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 

They made it even without a diploma

EntrePinoy

By GoNegosyo Home Updated October 14, 2011 04:19 PM

“We did not finish college and could never get white-
collar jobs, so we had to think of a good business.”

He was saddled with life’s many disadvantages, not least of which was being a man with a woman’s name. However, Jennifer Alejo, 33, was not one to give up easily, no matter the odds.

Jennifer was a security guard in Metro Manila in 1997. He quit that job a year later to drive a tricycle. His wife, Vivian, was a lowly paid contractual sales lady and a former house helper. Tired of careers that were going nowhere, Jennifer and Vivian went back to their hometown in Naguilian, Isabela, and decided to purchase a tricycle through a financing scheme in 2000.

Jennifer drove the tricycle for two years, but his income was still not enough for his family. He and his wife decided to buy and sell kropek, puto seko, candies and other delicacies through a P5,000 micro financing loan from Ficobank, a rural bank in their town.


“We used our tricycle to go to sarisari stores from one place to another to sell kropek. It was tedious work, but our hardships paid off after a couple of years,” Jennifer says. “We tried everything to be able to attain a certain level of success.”

It wasn’t always smooth sailing. The couple spent nearly all their savings to salvage their business after a kropek supplier in Bulacan duped them of around P250,000. They filed a case against the agent, but the man had by then disappeared.

“We were so hard up then because we borrowed most of the money from the bank,” recalls Vivian.

They survived this setback, and their venture eventually flourished. They secured another P150,000 loan to put up their own facilities for making chicharon out of carabao hide.

During a good week, the couple make at least P20,000 to P25,000 in sales and as much as P600,000 from wholesale trading during peak months.

The Alejos plowed their income back into the business. They improved their chicharon production area, hired more workers, and bought a second-hand truck and four more tricycles so they could move more goods.

Their business has given their townmates a fairly good source of livelihood. “Repacking” workers usually earn P1,000 to P1,500 a week. “It is a big help to our family, especially if we work overtime. This is a better job than planting and harvesting palay,” says Marilou Estrada, 51, who has been working for the Alejos as a repacker for eight years.

Vivian says her successful business venture has also paved the way for her to help other relatives and those of her husband in times of need. Recognizing the value of good education, they are now supporting a niece through college.

“It is high time that we also share our graces. For our relatives who are in dire need, for our neighbors and villagers who need jobs, and to God through church offerings,” says Jennifer

What pushed them to entrepreneurship? “The answer was clear,” says Jennifer. “We did not finish college and could never get white-collar jobs, so we had to think of a good business.”

Jennifer took up electrical technology for a year, then shifted to a computer secretarial course before he quit school altogether. Vivian took up accounting, but quit after a year. The two decided instead to tie the knot. They now have three children: Kenneth James; 12, Kathleen Joy; 10, and Christian, 3.

“An entrepreneur needs to have patience when handling people, managing the business, controlling the quality of the products,” Vivian says, citing her experience with delinquent or non-remitting vendors.

To his fellow traders, Jennifer has this to say: “Businessmen must be straight. Do not mix vices like gambling and drinking with business. Have discipline, industry and patience.”

http://bit.ly/otnJc8

AboitizPower head is Entrepreneur of the Year

By Carlo P. Mallo
Oct 13, 2011

Growing the family power company from producing 22 megawatts to a staggering 3,137 megawatts is but one of the reasons why Erramon Aboitiz, president and chief executive officer of AboitizPower Corp. is this year’s Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines 2011.

Leading the family company into a new era, Aboitiz spearheaded the company’s foray into an initial public offering that gave the company the resources to strategically acquire privatized energy generating assets.

Aboitiz also led the company into becoming one of the first providers of clean energy. Cleanergy, the company’s brand of clean and renewable energy, harnessed from their hydroelectric and geothermal power plants. While AboitizPower continues to build coal-fired power plants, it uses clean coal technology.

Aside from being the Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines 2011, Aboitiz was also announced as the Master Entrepreneur of the Year.

Other winners include Bienvenido Tantoco III of Rustan’s Supercenters Inc. as Innovation Entrepreneur, Ferdinand Maranon of Sagrex Corp. as Emerging Entrepreneur, Maria Fe Agudo of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc as Woman Entrepreneur, Reynaldo Paulino of Kraftika Filipina as Small Business Entrepreneur, and Anna and Camille Meloto of Human Nature as Social Entrepreneurs.

http://bit.ly/mSrgGT

Erramon Aboitiz named Entrepreneur of the Year

by Jekki Pascual, ANC

Posted at 10/13/2011 5:21 PM | Updated as of 10/13/2011 8:17 PM

Aboitiz Power Corp. President and CEO Erramon Aboitiz.
Photo Grab from ANC

 MANILA, Philippines - Erramon Aboitiz, president and CEO of Aboitiz Power Corp., is Entrepreneur Of The Year 2011.

In an awards banquet held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel Wednesday night, Aboitiz was cited for his exemplary vision, leadership and financial expertise.

Aboitiz, who also won the category award for Master Entrepreneur 2011, will represent the Philippines in the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards in Monte Claro, Monaco in June next year.

Aboitiz said the Philippines is a great place for business.

"I've always maintained that there are a lot of opportunities in the Philippines. A lot of people have asked us do we have aspirations to go abroad. Our answer has always been, 'what for?' We have the opportunities in the Philippines. And if we look hard enough and try hard enough, we will definitely find those opportunities."

He also believes that Filipinos can excel globally not just as ordinary workers, but as businessmen.

"On the global basis, we are the preferred workforce and there's no reason why we can't achieve more than just being workers of the world, but really be entrepreneurs of the world."

Other entrepreneurs who have shown excellence in their fields were also honored during the awards night.

Ferdinand Marañon, president and CEO of Sagrex Corp., was named Emerging Entrepreneur for exemplifying the start-up process.

Maria Fe Agudo, president and CEO of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc., received the Woman Entrepreneur award for displaying great leadership, particularly in a male-dominated industry.

"Being a woman and being a mother gives you the advantage of having a natural instinct, emotional attachment to your job and at the same time, stability of decision," said Agudo.

Meanwhile, the Small Business Entreprener award was given to Reynaldo Paulino, managing director of Kraftika Filipina, a firm that uses inidgenous materials to create fashion accessories.

Anna Meloto-Wilk and Camille Meloto of Gandang Kalikasan Inc., were named Social Entrepreneurs for creating an organization for the poor.

Bienvenido Tantoco III, president of Rustans Supercenters Inc., was Innovation Entrepreneur for turning around and growing his company that previously had huge debts.

Tantoco had this advice to start-up entrepreneurs: "Never ever surrender. When you're in the middle of your own crisis, try to reconnect with the original purpose, the original thing that inspired you to develop your business. Hang on to that as your purpose."

From a backyard venture to a global enterprise

MEKENI’S RISE TO SUCCESS 

Raquel P. Gomez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:31 pm | Saturday, October 8th, 2011 

FELIX and Meding Garcia

In its 25 years of existence, Mekeni Food Corp. has endured and survived situations that would have forced other similar companies to close shop.

Mt. Pinatubo exploded in 1991 and engulfed in lahar the town of Porac in Pampanga, where the company’s operation was located.

Then the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2001 political crisis happened, which caused the peso to plunge versus the dollar, affecting the company’s financial standing. Add to that the news of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) affecting the pork industry, the industry Mekeni thrives in.

For Mekeni, a backyard operation that started in 1986, by a husband and wife team who were public school teachers to augment their meager salaries, being resilient and surviving the hurdles meant getting better and bigger.

An opportunity

A bad situation is really an opportunity for a good thing to happen, according to company president Prudencio Garcia, who along with his four brothers, run the Filipino meat processing company that has been recognized for three consecutive years (2004 to 2006) as the best meat processing plant (triple A category) by the National Meat Inspection Service of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

In 2007, it received the grand slam award for the same category.

Mekeni’s state-of-the art plant in Porac has also received an ISO 22000 certification, a global standard which applies to food safety management system. The plant, according to Garcia, is the first meat plant in Asia and in the Philippines and second in the world to receive such certification.

Expansion


The plant, which sits on a 16-hectare lot, has the capacity to produce 100 tons of meat products a day, producing hotdogs, sausages, hams, bacon; apart from tocino, longganisa, and tapa.

Soon the company will be exporting products abroad.

From a backyard industry, Mekeni is now a half-billion-peso company reaching annual sales of P1 billion. It employs more than 1,000 employees and maintains headquarters in Porac and an office in Manila.

GARCIA siblings (from left) Adrian,
Nards, Pruds, Tatay Felix (Mekeni
Food Corp. founder), Lito and
Doods.

The efforts to improve the company to world-class standard were initiated by Garcia and his brothers to counter the challenges and prepare the business for competitiveness in a globalized market.

“The Asian financial crisis and the FMD were a major blow to our operations,” says Garcia. “I told my brothers that in order for us to fight the crisis, we have to change our strategy. Because we are neither big enough nor small enough, we cannot compete against the giant companies or the small companies. We either downsize the operations or upsize. We chose to compete with the giant.”

Garcia started to drastically implement changes such as integrating quality controls and efficient processes. He gathered 40 employees and rallied them to “to think globally and not locally.”

Going global

“To be global, we have to improve our system. The ‘backyard’ industry thinking should be changed. There should be automation, standards, and structures. We have to strictly follow processes.”

Garcia also expanded the company’s meat products beyond the tocino and longganisa, which Mekeni was known for, to hotdogs.

“To be a world-class meat processing company, we need to think of something to compete with the giant. And it’s hotdog. When we entered the market for hotdogs, there were only two known brands. So immediately, we became the third hotdog brand.”

Tatang

For Mekeni’s transformation to a global company, Garcia credits his father Felix Garcia, who with his wife Meding, started a piggery and meat processing business as a sideline to their jobs as teachers.

“Tatang” according to Garcia acted as the company “visionary” whose words were regarded by the brothers as wise counsel.

“My father is an educator and respected in the community. His words have meaning and he’s always sure of what he says.”

Garcia says his father, the former teacher, through a moving letter, was the one who convinced him and his brothers to give up their successful careers abroad, take over the small-scale family business right after the Mt. Pinatubo explosion.

Garcia was already working as a manager in a cement company in Saudi Arabia, while his wife worked as a nurse there.

“I was at the peak of my life as a professional. I enjoy the community in Saudi. I also had the fear it will be hard to establish connections once I get back. I was out of the country for eight years. But Tatang wrote a very strong letter, reminding us that the reason why we were successful was because of the community. He told us to get out of our comfort zone, expand the business, and rebuild the factory to help people in Porac affected by lahar.”

THE MEKENI Food Corp. celebrates
its 25th anniversary at the Sofitel
Philippine Plaza Hotel.

During the height of the Asian financial crisis and FMD, which nearly forced the company to shut down, Garcia’s father also talked to the brothers to not give up, but consider the people whose very lives depend on the company.

“Tatang told us ‘I promise you someday you will be very proud that you’re working at Mekeni’. It was a simple statement, but the impact was big. Tatang was telling us to not only survive but to grow as an organization.”

Apart from his job at Mekeni, Garcia is also helping other entrepreneurs, particularly micro entrepreneurs, through inspiring talks. As most small businesses are family-run, Garcia tells them to focus on establishing good family relationships first.

“Without good family ties, it will be difficult to run a micro business,” says Garcia, referring to his father’s family that really worked as a team to achieve its goals.

For making a backyard industry into a global business, Garcia is currently a finalist in the SGV Foundation’s “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2011.”

http://bit.ly/r24r4O

PSE posts P15.6 B in net foreign buying

By: Doris C. Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:32 pm | Friday, October 7th, 2011


MANILA, Philippines – Foreign investors bought P15.6 billion more local stocks than they sold in the first nine months of the year despite the extremely volatile global markets, the Philippine Stock Exchange said Friday.

The net foreign buying in the local stock market for the nine-month period was 37 percent higher than the P11.37 billion in net foreign equity inflow in the same period last year.

Even as the main PSEi index headed lower than the end-2010 level at the end of the nine-month period, the combined market capitalization of listed issues on the PSE rose by 11 percent to P8.2 trillion compared with P7.39 trillion in the same period last year.

The benchmark PSEi declined by 4.8 percent or 201.49 points to end at 3,999.65 as of September 30 from last yearend. The index hit a record peak of 4,550 in early August but pulled back since then due to turbulent global financial markets.

“While it’s unfortunate that recent concerns over events in Europe and the US have stalled our momentum, we still remain optimistic that markets will bounce back sooner compared with the global financial crisis a few years ago.  The Philippine economy’s solid economic fundamentals should be key in helping us ride out the turbulence,” PSE president and chief executive officer Hans Sicat said in a press statement.

In terms of sectoral indices, the mining and oil index emerged as the best performer as it was the only sector index that recorded gains, climbing by 47.2 percent during the January to September period. All other indices declined.

The PSE also reported that total turnover for the nine-month period reached P1.05 trillion, 24.1 percent higher than the level registered in the same period last year. In the third quarter alone,  turnover amounted P384.52 billion, up by 16.6 percent from a year ago.

Total capital raised in the first nine months amounted to P64.54 billion, an improvement over the P59.10 billion raised in the first nine months of 2010. This was due largely to the initial public offering of Megawide Construction Corp. (MWIDE), the follow-on offering of preferred shares of San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. (PF), stock rights offerings of SM Development Corp. (SMDC), Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (MBT), Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) and private placements into Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc. (BDO), Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPI), San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Marcventures Holdings Inc. (MARC).

The PSE also added Philex Petroleum Corp. to its roster of listed companies via a listing by way of introduction in September, bringing the total number of listed companies to 250.

“Though the market remains volatile, it hasn’t stopped us from continuing reforms in the capital market. These initiatives, I believe, have contributed to increased trading activity and interest in the PSE, ” Sicat noted.

http://bit.ly/qdhMna 

Puregold down 12% on listing

By: Doris C. Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
4:21 am | Thursday, October 6th, 2011


The share price of Puregold Price Club Inc., the country’s first purely retail stock play, faltered by 12 percent during the company’s trading debut on Wednesday given the volatility in global financial markets.

Still, top company officials committed to boost profit expand the firm’s geographical footprint and build a reputable image moving forward. For 2011, Puregold expects to book a net profit of P1.6 billion, equivalent to 80 centavos in earnings for share. Comparative net earnings last year amounted to P750 million.

Overall business for 2012 would likely be about 25 better than this year’s, Puregold president Leonardo Dayao said in a briefing after the listing ceremonies.

Puregold shares closed at P11 each, falling from the initial public offering price of P12.50. Dayao, however, was unfazed.

“The main objective is to list and that was accomplished today. Pricing is only incidental as it’s driven by the market situation,” said Roberto Juanchito Dispo, president of First Metro Investment, one of Puregold’s domestic lead arrangers.

“October is really not the best time for the markets in general and what more for IPOs, especially this one which was priced at a premium to other stocks in the market PE-wise,” said Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities Inc.

During the listing ceremonies, founder and controlling shareholder Lucio Co took the opportunity to refute allegations of smuggling that had come out in the media prior to his company’s IPO.

“So much has been said about my person. My name was dragged sporadically in some irregularities I did not commit. I was conveniently painted as a villain,” Co said. “The upside is, I guess my name is full-color and therefore, newsworthy.”

http://business.inquirer.net/23301/puregold-down-12-on-listing

Stocks rally on German vote

Posted on September 30, 2011 07:19:41 PM

OPTIMISM AFTER Germany approved an increase in the euro zone’s bailout fund and window dressing on blue-chip issues pushed stocks higher for the third session this week on Friday.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rallied by 3.15% or 122.02 points to 3,999.65, 0.35 point shy of piercing the 4,000-psychological barrier, while the broader all-share index rose by 2.56% or 71.45 points to 2,859.23.

"Even as a number of major markets in the region slipped, local share prices tracked US stocks’ advance as optimism resurfaced," analyst Justino B. Calaycay, Jr. of brokerage firm Accord Capital Equities, Corp. in a market report yesterday.

"The local bourse fully recovered the losses it incurred earlier this week as investors traded on hopes that Europe will be able to stave off a debt crisis," noted brokerage firm RCBC Securities, Inc. in a separate market report yesterday.

The good news from Europe seemed to have soothed the nerves of skittish investors, said analyst Astro C. del Castillo, managing director of brokerage firm First Grade Holdings, Inc., in a telephone interview yesterday.

Elizabeth S. Abadillo of Angping & Associates Securities, Inc. attributed yesterdays’ rise to window dressing by some investors as the third quarter closed.

Window dressing is a strategy among mutual fund and portfolio managers to improve the appearance of their portfolios by selling lagging stocks and buying outperforming stocks.

Miners lifted the bourse on Friday. Pangilinan-led Philex Mining Corp. rose by 7.82% or P1.60 to P22.05, while Lepanto Consolidated Mining "A" and "B" added 5.93% or seven centavos to P1.25 and 5.64% or seven centavos to P1.31, respectively.

Index heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. also climbed by 1.76% or P38 to P2,198 apiece.

US markets closed higher overnight after a volatile intraday trading, after receiving news that Germany had approved an expanded euro zone bailout fund, which it would principally finance, as US jobless claims dipped to 391,000, the lowest recorded since April, according to US Labor department data.

Blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose by 1.3% or 143.08 points to 11,153.98, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 0.8% or 9.34 points to 1,160.40.

Tech-rich Nasdaq composite index, however, bucked the uptrend and shed 0.4% or 10.82 points to 2,480.76.

At home, advancers trumped decliners 118 to 32, while 34 stocks were unchanged.

Turnover amounted to P4.911 million from P5.178 billion on Wednesday.

The selling streak among foreigners ended on Friday, as they posted a net foreign buying of P486 million.

All subindices closed in the green, led by mining and oil that surged by 5.18% or 1,011.59 points to 20,525.99, followed by property that jumped by 3.30% or 44.64 points to 1,398.43.

It remains to be seen whether the PSEi will continue to gain next week. Analysts said it will continue to track markets abroad.

"We will still remain sensitive to the flow of foreign developments next week," Mr. del Castillo said.

As a result, the bourse may trade within a narrow band of 3,800 to 4,000 next week. -- Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente

 

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=StockMarket&title=Stocks-rally-on-German-vote&id=39198 

Jollibee buys Burger King franchise in the Philippines

Doris C. Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:19 pm | Friday, September 30th, 2011 

Local fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. has cemented its leading position in the highly competitive quick-service restaurant industry by taking over the Philippine operations of American chain Burger King.

The deal allows JFC to gain a foothold into the premium segment of the hamburger category in the fast-food business as the group was expecting the premium price segment of the market “to grow appreciably in the years ahead as the Filipino consumers’ standard of living rises from the growing economy.”

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Friday, Jollibee announced that it has signed an agreement acquiring a 54-percent stake in BK Titans Inc., owner of PERF Restaurants that, in turn, is the sole franchisee of the Burger King brand in the Philippines. The deal was priced at P65.5 million.

Burger King has 23 restaurants in the country, mostly located in Metro Manila. It generates annual revenues of P800 million and has recently turned profitable despite its much smaller store network compared to Jollibee’s.

The American fastfood chain, which is based in Miami, Florida, has similar products to Jollibee such as hamburger, fried chicken and fries in its core menu. However, Burger King’s products are priced about 30 percent higher than comparable Jollibee products in the Philippines.

The entry into higher-end fast food products will allow Jollibee to harness the growing mass affluence of Filipino consumers and capture a niche market that is less sensitive to economic cycles. At the same time, its entry is seen allowing Burger King to scale up operations in the country.

With the entry of Jollibee into BK Titans, the fast-food giant will still have as minority partners the groups of businessmen Manuel V. Pangilinan (13 percent) and Alberto Lina (33 per cent).

Founded in 1954, Burger King is the second-biggest fastfood hamburger chain in the world operating more than 12,300 locations and serving 11 million guests daily in 78 countries. Most of its restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchisees. In Asia, the business is managed by Singapore-based BK Asiapac Pte. Ltd.

For its part, Jollibee operates the Philippines’ biggest fastfood network with 1,941 stores in the country under the brands Jollibee (733), Chowking (395), Greenwich (209), Caffe Ti Amo (2) and Mang Inasal (393).  It has 437 stores overseas under the brands Yonghe King (235), Hong Zhuang Yuan (52), Jollibee (71), Red Ribbon (39) and Chowking (40).

http://business.inquirer.net/22247/jollibee-buys-burger-king-franchise-in-the-philippines