Daiwa Securities acquires stake in COL Financial

JAPAN’S Daiwa Securities Group, Inc. is acquiring a stake in COL Financial Group, Inc., the listed online stock brokerage said on Thursday.

In a stock exchange filing, COL Financial said it received necessary regulatory approval for deal, which will result in Daiwa Securities owning 14.9% of the company’s outstanding shares of capital stock.

“The acquisition will be executed as a block sale transaction through the facilities of the exchange on Friday (April 21),” the company said.

No other details were available as of press time.

On Thursday morning, COL Financial requested for a voluntary trading suspension of its shares. The trading suspension will be lifted at 9 a.m. on Friday.

In 2016, COL Financial reported a 25% increase in net income to P328.5 million, driven by strong growth of domestic commission revenues and costcutting measures.

Despite a volatile trading environment at the local bourse, COL Financial’s revenues jumped 13% to P833.7 million last year. The number of customer accounts for its Philippine operations rose by 26% to over 205,000 as of end 2016, from nearly 163,000 in 2015.