PSE hopeful of SEC exemptive relief for PDS merger

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) hopes to finally get the exemptive relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission for its planned acquisition of the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.

“We had written a letter to the SEC reiterating our  request for exemptive relief because we’ve complied with the requirements on how to reduce  our ownership. But we have not received a reply,” PSE president Ramon Monzon said yesterday following the listing ceremony for the rights offer.

The PSE needs exemptive relief from the SEC  to be able to push through with its plan to acquire majority ownership of the PDS Group.

Under the Securities Regulation Code, no single industry can own more than 20 percent of the voting rights of a stock exchange.

The PSE recently completed a stock rights offering which has allowed it to trim its ownership in the stock exchange to 20 percent from 27.9 percent previously.

It wants to merge with the Philippine Dealing Systems Holdings Corp. to be at par with other global exchanges.

The PSE, however, is competing with state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines to acquire the PDS Group.

But Monzon said the PSE does not want to engage the government in a bidding war.

The PSE sold 11.5 million shares with BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and First Metro Investment Corp. as the underwriters.