SEC in numbers

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to reach greater heights in the Philippine corporate sector’s path toward innovation, ease of doing business, and development of capital markets.

Through the leadership of Emilio B. Aquino, the SEC chairman and chief executive officer, the agency achieved another record high of 49,501 new registrations for the entire of 2023, which is 15-percent higher than the new registrations for 2022. This shows continued confidence in the growth of the Philippine economy, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Of the 49,501 newly registered firms, 73 percent consist of domestic stock corporations, while 21 percent are domestic nonstock corporations, 5 percent are partnerships, and foreign stock and nonstock corporations complete the statistics.

For the newly registered corporations in 2023, the total amount of authorized capital stock raised by domestic stock corporations reached P459.83 billion, of which P170.36 billion is subscribed and P125.52 billion is paid up.

On the other hand, the contributed capital in partnerships amounted to P3.07 billion, and P1.63 billion was from domestic nonstock corporations.

On a side note, I want to share with you that last Jan. 29, 2023, BDO Unibank Inc. listed P63.3 billion in Asean Sustainability Bonds.

BDO said this marks the largest non-sovereign environmental, social, and corporate governance issuance outside of the Philippines and the biggest Philippine peso bond listing on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange (PDEX) by a bank or corporate issuer.

It also marks BDO’s second susour tainability bond offering to retail and institutional clients, surpassing its maiden sustainability issuance of P52.7 billion in January 2022. There was so much investor interest from both retail and institutional investors in this particular sustainability bond issuance that BDO opted to close its offer period on Jan. 16, 2024, a week ahead of its initially scheduled closing date.

This showcases the strong demand for sustainable finance in the Philippines and the Commission lauds BDO for choosing to go in this direction, thereby focusing and highlighting sustainability bonds.

With this P63.3-billion Asean Sustainability Bonds listing, BDO also demonstrates its further commitment and confidence on the growth of the Philippine economy and its contribution to the number of available sustainable investments in the Philippine debt capital markets.

Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Commission is very happy with this development and is optimistic that the issue, settlement, and listing of these bonds will add to the robustness and diversification of our capital markets.

Now, you may be interested to know that the Philippines, as of December 2023, was ranked third in the region (Thailand and Malaysia are first and second, respectively) in green, social and sustainability bonds issuance, with $10.11 billion or 22 percent among Asean member-countries.

BDO’s bond listing will certainly help the Philippines in this informal race with our Asean counterparts. This issuance will help us propel ahead of our Asean neighbors and is a clear testament to the growth of sustainable finance in our country.