The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said it would most likely not be able to meet its capital targets through initial public offerings this year. Last year, the PSE was able to raise PHP 200 billion through IPOs. As of August 15, the Philippine bourse was only able to raise PHP 31.27 billion in capital. This was a 65% drop compared to the same period last year when the PSE raised PHP 91.13 billion.
Hans Sicat, President and Chief Executive Officer of the PSE, said a lot of the firms that wanted to go public were still deciding whether the market conditions would made such a move ideal. He told ABS-CBN News, "It could probably be hard now (to achieve the target). The problem is if companies decide to hold their IPOs by mid-September, you might have a queuing problem. So let's see how September goes."
The volatility exhibited by the market had prompted several firms to postpone their IPO offerings. Some of those who had shelved plans to go public included Harbor Star Shipping Inc, Travellers International Hotel Group and Discovery World Corp.
So far, there were only three firms that held IPOs in 2013. These are Asia United Bank, Philippine Business Bank and AG Finance Inc.
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