Co. received the awards respectively.

The event was held at Makati Shangri-La and was graced by top government officials including Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) managing director for supervision and examination sector Restituto C. Cruz, National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon, and Securities and Exchange Commission chairperson Teresita J. Herbosa.

Presiding at this year’s annual awards was PDS Group president and CEO Cesar B. Crisol who said in his opening remarks: “It is heartening to come to the podium and realize that we have been together as a community now for the last nine years, on the cusp of a decade. It is but fitting that we celebrate our achievements, for we have indeed come far from where we were in 2005.”