10 firms gearing up for IPOs next year

MANILA, Philippines — Some 10 companies are seen undertaking their initial public offerings (IPO) next year on the back of better market conditions, BDO Capital & Investment Corp. president Eduardo Francisco said.

“A lot of these have been in our pipeline before. Six of those you know them already,” Francisco said in an interview on the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines-Aboitiz Power Renewable Energy Forum held at the Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Makati yesterday.

Francisco said the 10 companies are involved in a variety of sectors such as real estate, consumer, retail and food, among others.

He said the average size of these potential IPOs is “on the smaller side.”

According to Francisco, two or three of these IPOs could take place in the first half of 2025, while the balance will be in the second half.

Francisco said more companies expressed interest to push through with their IPOs after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas cut interest rates by 25 basis points in its August meeting.

Three companies so far went public this year — NexGen Energy Corp., OceanaGold Philippines Inc. and Citicore Renewable Energy Corp.

A fourth listing could be from Top Line Business Development Corp., which has filed for a P3.2-billion IPO later this year to bankroll its expansion plans.

Highly anticipated IPOs of Enrique Razon’s Prime Infrastructure, SM Prime’s REIT and Ayala-backed e-wallet pioneer GCash have earlier been deferred.

For this year, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has set a target of six IPO and about P175 billion worth of capital to be raised.

In 2023, the PSE saw three IPOs, down from nine in the previous year, the most number of IPOs in a single year since 2007.

The ASEAN Exchanges, a collaboration among the exchanges in Southeast Asian countries, said in a recent report that it expects the entry of more renewable energy listings in the Philippines given the government’s active promotion of renewable energy development projects.

Francisco said there is no renewable energy company so far in BDO Capital’s current list of IPO hopefuls.