MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines, among the country’s biggest lenders, will be removed from the 30-member Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) following new rules on shares held by state pension funds.
Nickel Asia Corp., the listing mining company of the Zamora Group, will be taking the spot of Unionbank in the benchmark index, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said late Thursday.
This comes after the PSE issued in August new rules on shares held by pension funds, classifying them now as non-public if the said fund has a board seat in the listed company.
State-owned Social Security System (SSS), the pension fund for private employees, owns roughly 10 percent of Unionbank with two seats in the bank’s board of directors.
Unionbank will be removed from the index effective Oct. 4.
“A downward adjustment was made to UBP’s free float that resulted in UBP’s non-compliance with the 20 percent minimum free float level required for index inclusion,” the PSE said.
“This is in accordance with Section 2.2 of the PSE Policy on Index Management and consistent with the treatment of such shares that are similar in nature,” it said.
Unionbank said SSS shares were classified as public because SSS is mandated under its charter to invest the funds of its members in publicly listed companies.
The PSE noted though that Unionbank remains well-above the 10 percent minimum public ownership requirement for continuing listing.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) was also removed from the index after majority shareholders decided to take the conglomerate private; the same with Aboitiz Power, the power arm of the Aboitiz Group after its public float fell below the index’s minimum requirement.
MPIC has concluded its tender offer to buy out shares held by the public.
According to MPIC’s final tender offer report, the total of tendered shares, excluded shares and other non-public shares is equivalent to 97.23 percent of MPIC’s total issued and outstanding listed shares and has exceeded the threshold required to complete the voluntary delisting.
Enrique Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp. and the Po family’s Century Pacific Food Inc. has joined the index, replacing MPIC and Aboitiz Power.
The PSEi is composed of the 30 most liquid and well-capitalized listed firms.
In order to qualify for PSEi and sector indexes inclusion, a listed firm must be among the top companies in terms of liquidity and market capitalization.
It should also have a free float level of at least 20 percent of its outstanding shares. Relevant financial criteria as well as eligibility for early inclusion are also taken into account by the PSE in its regular index review.