PSE rolls out online IPO subscription
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2019 16:19:11 +0000
To boost participation of local small investors (LSI) to initial public offering (IPO) shares, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has rolled out its online IPO subscription program.
Through the PSE Easy (Electronic Allocation System), LSIs may take part in the program by creating an account on PSE Easy website that must be confirmed by the stock brokerage firm where the investor has an account.
PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon Monzon said in a statement on Monday the program is in response to LSIs low take-up in IPO shares that never reached 2 percent. Monzon cited previous manual process where an LSI has to go to designated IPO kiosks in select Metro Manila malls to subscribe.
In September last year, the bourse also revised rules for LSIs, which among others, increased maximum IPO subscription from small investors to P100,000 from P25,000. The PSE secured the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the latter.
SEC also required companies to allot 10 percent of the entire IPO to LSIs and that issuers should prioritize subscriptions with allocations worth less than P100,000.
“We noted that most of our investors now trade online and they are very savvy when it comes to using mobile applications. We want to continue leveraging on technology to make investing in offerings particularly in an IPO readily available to them,” Monzon said.
SEC said it would officially introduce the PSE Easy program in the third quarter of the year, which includes all functions such as submission of LSI subscription forms, updating of LSI subscription such as adding or reducing shares, prompts when there is an upcoming or ongoing IPO or when there are other relevant updates.
Last year, the PSE announced it was launching new programs and products to increase public participation in the stock market. Other products include the Real Estate Investment Trust or REITs as well as short selling of securities.
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