Philippine IPO That Could - Company Financial Information

While a grim mood from Singapore to Hong Kong has Asian Internet companies shelving their plans to go public, Diversified Financial News Network in the Philippines managed to overcome its country's turmoil to become the first Net IPO to list on the local stock exchange.

Count the hurdles it jumped over: a presidential impeachment crisis with mass street protests against corruption and cronyism; a drawn-out hostage drama involving separatist rebels and foreign tourists; the Philippine peso at an all-time low; plus, the devastation from a bad monsoon the weekend before.

"They had been waiting for better market conditions," says Russell Ong, an analyst at AB Capital Securities, the bank which underwrote the IPO. But such conditions weren't on the horizon so "they were pushed back to the wall and had to go."

The company operates a financial Web site (DFNN.com) and hopes to use the IPO cash to install computer terminals in pawnshops. "I'm very bullish," DFNN Chief Executive Ramon Garcia told local newspapers.

Garcia, 32, comes from a prominent family of stockbrokers and owns almost 45 percent of the company. Other well-heeled business families have invested, including one that runs a chain of pawnshops across the country. "They have good connections with management" and won't be selling their stakes, Ong says. DFNN ended its second day of trading last week a shade below its listing price of 10 Philippine pesos, or 20 U.S. cents.

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