The Philippine Stock Exchange partners with IdealRatings Inc. for screening of Shariah Compliant companies listed at the Exchange

The Philippine Stock Exchange partners with IdealRatings Inc. for screening of Shariah Compliant companies listed at the Exchange
 
Contact:PSE:Mr. John Benette B. Mamangun Investor Relations Head, The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc.jbmamangun@pse.com.ph or +632 6887524Miss Martha H. VinzonsPublic Relations Head, The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc.

mhvinzons@pse.com.ph or +632 6887583

 

IdealRatings:

Mr Ariff Sultan,

Regional Director, Asia Pacific, IdealRatings Inc.

asultan@idealratings.com or +65 9757 6912

www.idealratings.com

 

 

 

New initiative between Exchange and global Islamic Finance expert to screen the companies listed at the Exchange in accordance with AAOIFI standards for Shariah-compliant investors.

Manila, November 29, 2013 – The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and IdealRatings Inc. today announced the new initiative to screen the listed companies at PSE for shariah compliance in accordance to the globally accepted Accounting and Auditing of Islamic Financial Companies (AAOIFI) standards, based out of Bahrain.

With the growing demand for global shariah compliant assets, PSE has partnered IdealRatings to screen the companies listed at the Exchange in accordance with AAOIFI standards for shariah compliance.  Shariah compliance screening excludes companies with businesses in conventional interest based lending, financial institutions, pork, alcohol, intoxicants, tobacco, arms and weapons, gambling, casinos, derivatives, pornography, music/entertainment and human stem-cell research.  It also includes screening the company’s financial ratios of cash and interest bearing investments not exceeding 30%, interest bearing debts not exceeding 30% and accounts receivables not exceeding 67% of market capitalization.

PSE will publish the list of the shariah compliant companies on their website and PSE will be including this list in End of Day reports to market participants.  Based on initial simulations, there could be around 50 PSE-listed companies that could pass the AAOIFI shariah rulebook and their daily market capitalization exceeds US$ 62.0 billion.  These companies provide liquidity to the market and would interest investors globally.

Mohammad Donia, CEO IdealRatings said, “We are excited to partner with PSE to screen the listed companies at the Philippine Exchange in accordance with AAOIFI rulebook.  IdealRatings is keen to contribute to the ASEAN Exchanges for the cross border trading of the equities and the creation of the Shariah compliant companies list at the PSE increases investment opportunities in ASEAN and the global Islamic Capital markets.  We are confident that the global investors in Shariah compliant equities would be keen on the Shariah compliant PSE companies since several of the PSE listed companies have outperformed their counterparts in ASEAN.  The solution is a first step for Philippines to venture into the Islamic Capital Market and join the US$ 1.5 Trillion global asset class”.

PSE President and CEO Hans B. Sicat said, “The PSE is excited about this partnership with IdealRatings as we strive to bring more investors in our market.  IdealRatings is a known and trusted institution in this field as shown by their presence in many markets globally.  We are grateful to global Islamic-oriented institutions such as IdealRatings and AAOIFI for their generous assistance in our initiatives to introduce Islamic products to our Muslim brothers and foreign investors with interest on Islamic finance securities. We shall also continue our discussions with National Commission on Muslim Filipinos so we can come up with an effective framework in the conduct of our market education activities,”

 

About The Philippine Stock Exchange

The Philippine Stock Exchange is the national stock exchange of the Philippines. As of November 2013, the PSE has 255 publicly listed companies and 135 active trading participants. Trading in the PSE is from 9:30AM to 3:30PM daily with a recess from 12:00PM to 1:30PM. It currently maintains two trading floors, one at the PSE Centre (Tektite), Ortigas Center in Pasig City, and one at its principal office at the Ayala Tower One in Makati City’s Central Business District.