PSE hikes stake in PDS via acquisition of Landbank shares

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

December 24, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) has further increased its ownership in the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS) with the acquisition of Land Bank of the Philippines’ stake for P80.6 million.

The PSE said it entered into a share purchase agreement with Landbank to buy the latter’s 134,372 common shares of stock, equivalent to 2.15 percent of the total issued and outstanding stock of PDS.

Closing conditions for the transaction were also fulfilled by the parties on the same date the deal was signed.

The shares were acquired at P600 apiece, bringing the PSE’s total purchase price for all the PDS shares bought from various sellers since December last year to P2.75 billion.

The acquisition brings PSE’s stake in PDS to 94.21 percent from 92.06 percent previously.

The PSE was able to raise its 20.98 percent equity interest in PDS following earlier transactions with Singapore Exchange Ltd., Whistler Technologies Inc., San Miguel Corp., Golden Astra Capital Inc., Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines Research and Development Foundation, Investment House Association of the Philippines, AIA Philippines Life and General Insurance Co. Inc., Bankers Association of the Philippines and some of its member banks, Social Security System, Insular Investment Corp., Citicorp, Tata Consultancy, Mizuho and MUFG.

PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon earlier told The STAR that the plan is to increase PSE’s stake in PDS to as high as 97 percent through the acquisition of shares held by the state-run Development Bank of the Philippines and Landbank.

DBP owns 192,776 shares representing a 3.08-percent stake in PDS.

The acquisitions are part of the PSE’s plan to align the Philippine capital market with other global markets, which have a single exchange structure for both fixed income and equities.

From a corporate standpoint, maintaining the business operations of both the PSE and PDS while reducing operational costs through synergies are expected to result in greater business scalability and profitability.

“As the two companies have highly similar and integrated functions, there should be synergies that could be realized from an infrastructure standpoint, particularly on the technology side,” the PSE said.

“For the market, the single exchange setup helps achieve efficiencies, reduce risks and facilitate the development of new products,” it said.

PSE has consolidated PDS in its financial statements after the latter became its majority-owned subsidiary in December 2024.

The Philippine Depository and Trust Corp. (PDTC) and the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx) are subsidiaries of PDSHC.

“While PDS has become one of our main revenue sources, we expect to realize cost efficiencies when we have fully integrated PDS into PSE, and look to expand the existing services provided by PDEX and PDTC. Among other initiatives lined up, we hope to increase activity in the use of bond forwards for PDEX and also to broaden the percentage of securities lodged in the depository for PDTC,” Monzon said.