MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Stock Exchange President Hans Sicat said companies with less than the 10 minimum public minimum are working on share sales to meet the November 30 deadline or be delisted.
The exchange had given companies until Nov. 30 to meet the threshold.
There's added pressure after the Department of Finance got into the act, with Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima saying shares of companies short of the minimum public ownership requirement won’t be exempted from the capital gains tax.
"There's a lot of activity going on in terms of actual transactions being discussed with our issuer regulation department in terms of their own follow on offerings," Sicat told reporters after the PSE annual meeting on Saturday. "We also know from talking to our own friends in the industry -- lawyers, bankers, some of the companies themselves -- they're starting their process."
Sicat said the PSE may further raise the minimum public ownership requirement to 12% in the future.
"If you want to look at the market over time, probably more is better than less," he said. "If we want to align ourselves with the markets around there, we should probably have a higher minimum public float."
Jose Pardo, a former finance secretary who was elected PSE chairman on Saturday, said he's asked officials at the Department of Trade, which he also headed once, to help with enforcing the minimum public ownership requirement on companies that got financial incentives on the condition they would list their shares.
Some companies may opt out, Sicat said. "There are some companies which will decide that they don’t want to be part of the PSE and will probably go private as opposed meeting the requirements."
