68 listed companies seen raising P130B in capital
Philippine Daily Inquirer
01:10 AM June 15, 2017
http://business.inquirer.net/
The Securities and Exchange Commission sees more than P130 billion in fresh capital-raising to be launched by 68 publicly listed companies that need to comply with higher minimum public ownership requirements sanctioned by the corporate regulator in the next three years.
Starting July 1, all companies applying to list on the Philippine Stock Exchange must bring to public hands 20 percent of their shares.
Companies already listed will be given three years to comply with the 20-percent public float requirement. They will be required to increase their public float to at least 15 percent on or before the end of 2018 and then to at least 20 percent on or before the end of 2020.
By 2018, if deficient companies will choose to widen their public float to 15 percent, Felizmenio estimated that about P37.23 billion worth of fresh capital would be raised between now and this assumed that these companies would not raise their public ownership further during the year.
Of the 68 companies seen affected by the new public float requirements, 39 have public ownership below 15 percent at present.
But by 2020 when all 68 companies are required to maintain a public float of 20 percent, Felizmenio estimated that there would be P112.50 billion in fresh capital-raising requirement in the next three years.
