Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom Inc. and dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) inked a new interconnection pact allowing their subscribers in Sorsogon to call each other without additional charges. Froilan Castelo, general counsel of Globe, said the company, through Globelines, and PLDT are also in talks for similar interconnection arrangements in Zambales, Misamis Occidental and Ilocos Norte.  “We are happy to announce the expansion of Globe Telecom’s interconnection with competition to include the province of Sorsogon, which further enhances our customers’ access to affordable telecommunication services. We are hopeful that such collaboration and cooperation for cost-effective services will further extend to more and more provinces in the country,” he said. Globe and PLDT are now interconnected in Metro Manila, Cavite, Iloilo, Capiz, Batangas, Cebu, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Leyte, Davao City, Pampanga, Bulacan, Zamboanga, Laguna, Quezon, La Union, Nueva Ecija, and Benguet, GenSan/South Cotabato , Tarlac, Davao del Norte and Pangasinan. Republic Act 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act mandates the compulsory interconnection of authorized public telecommunications carriers to create a universally accessible and fully integrated nationwide telecommunications network. The law also encourages more infrastructure investments from the private sector that would benefit the consumers. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The local interconnection between Globe and PLDT allows landline customers of both entities to realize substantial savings as they no longer have to pay for long distance charges when calling one another. Prior to the commercial activation of the interconnection, landline Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The tandem of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Inc. has asked Malacanang to dismiss the appeal filed by San Miguel Corp. (SMC) regarding its disqualification in the bidding for the P35.4 billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) project held last month. Team Orion, a 50-50 joint venture between Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. and Aboitiz Land, submitted to the Office of the President a comment on the Memorandum of Appeal filed by SMC last June 27 appealing the disqualification of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. Team Orion spokesperson Roman Azanza III said the group earlier filed a Motion to Intervene with Malacanang to inform the public about the ongoing dispute in the award of the infrastructure project. “We believe that nobody or no entity should ever be allowed to undermine the bidding process. There are rules and procedures that must be followed in a public bidding. If we do not follow it, and if we let errant participants act outside of the rules of a public bidding process, then the whole process will lose credibility,” Azanza said. He warned that the controversy puts in peril close to P900 billion worth of major infrastructure projects  under the Aquino administration’s PPP scheme. “We stand more to lose as a nation if we do not respect our own bidding rules and procedures. We need to keep the hard-earned confidence of investors in the stability and integrity of our public bidding process,” he said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Losing Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Snacks and beverage giant Universal Robina Corp. (URC) of the Gokongwei family is taking over the leading biscuit and snack food company in New Zealand for NZ$700 million (roughly P26.4 billion), marking its largest acquisition to date. The acquisition jumpstarts URC’s goal of becoming a major regional player while continuing the trend of Philippine firms buying established companies abroad. In a regulatory filing, URC said its wholly owned offshore subsidiary URC International Co. Ltd. entered into an agreement to acquire 100 percent of NZ Snack Food Holdings Ltd. (NZFHL) from management and funds advised by Pacific Equity Partners. “The transaction is valued at NZ$700 million and is subject to approval by New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office,” URC said. NZFHL is the holding company of Griffin’s Foods Ltd., New Zealand’s leading biscuit and snack food company with approximate net sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of NZ$280 million and NZ$78 million, respectively. “In recent years URC has been looking for opportunities to explore potential acquisitions and partnerships in line with our vision to be a significant regional player in snack foods and beverages,” said URC president and CEO Lance Gokongwei. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 While URC has already built strong brands, the strategy is to continue offering existing consumers and markets in Southeast Asia and Greater China with innovative, convenient, lifestyle-focused and on-the-go products, Gokongwei added. “Griffin’s board believes URC’s significant experience in developing its own export markets makes it Read More …

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – Philippine shares closed 1.03 percent lower today. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index declined by 70.72 points to 6,830.37. The all-share index also lost 33.87 points, or 0.82 percent, to 4,102.63. Trading volume reached 2.14 billion shares worth P5.23 billion ($120.31 million).   There were 51 gainers, 117 losers while 53 stocks closed flat.

MANILA, Philippines – The improvement in government efficiency and  the fight against corruption helped the Philippines improve its competitiveness by six notches, the latest report from think tan World Economic Forum said. According to the WEF’s “The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014”, the Philippines is ranked 59th out of 148 economies, getting a  total score of 4.29 fom the three sub-indexes of “basic requirements, efficiency enhancers, and innovation and sophistication factors.” “The trends are positive across most dimensions of the Index. In the institutions pillar (79th), the Philippines has leapforgged over the past years. The current government, which came into power in 2010, has made the fight against corruption an absolute priority; corruption had historically been one of the country’s biggest drags on competitiveness,” the report said. The Geneva-based think tank said the campaign against corruption boosted the Philippines’ standing in the ethics and corruption strategy, up from 135th in 2010 to 87th this year. “A similar trend has been observed in the government efficiency index,” the WEF said. However, the report said the Philippines still needs  to improve its transport infrastructure (84th), particularly its airport (113th) and seaport (116th) facilities. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Also, while the labor market has become “more flexible and efficient over the years,” the  Philippines still ranks a low 100th. “The recent successes of the government in tackling some of the most pressing structural issues are encouraging and proof that bold reforms and measures can yield positive results,” the report Read More …