PSE profit increases by 10.66%

Manila —The Philippine Stock Exchange posted a first quarter net profit of P91.3 million, up by 10.66 percent year-on-year, on higher listing, trading fees and other service fees during the period.

Revenues were up by 17.18 percent to P218.4 million from a year ago. Revenues were higher because almost all components of income increased, such as listing fees (up by 14.44 percent), trading fees (up by 26.87 percent); and service fees by subsidiary Securities Clearing Corp. of the Philippines (up by 40.22 percent).

Listing related income was boosted by higher fees collected from follow-on listings. Listing maintenance fees also expanded by a double-digit level due to the higher market capitalization of listed companies. Listing related income accounted for 44.08 percent of total revenues.

Operating expenses were up by 21.56 percent to P93.23 million but utilization of such expenses was likewise higher, thereby leading to the growth in net profit.

One measure that reduced unnecessary costs was the office integration, where all the administrative offices at Tektite were transferred to Ayala starting August last year. For the first quarter, this office integration reduced occupacy costs by 6.75 percent.

Another measure was the installation of the in-house payroll and human resource information systems last January. This allowed the PSE to eliminate costs from the previous outsourcing of payroll services which amounted to at least P300,000 a year.

Total resources of the PSE amounted to P2.47 billion at end-March, up by 9 percent from a year ago. Cash and cash equivalents stood at P1.01 billion.

Last Saturday, former Finance and Trade Secretary Jose Trinidad Pardo was elected as the new chairperson of the demutualized Philippine Stock Exchange.

The election of Pardo, 72, who has had extensive experience as a civil servant and as a director of various corporations, is seen as helping to ensure a smooth relationship between the PSE and the economic managers under the Aquino administration.

During the PSE’s annual stockholders meeting at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, stockbrokers voted to the full extent of their 32 percent collective ownership after getting this year a court injunction against an order from the Securities and Exchange Commission to observe a single industry voting limit of 20 percent.

Institutional investors like the Government Service Insurance System, the retirement fund of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and the San Miguel group also voted alongside the stock brokers as the PSE, in early 2000, had demutualized or converted itself from a member-owned organization into a stock corporation.

/INQUIRER