15/1/2018 – The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) announced that it has forged a deal to acquire the stake of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) in a fixed-income bourse Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp (PDS Holdings) for P80 million (about US$1.6 million).
According to details of the share purchase agreement, PSE will acquire SMC’s four percent stake covering 250,000 common shares in PDS Holdings to boost its stake in the exchange operator to 61.03 percent.
“This transaction is envisioned to facilitate further growth in the local capital markets by introducing efficiency in the trading and back-office systems of both the equities and fixed income markets, among others,” said a representative from PSE.
This is the sixth share purchase agreement signed by PSE as pertaining to its acquisition of additional shares in PDS Holdings.
In June 2017, PSE entered into an agreement to acquire the 23.47 percent stake of Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) Credit Bureau covering 1,466,800 common shares in PDS Holdings which was then worth at P437.8 million (about US$8.69 million).
Separate purchase agreements to acquire PDS Holdings shares were also signed with Investment Houses Association of the Philippines (IHAP), Whistler Technologies Services Inc (WTSI), the Philippine American Life, and General Insurance Co., and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines Research and Development Foundation.
“All of the above-mentioned purchases shall be subject to the approval of government agencies, particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Philippine Competition Commision (PCC) as required by law and regulation,” noted PSE.
Other major shareholders of PDS Holdings include the Singapore Stock Exchange, Tata Consultancy Services Asia-Pacific Phils Incorporated, Development Bank of the Philippines, Social Security System, and Citibank NA.
PDS Holdings’ parent firm PDS Group is a capital market infrastructure that also owns and operates the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp (PDEx), Philippine Depository & Trust Corp (PDTC), Philippine Securities Settlement Corp (PSSC), and PDS Academy for Market Development Corp (PDSA).
