PSE set to extend trade hours

Skeptics told to have faith in board’s decision

By: Doris C. Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
1:58 am | Monday, December 19th, 2011
The Board of the Philippine Stock Exchange last week affirmed a plan to further extend trading hours until 3:30 p.m. starting Jan. 2 next year, as it aims to align the local bourse with regional markets.

PSE chair Jose T. Pardo told reporters Friday night that the board met last week to discuss a proposal made by some brokers who did not wish to further extend trading hours.

The PSE currently trades from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Prior to October, trading hours only lasted until 12:10 p.m.

Under the extension schedule, the trading hours will be extended further into the afternoon with a lunch break in between. On Jan. 2, trading will open at 9:30 a.m. until noon. In the afternoon, trading will resume at 1:30 p.m. and close at 3:30 p.m.

Pardo said many trading participants had signed a petition for the PSE to scrap the second phase of trading extension. Last week, they even sent representatives to meet with members of the PSE board and present their arguments.

But the PSE chairman said he advised brokers to “have faith.”

“We have to identify with the rest of the world,” Pardo said.

The PSE chairman cited his own experience as an entrepreneur when he helped set up the 7-Eleven convenience store network in the Philippines in the 1980s.

“It’s a decision we had to make. Our business model had to be 24 hours so, even without volume, we just have to be consistent with the rest of the world.”

The PSE chairman added that volume couldn’t be summoned by a “magic wand” and was instead something to work hard for.

The trading extension is intended to attract more investor interest and prepare for cross-border trading with the rest of Southeast Asia.

PSE president Hans Sicat had said that the move would align the local bourse with those in the region and should be seen as a positive signal that the local market was ready to take off.

Afternoon trading is also expected to boost liquidity as it enhances the ability of investors to react to developments in other markets in different time zones.

The stock markets of four Southeast Asian nations—the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand—have made plans to integrate their stock markets to turn the region into a magnet for global portfolio investments. But there’s no time-bound deadline for the integration to push through, Pardo said.

The PSE has already taken steps toward integrated regional trading with its migration to NYSE Technologies’ NSC V900 platform—an innovative trading infrastructure that boosts the product range, trading performance and volume capacity of the local bourse. The system, earlier rebranded as PSEtrade, allows PSE to handle larger trading volume and process trades 10 times faster than the previous system.

http://bit.ly/vzPFQI

P&G head fights pressure with calmness

By: Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:40 pm | Saturday, December 10th, 2011

SIDDIK Tetik poses with P&G
products manufactured and sold
in the Philippines.

In the fast moving consumer goods industry, pressure is a daily fare and stress in nothing out of the ordinary.

Different brands fight over the Filipino consumers’ scarce cash on a daily basis and market leadership can change hands in the blink of an eye if a brand gets too complacent.

Despite its strong 76-year presence in the country, P&G Philippines, one of the world’s biggest consumer goods companies, experiences the same daily stress every day. But looking at president and general manager Siddik Tetik, one will not be able to tell that that is the case.

With his calm demeanor and almost permanent smile, one would think he is a vacationing expat instead of the man at the helm of one of the country’s most successful companies. His secret: Calmness at all times.

“I’m balanced and calm. Even in tough situations, I keep my calmness and never show panic to my team. It allows me to think (in a healthy manner),” he tells SundayBiz. “My calmness—people appreciate this. Even when I face big issues, I don’t react severely.

Sometimes people react without thinking, and that causes damage. If you’re a smart person, you will stop and think about the consequences of your actions before reacting and making decisions.”

When he finds himself in particularly nasty situations, he relates that he usually writes his thoughts down, instead of directing venomous comments at a particular person. He holds back unbecoming retorts and contents himself with blowing off steam by writing e-mails that he never sends.

THE PRESIDENT and general manager
of P&G Philippines teaches young
schoolchildren the proper way
to wash hands with soap for
Global Handwashing Day.

After typing away on his computer and rereading what he has written, he says he has already calmed down enough to face the people that he has to face and to make whatever decision has to be made.

This is one trick that he says he shares with his people, knowing how stressful the environment P&G is operating in.

Work-life balance

Striking a healthy balance between work and personal life is another thing that he strives to achieve, and wants to impart to his people as well. For someone who is leading a consumer goods giant operating in a fiercely competitive environment, Siddik can hardly be described as a workaholic.

He usually wakes up at between 6:30 and 7 a.m. and uses the first few hours of his day to just relax and prepare his mind for the work day.

“I try not to think too much. I have my breakfast, I take my coffee or tea, and have some time for myself. There should be no discussion of major decisions before 10 a.m. People in the office know this, and even my wife knows this. Unless something is absolutely crucial, it has to wait after 10 a.m.,” he relates.

By 6:30 p.m., he is usually out of the office and either out with friends or at home with his family.

TETIK volunteers with other P&G
employees in packing school supplies
for the company’s Handog Edukasyon
program.

He is also not one for making plans as far as his personal time is concerned. He prefers to be spontaneous and do things when he feels like doing them. The simplicity of life in the Philippines, he says, suits his calm personality well.

“I don’t like programming my personal life. I like to be spontaneous. My wife likes to program our lives, like when we should take vacations, but I prefer surprises,” he says.


From rocks to razor blades

Even his being in the consumer goods industry was totally unplanned. A geology major and a son of a military man who had no idea whatsoever about business, Siddik literally had to learn his way to the top, starting from a job in sales at the time when Western brands were just making their way into Turkey.

He relates that after rendering mandatory military service in Northern Cyprus, he met some entrepreneurs in Turkey who offered him a job. Despite his lack of experience, he took the job and absorbed everything like a sponge.

Learning became a daily exercise for him back then—something that he says is still true for him today. For his work in sales, it also helped that he had a good command of the English language and he had a great personality fit for the job.

SIDDIK Tetik, wife Neslihan,
daughter Bengi, and son Birkin

“But I never knew that. It’s really difficult to decide exactly what you would do in your work life while you’re still in university,” he says. “During my early days, I started working based on the trust of people and whatever skills I had that I wasn’t even aware of. I then built my capabilities on observing—I observed business models in Europe and East Asia and learned from our visitors. I did a lot of self-learning.”

There was even a point when he felt like giving up, but decided to push on anyway. The decision to stay could very well be one of the best ones he had ever made. After spending several years holding senior positions at Gillette, he became a key P&G executive when the latter acquired the former.

At P&G, his propensity to learn was put to the test once again, as it was a new culture that he had to familiarize himself and adapt with. As with all other aspects of his life, he did that a step at a time.

Even now, as head of one of P&G’s most important markets in Asia, he says he continues to learn, with his personal and career goals fixed on the short term rather than the long term.

“Life is interesting. If you plan too far ahead, it will be limiting. Have short goals rather than long ones. Build your treasures as you go. Being a CEO is a good dream to have, but you have to have shorter goals so you can better enjoy life and be happy,” he relates.

“Set two or three-year challenges. When you overcome those challenges, that will give you much needed confidence to move to another level and set new goals. Always assess yourself and extend your vision of your life based on that,” he further says.

The passion to grow and win should always be there, he says, as this fuels a person’s success. He also swears by his mantra of never ceasing to learn. This, on top of his calm and rational thinking, after all, is what has propelled him to where he is today.


http://bit.ly/uKl7J6

Jollibee completes sales of coffee and gelato business

December 1, 2011 12:08pm

Jollibee Foods Corp., the country's largest owner and operator of fastfood restaurants, has completed the sale of Caffe Ti-Amo, a Korean restaurant brand to CafeFrance Corp.

In a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, Jollibee Foods said subsidiary Coffeetap Corp., which held the Caffe Ti-Amo franchise, completed the sale on November 30 and also terminated its franchise agreement.

The sale of Caffe Ti-Amo came just more than a year after acquiring its master franchise.

Jollibee Foods earlier said that Coffeetap would sell the assets of Caffe Ti-Amo, a coffee and gelato business, to CafeFrance for P20 million to be paid in cash.

CafeFrance is the same company that bought the assets of 'Delifrance' from JollibeeFood's subsidiary, Fresh N'Famous Foods Inc. last year.

In May 2010, JFC announced that it signed a joint venture agreement with local entrepreneurs that gave it entry into the coffee and gelato business. This joint venture became the master franchisee in the Philippines of Caffe Ti-Amo, which has two stores presently.

"JFC's divestment of its 'Caffe Ti-Amo' business is in anticipation of the commencement of new businesses, San Pin Wang in Guang Xi Province in the People's Republic of China, and the joint venture with Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company in Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia," the company had said.

Jollibee Foods, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd., signed an agreement to enter into a joint venture with Guangxi Zong Kai Food and Beverage Investment Co. Ltd. on April 30, 2010. As of that date, San Pin Wang had a chain of 34 stores in China.

Jollibee Foods through JWPL and GZK have been taking steps to restructure San Pin Wang's legal entities that will culminate in the formalization of this joint venture. The joint venture will likely be formalized in the next few months.

Also, on May 20, 2011, Jollibee Foods, through JWPL, signed a framework agreement with Viet Thai to establish a platform for owning and operating a portfolio of restaurants in various territories including Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau and Southern China.

In April 2011, the company so discontinued the operations of its Manong Pepe business after acquiring Mang Inasal in November 2010.

As of September 30, 2011, Jollibee Foods operates 1,946 stores in the country and 437 stores abroad. - CMA/OMG, GMA News


http://bit.ly/vDj6vi

EDC to buy majority stake in four South America projects

December 1, 2011 12:40pm

Publicly listed Energy Development Corp. (EDC) has signed a deal giving it majority stake in four geothermal projects in Chile and Peru.

EDC told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday that it signed a heads of terms agreement (HOTA) with Australia’s Hot Rock Ltd. to buy 70-percent equity in the South American geothermal projects.

The HOTA sets the framework and main commercial principles involving the 70-percent interest in the Calerias and Longavi geothermal projects in Chile — where EDC has a representative office — and in the Quellaapatcheta and Chocopata geothermal projects in Peru.

The transaction is subject to certain conditions, including full documentation, due diligence, and regulatory and governmental approvals.

Hot Rock has already completed most of the surface exploration in the geothermal projects. In the next six months, EDC and Hot Rock intend to finish the remaining surface exploration activities.

Based on the agreement, EDC and Hot Rock will establish joint venture companies for each of the geothermal projects, with EDC owning a 70-percent interest and Hot Rock owning the remaining 30-percent stake.

“We are excited with the prospect of developing with Hot Rock Ltd. what we consider as some of the best geothermal concessions in Chile and Peru, said Richard Tantoco, EDC president and CEO.

“The ability to grow our business with full control over our steam fuel supply is the strategic rationale for the Lopez Group's acquisition of the controlling stake in EDC,” Tantoco noted.

Dr. Mark Elliott,  Hot Rock executive chairman, said, “We are excited to have executed this HOTA, with the intention of establishing our first major partnership deal with EDC, the world’s largest integrated geothermal company with 35 years of experience in volcanic terrains and with a strong balance sheet.”

As part of its growth targets, EDC, has submitted direct applications for 13 sites and bids for five sites in Chile. The company is also looking at opportunities to develop geothermal projects in Indonesia, Kenya, and Peru.

EDC is the world’s largest integrated producer of geothermal power. It is engaged in the exploration, development and optimization of geothermal fields, as well as the operation and maintenance of geothermal power plants with a combined capacity of 1,130 mega watts. — VS, GMA News

http://bit.ly/ubV7QX

 

MPIC acquires controlling stake in Asian Hospital from Thai group

By: Doris C. Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:19 am | Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Asian Hospital

MANILA, Philippines –Infrastructure  holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. has inked a deal to acquire the controlling stake of Thai hospital group Bumungrad in the upscale 219-bed Asian Hospital in Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang.

Based on a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, MPIC will pay around P1.46 billion to buy at least 57 percent of Asian Hospital’s equity following an agreement with Bumungrad and a subsequent tender offer for all the remaining shares held by the public.

This will be the sixth hospital in the growing network of premium hospitals controlled by the local unit of Manuel V. Pangilinan-led First Pacific group nationwide.

With this acquisition, the MPIC Hospital Group will have an excess of 1,800 beds throughout the Philippine archipelago.

MPIC Hospital Group president Augie Palisoc Jr. said the group was excited with its investment in Asian Hospital, one of the premier medical facilities in the country that is about to complete its 14-storey second tower which costs about P1.2 billion to build.

“Tower 2 will house an additional 144 beds, outpatient facilities, doctors’ clinics, food outlets and even more parking spaces for our customers. This gives us a platform to better serve the health needs of our countrymen in the south of Metro Manila and in Southern Luzon,” Palisoc said.

The expansion will thereby increase the capacity of Asian Hospital to 363 beds.

Under the deal, MPIC will take over control of at least 57 percent of the hospital’s shares by buying the following the following:

* 100 percent of the shares of Bumrungrad International Philippines Inc., which owns about 532.58 million shares of the hospital for P732 million;

* 100 percent of the shares of Neptune Stroika Holdings (40 percent of which is currently owned by Bumungrad) which owns about 473.15 million shares for about P601 million; and,

* 88.54 million shares for about P123 million.

The disclosure added that in accordance with the rules on mandatory tender offers, MPIC will announce later “at the appropriate time” its intention to conduct a mandatory tender offer for all the remaining Asian Hospital shares held by the public.

The details of said mandatory tender offer will be announced at the appropriate time.

The final shareholding of MPIC in Asian Hospital will depend on the results of the tender offer as the 57-percent control includes only the earlier mentioned blocks of shares.

Subject to satisfaction of certain conditions precedent to closing, these transactions are expected to be completed before the end of 2011, the disclosure said.

Asian Hospital will be the fourth hospital controlled by MPIC in Metro Manila after Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan, and the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa. Manila.

MPIC has also invested in Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod and Davao Doctors Hospital in Mindanao.

 http://bit.ly/vpvhkh

Before there was social enterprise, there was Mountain Maid

By: Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
10:07 pm | Saturday, November 5th, 2011 

A WORKING student displays chunks of freshly
washed ube that are stored at the Sisters of the
Good Shepherd convent in Mines View, Baguio City. Many
products from food to clothing are produced and sold
here.

BAGUIO CITY – After finishing high school in 2008, Jackie Rose Lubbong, daughter of poor farmer parents from a remote village in Aguinaldo, Ifugao, would have chosen to go to urban areas such as Baguio and would have ended up as a waitress or contractual worker.

Or with no other option, she would have married early and would have been preoccupied with motherhood at an early age.

But she had big dreams; she wanted to pursue college.

She was determined and optimistic that there was a way to pursue her dream. And thanks to her parish priest, who recommended her to work her way to college through the Mountain Maid Training and Development Foundation.

“God willing, I seek to finish my college two years from now,” says Lubbong. Taking up Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and majoring in marketing, the 19-year-old Ifugao lass will be delayed by a year to finish her four-year course.

The reason: She spends three days in school and three days each week at the foundation.
Managed by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the foundation has been helping send poor Cordillera children, mostly young girls, since 1952 through its now famous products such as strawberry and ube jams.

Other products include peanut brittle, orange marmalade, cookies, lengua de gato (a special kind of cookies) and bread.

Lubbong is now one of the storekeepers at the foundation’s store where hundreds of customers queue up, especially during holidays such as Christmas, the Baguio flower festival and Holy Week.

AN EMPLOYEE of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
Convent weaves cloth for the facility that has become
known for its ube jam.

Also working his way to college is Christopher Rivera, the last child of a mechanic and a teacher. After finishing high school in 2007, he was told by his parents to stop schooling first because of financial difficulties.

But the young lad from Tuba, Benguet, insisted that there must be a way to pursue college even if it meant working part-time while studying. Through his local parish, he came to learn about the foundation run by the Good Shepherd sisters.

Now 20, Rivera has finished his Bachelor of Science in Financial Management and is taking up his second course, accounting technology.

While completing his second course, Rivera is also assigned at the foundation’s store, helping inventory items sold if he is not helping attend to customers.

Being assigned at the store is “some sort of promotion” for Rivera. “When I was just out of high school (he was just 16 then), I was initiated into the challenging task of manually grinding peanuts using a rolling pin,” he says.

Peanuts have to be ground before they are mixed with other ingredients such as sugar and rolled again with a rolling pin to produce one of the foundation’s famous major products – peanut brittle.

Lubbong and Rivera are among over 200 youths, mostly from the Cordillera, who are seeking to become professionals after “graduating” from making strawberry or ube jams or peanut brittle at the foundation.

The foundation’s ultimate idea is to empower young people through education, which will give them better opportunities and choices, says Sister Guadalupe Bautista, the foundation’s coordinator.

SISTER Guadalupe Bautista shows off their newly
made home-style cookies at the bake shop of Good
Shepherd in Mines View, Baguio City.

The foundation has 205 students from first to senior years. They are enrolled in degree courses such as social work, education, information technology, accountancy, business administration, financial management, electrical and civil engineering, psychology, hotel and restaurant management and agri-business.

A few others opted to take up short courses such as auto servicing, nursing aid training, electronics, secretarial and care-giving.
The Good Shepherd sisters’ vision and mission to educate poor but deserving young people by giving them ways and means to work their way to college has a long history.

The sisters’ program evolved from the dream of late Bishop William Brasseur, then apostolic vicar of Mt. Province. As a young CICM missionary assigned to the Cordillera in 1931, Brasseur had seen early on the need for education of poor but gifted young people of the highlands.

He thus requested the Sisters of the Good Shepherd to set up a foundation here.
Mother Mary Ursula Jung, the Religious of the Good Sisters (RGS) superior general at that time, gladly acceded to Brasseur’s request.

On Nov. 11, 1952, the RGS Los Angeles province in the United States assigned four sisters to Baguio. Having discovered that strawberries could grow well in Baguio and Benguet, they taught young Igorot girls how to make strawberry jams.

The first jam they cooked in a small pot launched a cottage industry, which would soon support the education of thousands of young Cordillerans.

The Brasseur-inspired initiative of the nuns of educating and thus empowering young people through a homegrown industry is now considered one of the models of what is called “social enterprise.”

A social enterprise, says one definition, is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. The terms social entrepreneur and social entrepreneurship were used first in the literature on social change in the 60s and 70s.

The almost seven-decade initiative of the Good Shepherd nuns is now well-recognized by advocates of social enterprise.

Last October 20 and 21, civil society and business sectors sat down to listen to Sister Guadalupe Bautista share the success story of the Mountain Maid and Training Development Foundation at a conference in Makati City organized by the private Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF).

The PEF is spearheading “Social Enterprise: The Next Business Model” as part of new program focus.

Recently, the Social Security System recognized and awarded Mountain Maid the “2011 SSS Balikat ng Bayan Award” as “Top Employer for North Luzon-Medium Category.”

In 2009, the Department of Labor and Employment awarded Mountain Maid a “Business Excellence and People’s Development Award.”

In 2010, the Baguio Centennial Commission also recognized the nuns as among the city’s builders for their mission and social enterprise work.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD BALONGLONG/ INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

http://bit.ly/tqtHso

BDO profits jump 19% in nine months

Posted on November 03, 20111 10:26:00 AM

Profits of Sy-led Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc (BDO) climbed by around 19^ in the January to September period on the back of the bank's strong performance across all business segments amid a difficult environment here and abroad.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange this morning, the bank said it earned P7.6 billion in nine months ending in September, higher than the P6.4 billion it booked in the same period last year.

"The bank managed to post a record performance despite the difficult operating environment here and overseas," BDO said in the statement.

Its net interest income inched up by 1.38% to P25.7 billion in the nine-month period from P25.35 billion last year.

The bank's non-interest income, meanwhile, grew by 16% to P15.3 billion.

On the expenditure side, the bank's operating expenses went up by around 5% to P27 billion from P25.78 billion a year ago as it "contained expense growth at manageable levels."

"BDO will continue to maintain cautious stance due to the current economic developments in Europe and the US," the bank said.

BDO's non-performing loans--the ratio of soured loans to total loans--stood at 3.9% improving from 4.7% as of end-2010.

The bank's capital adequacy ratio--a measure of its financial strength--was at 15%, well-above the central bank's 10% minimum requirement. -- Ann Rozainne R. Gregorio

http://bit.ly/u4API6 

Citi names top stock picks

EDC, MPIC, ALI, BDO, AGI on short list

By: Doris C. Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
8:51 pm | Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 

Global banking giant Citigroup sees selective opportunities in the Philippine stock market and is particularly upbeat on consumer and infrastructure issues.

Citi’s top five stock picks are Energy Development Corp., Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Ayala Land Inc., Banco de Oro and Alliance Global Group Inc., according to the October 19 equities research written by a team led by Citibank Philippines head of research Minda Olonan and economist Jun Trinidad.

“We favor liquid stocks which have been relative underperformers through the recent downturn and have dominant industry positions and are leveraged on domestic consumption and infra themes,” the research said.

Citi believes that while the Philippines would not be spared from a global downturn, it could still eke out a modest economic growth of 3.7 percent this year and 3.9 percent next year.

The factors seen cushioning downside risks in the Philippines were the following: strong reserve position; stable demand on resilient overseas remittance flows and lower inflation pressure; an improving fiscal position; abundant onshore liquidity; healthy banking and corporate sector; and stable political environment.

With a much better macroeconomic picture than during the last global recession in 2008, the bank said in the research that there would be limited downside risks to its expected Philippine corporate earnings growth of 6.7 percent this year and 13.8 percent next year.
Taking into account higher risk-aversion conditions, Citi sees the Philippine Stock Exchange index trading in line with the historical mean of 14.7 times expected 2012 earnings, or at about 4,500.

On its top stock picks, Citi noted that EDC was the country’s largest geothermal producer and the only listed pure renewable energy player. It also sees potential upside from EDC’s new projects such as wind power generation and overseas ventures and cites its healthy free cash flow and manageable debt level.

MPIC was cited as a play on the infrastructure theme. Citi cited MPIC’s solid existing businesses, noting that this was the country’s largest toll-road operator, sole water distributor in west zone of Metro Manila and owner of Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest electric distribution utility.

Citi sees upside from MPIC’s potential expansion and acquisition plans as well as healthy and improving cash flows of subsidiaries.

The research said ALI was “the biggest integrated Philippine property company professional management with reputation of strong corporate governance; improving margins due to cost-cutting initiatives, improving return on equity from diversification across market segments (commercial, high-to-middle market residential market, business process outsourcing offices) and geographical expansion.

BDO was cited as the largest commercial bank with a dominant market share in the corporate and consumer-lending fields and a strong retail deposit franchise.

AGI was cited as a first mover in the country’s budding gaming industry and one of the leading property developers. Citi said it has been able to leverage on the growing synergies of its leisure and tourism-related operations while holdings in hard liquor (Emperador) and fast-food network McDonalds were a play on consumption.

http://bit.ly/sd9uRI

PHL shares fall on heels of losses overseas

VICTOR D. SOLLORANO, GMA News

11/02/2011 | 01:30 PM

On the heels of a general downtrend in global markets, Philippine shares fell in moderate trading marked by plenty of cross transactions, traders said Wednesday.

The main Philippine Stock Exchange index lots 73.13 points or 1.69 percent to close at 4,260.41.

Over 4.679 billion shares worth P4.684 billion changed hands in Wednesday’s session.

While the Philippine market followed the general global trend on fears of contagion from the euro debt crisis, “there is no panic selling and most of the volumes were built on cross transactions," said trader Sonia Lumba of the brokerage firm Yao and Zialcita Inc.

Cross transactions are trades with the buying and selling of shares done by a single broker. “It’ does not reflect a true market sentiment," according to Yao and Zialcita’s trader.

The market was closed for a holiday Monday and Tuesday, and investors found no incentive buy and push the market higher after they were greeted with the news from Wall Street, according to a trader with DW Capital Inc.

“Asian shares fell and the euro hovered near three-week lows against the dollar on Wednesday, as investors shed riskier assets after Greece's abrupt call for a referendum rekindled fears about the viability of a European debt deal reached just last week," according to a Reuters report.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 259.93 points, or 2.17 percent, to 11,695.08, according to a separate Reuters report.

Decliners led winners 112 to 30, with 21 issues closing unchanged in the Philippine bourse. — GMA News  

http://bit.ly/vepGr1

Philex posts record profit

Best 9-month income in firm’s 55-year history

By: Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:10 am | Friday, October 28th, 2011

Philex Mining Corp. on Thursday said it posted P4.35 billion in net income for the first nine months of 2011 on the back of higher production and metal prices.

Philex, which is partly owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co Ltd., said in a report that this was the highest nine-month profit in its 55-year history and was 106 percent higher than the P2.12 billion recorded a year ago.

Core net income stood at P3.98 billion, 72 percent up from last year’s P2.31 billion and the second highest in the company’s history for the nine month period, it said. This translates to core income per share of 81 centavos for the first nine months of 2011, up from 47 centavos a year ago.

Net income per share amounted to 88 centavos versus 43 centavos in the same period last year.

Consolidated revenue also posted the highest level thus far at P11.83 billion, up 37 percent from P8.63 billion a year ago.

Contributing 58 percent of this year’s revenue, gold sales amounted to P6.89 billion, which was 51 percent higher than the P4.57 billion recorded last year.

Accounting for 37 percent of total revenue, sales of copper rose by 17 percent to P4.41 billion from P3.76 billion in 2010. Revenue from silver, petroleum and coal likewise reported a 79-percent increase jump, hitting P532.6 million during, up from P296.8 million last year.

Philex said better ore grades and higher tonnage milled contributed to high metal production.

“Earnings would have been slightly higher were it not for the recent weakening in gold and copper prices which adversely affected the value of later shipments, with final prices falling in the last month of the third quarter,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Philex chairman and chief executive officer.

“Nevertheless, we continue to be optimistic that we would still see record earnings this year,” he said.

Philex said that an extraordinary gain of P523.7 million was reflected in the second quarter this year from the restatement of the company’s investment in Pitkin Petroleum Plc to fair value.

Revenue from petroleum, principally from Forum Energy Plc.—which is 64.5-percent controlled by Philex subsidiary Philex Petroleum Corp.—reached P385.8 million.

“The successful listing of Philex Petroleum in the second board of the Philippine Stock Exchange on September 12 this year was received warmly by the market. This was indeed a milestone for the company,” Pangilinan said.

“We can say now that we have achieved our objective of unlocking the value of Philex Petroleum and making its oil and coal assets more visible to investors,” he said.

“We are also progressing quite well over at the Silangan project which has been granted recently its certificate of registration by the Board of Investments to qualify for government incentives. Overall, we can say that, as we get nearer to the close of the year, it may be another excellent year for Philex,” Pangilinan added.

http://business.inquirer.net/27243/philex-posts-record-profit

Sun Life Insurance gains control of Yuchengcos’ GrepaLife Financial

Tuesday, 25 October 2011 18:28 Jun Vallecera / Reporter

  

CANADIAN insurer Sun Life Insurance anticipates carving a greater share of the local market now that it has acquired 49 percent and effective management control of GrepaLife Financial Inc., owned by the Yuchengco Group of Companies.

The joint venture had been branded earlier as Sun Life Grepa Financial to indicate the synergy between Sun Life Insurance on one hand and the Yuchengco Group and its bancassurance business under the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) model on the other.

Newly appointed president and chief executive officer at Sun Life Grepa Financial Naresh Krishnan vowed to leverage the strengths of both companies and to deliver greater value to their customers.

“Sun Life Grepa Financial will continue to invest and grow its multiple business lines and distribution channels, and aims to be among the top-tier insurers in the Philippines,” Naresh said.

To achieve this goal, Naresh crafted a four-point strategy starting with offering innovative products and competitive value proposition to its clients.

He also vowed to grow Sun Life Grepa Financial’s distribution channels and enhance its reach, improving its product-delivery capabilities and establish greater-operational efficiency, as well.

Grepalife, under the Sun Life Grepa Financial name, will continue with its exclusive bancassurance agreement with RCBC, giving the lender’s 2 million customer base access to new Sun Life Grepa Financial insurance products.

“We’re very pleased about forming this joint venture between two strong companies that both focus on delivering the best for our customers,” said Riza Mantaring, president and CEO at Sun Life Financial Philippines.

“We welcome this new acquisition and bancassurance alliance with enthusiasm, as it allows us to serve more Filipinos and promises to bring us growth in our business,” Mantaring said.

The Yuchengco Group also expressed confidence and optimism on the future of the agreement. 

“This joint venture will allow us to offer a wider range of insurance products to better address our customers’ needs for protection and financial security. The joint venture will be able to leverage and complement the strengths of our combined brands,” RCBC Chairman Helen Y. Dee said.

“We have full confidence in the leadership of the new organization, and wish them every success,” she added.  

Krishnan will lead Sun Life Grepa Financial as president and CEO. 

Krishnan was formerly chief operating officer of Sun Life Financial Philippines where he oversaw its distribution channels and mutual funds business lines.  

Krishnan’s long and successful career in the financial services industry in Asia included senior positions in asset management and insurance.

Sun Life Grepa Financial will announce other leadership appointments and further details about its plans in the coming months.

http://bit.ly/vG6Vnz

Thai noodle shop to pilot franchise concept in PHL

Tuesday, 25 October 2011 18:22 Max V. de Leon / Reporter

  

Thailand’s 70-year-old rice and noodle shop Im Thai is making the Philippines its springboard for its Asian franchise expansion.

Greg Lim, business development manager of Blims Fine Furniture, said he secured the license to develop the franchise concept for Im Thai and then put up the prototype franchise stores here in the Philippines.

“It is a great restaurant chain but they don’t know how to franchise, so we convinced them to set up operations here. We will make it teachable and put everything into standards including menu and operations. Then we will create the Asian headquarters in the Philippines and start the Asian franchise,” Lim said.

The target rollout, he said, is in the first quarter of next year. 

Lim has sent two teams to Thailand to finalize the menu and style. The next phase, he said, is the taste test to ensure the menu would be acceptable for Filipinos.

“Our target is the mass market. But Thai is not really acceptable to Filipinos because it is too spicy. So our plan is to make the taste a combination of Thai, Chinese and Filipino,” Lim said.

Im Thai, aside from having a restaurant chain in Thailand, also does catering for industrial and government offices and a high-end polo club. It also has its own bakeshop and ice cream parlor.

Lim said they will choose the most salable items, which are mostly Thai rice and Thai noodles, then convert the concept into fast and casual dining.

The plan, he said, is to put up at least two company-owned stores before they start franchising it. 

For those located in commercial areas and business districts, they will have at least one restaurant and then spread several kiosks. The supply for the kiosks will come from the restaurants.

http://bit.ly/v2GmQ2  

MetroPac buys Cardinal Santos hospital operator

Monday, 24 October 2011 21:11 Miguel R. Camus / Reporter

  

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), the locally listed infrastructure unit of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., is spending P300 million to acquire the operator of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan, Metro Manila, from an affiliate company.

MPIC told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday it is buying 100 percent of Colinas Verdes Hospital Managers Corp., which has a 20-year lease agreement with Philippine Realty Corp. to operate the 237-bed Cardinal Santos Medical Center.

Colinas Verdes is a wholly owned subsidiary of MPIC affiliate Medical Doctors Inc., which owns and operates Makati Medical Center.

The deal also calls for MPIC to assume certain guarantees to Philippine Realty, which is owned by the Roman Catholic Church of the Philippines.

Colinas Verdes’s most recent financial data showed that net income in 2010 hit P118.39 million, slightly higher by 0.62 percent as revenues rose to P1.24 billion. 

“MPIC will be able to fully consolidate the financials of [Colinas Verdes],” Augie Palisoc Jr., president and chief executive of the MPIC Hospital Group, said in a statement.

“With this restructuring, we will be able to directly support both hospitals and pursue their respective improvement/expansion programs for the benefit of their patients, doctors and other stakeholders,” he said. 

MPIC, meanwhile, said the cash to be generated by Medical Doctors Inc. will provide it with additional funds for the upgrade and modernization of Makati Medical Center, which includes facilities renovation and the purchase of state-of-the-art medical equipment.  

MPIC is the largest private-hospital operator in the country: five premier medical facilities with a total of 1,600 beds.  The company is still looking for new acquisitions as it strives to grow to 15 hospitals with 5,000 beds in five years, the company revealed earlier. 

Other hospitals in the group include Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa Manila, Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod and Davao Doctors Hospital in Mindanao. 

This segment accounted for 3 percent of MPIC’s core earnings, or P99 million, as of the first six months of this year. MPIC, which is also involved in water infrastructure, toll roads and electricity distribution, earlier projected that core profits would rise almost a quarter to P4.8 billion in 2011. 

Shares of MPIC rose 1.67 percent to P3.05 each on Monday.

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In Photo: The Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Greenhills, San Juan, is shown in this photo taken on Monday. Metro Pacifi c Investments Corp. said it agreed to acquire the company that operates the hospital for P300 million. (Nonoy Lacza)

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http://bit.ly/t7OzBx

Macquarie shoots down criticism of Meralco deal

By: Daxim L. Lucas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:56 am | Saturday, October 22nd, 2011


At least one foreign fund manager has taken notice of the ongoing probe of government financial institutions’ (GFIs) investment activities during the past administration, and seems worried by the direction it is headed in.

In particular, the local unit of Australian financial giant Macquarie Group noted that senators’ criticism of the sale of state banks and pension funds of their stakes in power distributor Manila Electric Co. was ill-advised.

“In our view, to conclude that, on hindsight, the GFIs lost money from the sale of their stake in Meralco would be unwise, nearly three years after these transactions were done,” Macquarie Capital Securities (Phils.) Inc. said in a research note to clients titled “Hindsight is always 20/20.”

In reality, the deal was so profitable that the GFIs involved booked a combined profit of P17 billion by selling their shares in Meralco, even as the global financial crisis that peaked in 2008 had wiped out over half the value of their other stock holdings, it pointed out.

The statement came after the Senate probe on the Development Bank of the Philippines’ (DBP) P660-million loan to Roberto Ongpin began shifting to the role of other state-run financial institutions played in the businessman’s investments in Meralco and petroleum refiner Petron Corp.

In particular, Sen. Sergio Osmeña III questioned why the GFIs sold their shares in Meralco at only P90 apiece, when the share price rose to as high as P300 per share several months later.

Critics of both the DBP loan to Ongpin and the more recent Meralco sale issue have adopted identical arguments—that GFIs could have booked bigger gains had they held on to their shares for a few more months.

Macquarie—which is also one of the largest stockbrokers and investment banking firms operating in the Philippines—pointed out that GFIs like the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Lank Bank of the Philippines and DBP, in fact, sold their Meralco shares at the peak of the sub-prime crisis in 2008, “a time when stock markets had collapsed and lost more than half of their value.”

“On further analysis, we believe the GFIs’ disposals proved to be beneficial to them,” Macquarie said.

http://business.inquirer.net/26159/macquarie-shoots-down-criticism-of-meralco-deal

Be an entrepreneur

Thursday, 20 October 2011 19:45
Zoilo ‘Bingo’ Dejaresco III / Free Enterprise

  

IN the post-World War II years, big business and the government used to provide three of four jobs in many countries, according to business guru Peter Drucker. No longer.

“Downsizing” and “computerization” destroyed millions of jobs globally. The Asian crisis in 1997 and the property and financial meltdowns in 2008 and 2011 added misery, as a recent vintage leading to more job losses. In America alone, there are now 25 million people unemployed.

Circumstances, therefore, drew people out of the corporate cubicles into a new entrepreneurial class that create 12,000 businesses every week and a new industry every three weeks. Many started in garages and basements like Steve Jobs of Apple Computers at the age of 20 after dropping out of Reed University.

The economic miracles of Asian tiger economies like Korea and Taiwan came from nurturing small entrepreneurial units which are now colossal enterprises.

In the 1990’s, these  new businesses  (75 percent) were relatively low-tech (excepting some) like restaurant chains, food brands, cargo transport, distribution (cloth and medicine) and health care.

Entrepreneurs succeed because they have the vision to provide products and services needed by a large segment of the population. Henry Sy may have seen the future of 100 million people needing at least a pair of shoes when he opened the first Shoemart.  Manny Villar, the richest solon, built his fortune by providing in the beginning lost-cost housing for the poorer segment of society.

Millionaires have been made out of supplying the lowly slippers, chopsticks and bicycles to over a billion Chinese in the Mainland.

A Morita (founder of Sony) was once assigned as a salesman in a rural district. He cabled head office: “No one wears shoes here; send all inventory stock and we will dominate it here.” Not discouraged by the financial backwardness of the rustic environs.

Frank Wichita needed tuition money and sold “pizza” across a small family grocery. This was how Pizza Hut started. The pizza chain was eventually sold to Pepsi Cola for $300 million.

In 1961 Scottish K. Wilson while vacationing in a hotel was annoyed that each family member was charged $2 per head even if they stayed in one room. He started the concept of an inn, initially called Holiday Inn named after a Bing Crosby film. Thousands of inns now litter the highways of America.

Desktop publishing, run by three men, can produce earnings up to S400,000 a year.

The modern “working household” gave rise to residential cleaning and the wet and dry laundry cleaning in many countries. 

An obscure box found in malls called Mr. Payroll encashes checks and is now a S70-billion industry.

Samie Lim is one of the pioneers who believed that franchises and franchising one’s business is the way to go in the Philippines. The success rate, he claimed then, is that 90 percent of franchises make money.

According to the  Entrepreneur, the most promising and fastest growing franchises (2010) in the country are true to form.. The list is dominated by (food-related ones): Bread and Butter, Aquabest, Pizza Pedrico’s, LotsAPizza, Bibingkita, Goldilocks, and Waffle Time.

Others are (educational): Kumon and AMA Computers Learning, (convenient stores) Ministop and 7-11; (beauty) Ystilo Salon; (of Vina Morales) and  Orange Blush Salon and (drugs) The Generics Pharmacy.

The franchise and small business industry has given financial freedom to hundreds of heretofore merely employed individuals. The entrepreneur is not driven primarily by the desire for wealth, power and fear of failure, the way they plague the corporate animal. He is driven more by the sense of achievement and of self worth; everything else is a bonus.

In the corporate world, the ideal mold is the “team player” whose safety lies in remaining silent, doing the wrong thing occassionally for the corporation and perhaps planting a dagger on the back of a colleague on the way up the ladder.

Today’s entrepreneur wants to solve society’s needs by offering friendly goods and services, avoiding the corporate handcuffs and advances personal creativity. He is not out to gobble entire markets but creates a niche market—that he can satisfy thoroughly. He sets up manageable shops where people do not get lost; profits are directly shared and management participatory.

So before you despair over office politics, a brainless boss, unethical company policies, sexual harassment or slow promotion, don’t plant that bomb in the boardroom or sign that suicide note yet.  There is life beyond the corporate jungle. Be an entrepreneur.

http://bit.ly/onps6K 

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 21:12 John Mangun / Outside the Box

Greed has always been a negative concept.

The English word we use is from the Old Norse, which meant to have a strong desire for food or drink. When we look back to ancient Greek and Roman times, the idea of greed was a bit different than what we think of today. Then it meant to want more and more as to never be satisfied or fulfilled, never happy with what you have.

While the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu text written around the 5th century BC, speaks of greed, it lumps greed with anger and lust as uncontrollable emotions. “Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed.” Many verses of the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, too, speak of greed but in the context of a behavior that creates damage because it distracts from more important pursuits. 1 Maccabees 4:17: “And He said to the people: Be not greedy of the spoils: for there is war before us.”

Those people that are now on the streets shouting the word and painting it on signs would probably be shocked to learn that the modern concept of greed came from one of the great thinkers of the Catholic Church. Greed is a religious concept.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote Summa Theologica in the 1200s. About greed he wrote, “It is a sin directly against one’s neighbor, since one man cannot over-abound in external riches, without another man lacking them.” Greed, according to Aquinas, is a zero-sum game in which a participant’s gain is exactly balanced by the losses of the other participant.

If I win, you lose. The thief who steals your cell phone then would be the best example of greed.

And it is this model from Summa Theologica that has shaped our thinking of greed for 800 years. But is all the current rallying against “corporate greed” and the banks sensible?

“People, not profits” sounds real nice and friendly. Except, who reaps the benefits from those corporate profits? People. When I started as a stockbroker decades ago, I asked prospective clients what beer they drank.. Want to lower your cost of beer? Then buy the beer-making company. Want to lower your Meralco bill? Buy the stock and get a 2+ percent dividend. And the more profits Meralco makes, the greater the value of your shares.

Americans complain about Apple manufacturing in China. But they are not willing to pay 25 percent more for their gadget to have it made in the US. Americans did not wake up one day and suddenly found all the shoes, clothes and electronics  “Made in China.” They bought the cheaper Chinese-made goods over many years because they wanted to pay less. Isn’t that greed? Weren’t they putting their own “profits” before people?

The banks are “greedy” because they make profits from the loans they make. I said something dumb the other day and my friend at the Philippine Star, Boo Chanco, pointed it out. I said that the bailouts were not set up to benefit Greece, but for the benefit of lenders. Boo properly educated me; “of course... the Greeks hopefully or supposedly got their benefits from those loans years ago.” He is absolutely right.

The “poor” in the US complain about the bank’s profits. Tens of millions receive food stamps from the government. Banker JPMorgan is the largest processor of food-stamp benefits in US. JP provides food-stamp debit cards. More food stamps, more JPMorgan profits. And the taxes that are paid on those profits go to pay for the food-stamp program.

You see, in this modern age, it is not a zero-sum game. When there was a very limited supply, then taking more could have meant someone else received less. But modern capitalism has made the pie larger and continues to make it larger every day. Chinese workers better their standard of living; US consumers buy more goods for less money.

However, there is a perfect solution to all the corporate greed and even to personal greed: communism. Karl Marx wrote that “The theory of communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.”

If there is not any private property then greed disappears since no one can accumulate (profit) at all. Since all the iPhones belong to all of us, I can take the one you are holding and you do not lose. You just take the other person’s. Of course, the iPhone would never have been invented because Steve Jobs might have been greedy enough to want more compensation for his idea than the janitor at the Apple office.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/opinion/18182-profits-for-people

Love for photos develops into profitable venture

By GoNegosyo (philstar.com) Updated October 14, 2011 04:12 PM

Since Grande Agustin was the only one in the area who knew his way around the camera, he had the market to himself.

 

Grande L. Agustin of Castañeda, Nueva Vizcaya has always been fascinated with photography and enamored by the cameras that captured the perfect image.

But for people like him whose family could hardly afford the basic essentials of photography, having his own camera to take his own pictures was out of the question while he was growing up. Priority went to putting food on the table.

As fate would have it, Grande got his first job in a photography studio, and he used the money to make his way through school. He worked during the day and studied at night. Then he fell in love.

Barely out of their teens, Grande and Elenita had to fend for themselves by selling rice cakes. But soon enough, Grande’s love for the camera urged him to save enough money ad buy a second-hand unit. That became the foundation for the photo shop that he opened from their savings.

In 2005, Alalay sa Kaunlaran Inc.- Baler opened a branch in the barangay where the Agustins lived. It did not take long for the barangay association to earn the trust of the bank, and Grande and other people from the village were able to avail themselves of market and agriculture loans.


Grande secured a P30,000 loan that bankrolled his venture into agriculture. That loan has given his so much return over the years. His onions and palay sell well, and he is ready to do more. Then, Grande got another loan that enabled him to finally put up the photography studio that he always wanted. Aside from the camera, he was able to buy studio equipment.

And since he was the only one in the area who knew his way around the camera, he had the market to himself. That meant a good return on his investment in his well-loved photo shop.

All these would not have been possible, Grande says, without good, old-fashioned perseverance, hard work and integrity.

http://bit.ly/pP0Uzq