THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has lowered its capital raising target for next year amid worries over financial market prospects given likely headwinds under a second Trump presidency and continued geopolitical tensions.
Ramon Monzon, PSE Inc. president and CEO, told reporters on Thursday that the bourse was looking at “about P120 billion” being raised by next year.
The amount is lower than the P150-billion target that he previously said in October would be the 2025 goal.
Monzon did not give a reason for the lower target but noted that it would be about 50 percent more than the P79 billion expected to be raised via initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on offerings, stock rights offerings and private placements this year.
The 2024 estimate is also lower than the P90 million to P100 million, he said in October, that could be generated by the end of the year.
Monzon said that so far this year, the bourse had seen three IPOs, one SRO, six FOOs and seven private placements that raised P76.84 billion in total.
The only firms that went public this year were OceanaGold Philippines Inc., Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. and NexGen Energy Corp.
Recently, property developer Arthaland Corp. raised P2.5 billion from a follow-on offering of up to 6 million Series F preferred shares.
Phinma Corp., meanwhile, generated P1 billion from an offering of stocks that were listed on Wednesday.
DITO CME Holdings Corp. on Tuesday also ended a follow-on offering, the results of which have yet to be disclosed.
Top Line Business Development Corp., which was supposed to cap the 2025 IPO season, last week said it had postponed the planned listing to the first quarter of next year after investors requested more time to complete their due diligence.
The announcement came just days after the company executives told reporters that they would proceed with the IPO despite concerns over market volatility.
Stock markets have seen wild swings in recent months as former US president Donald Trump appeared headed for a return to the White House.
His pledge to impose protectionist policies are a particular worry and his statements on Monday that China, Mexico and Canada would be immediately targeted weighed on share prices worldwide.
The benchmark PSE index on Thursday fell by nearly 1 percent to 6,638.54.
For next year, Monzon said that the PSE was looking at six IPOs with Topline at the head of the list.
He also told reporters that “I don’t look at IPO, I look at the total capital raising.”
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