Public float refers to the portion of a company’s shares that are held by public investors and freely traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), excluding strategic or controlling stakes.
Under final rules issued on Feb. 24, firms valued above P50 billion must now generally float at least 15 percent of shares, lower than the previous requirement of 20 percent.
The finalized rules were first reported by Bloomberg News.
The earlier proposal had allowed companies worth more than P150 billion to list with just a 12 percent float.
This was meant to lure large IPOs like those being considered by GCash parent Mynt, which ranks among the country’s largest financial institutions behind traditional banks.
Relief now case-by-case
That dedicated 12 percent tier was dropped in the approved circular.
Instead, only “exceptionally large” issuers with at least P200 billion market capitalization may request a lower float.
Such cases must be endorsed by the exchange and approved by regulators, making relief discretionary rather than automatic.
Bloomberg reported the more cautious stance follows MSCI’s crackdown on Indonesia, where tightly held ownership at listed firms raised investability concerns and sparked a sharp selloff after the market was warned it could be downgraded.
Other tiers unchanged
Other tiers were retained: companies worth up to P500 million must float 33 percent, those between P500 million and P1 billion must float 25 percent, and firms from P1 billion to P50 billion must float 20 percent.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
