Global benchmark Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) raised on Tuesday the investability weight of leading Philippine fiber internet provider Converge ICT Solutions Inc. (PSE: CNVRG) following the recent increase in the free float of the fixed broadband operator. Converge was the only Philippine company that was included in the Small Cap Index of the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (GEIS) in its semi-annual review last September.
The free float of Converge expanded to 26% of total outstanding shares or nearly two million shares from 20.4% previously, with the recent block sale by its investor, Coherent Cloud Investments B, a unit of global private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC. A free float, also referred to as a public float, is the proportion of shares in an issue that are deemed to be tradable.
“We are inspired to do better as the increase in our investability weight also means greater responsibility to deliver value to our investors and customers,” said Converge President and Co-Founder Grace Uy.
She added that the heavier FTSE investability weight will further improve the visibility of Converge to both passive and active investors.
Converge CEO Dennis Anthony Uy also said that the increased public float of Converge will bolster the company’s position to be included in the highly-watched MSCI stock index that will further elevate the fiber internet provider’s exposure to a broader investor base.
“More importantly, we are eager to welcome new partners in realizing our vision of reaching the unserved and underserved communities in the Philippines and provide them with world-class internet connectivity through pure fiber technology,” Uy said.
Amid its aggressive expansion program, Converge has accelerated by two years its plan of covering 55% of Philippine households to 2023 from the earlier 2025 schedule.
Converge recently completed its P6 billion domestic submarine cable project that connected Visayas and Mindanao to its national fiber backbone. The company also installed a record 654,000 ports in the third quarter alone, bringing its total ports to over 5 million. This allowed the internet service provider to gain over 1.5 million residential subscribers at the end of September 2021, 75% more compared to the same period last year.
