Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the investment arm of the Gotianun family, is entering the power generation business in Luzon with a 300-megawatt (MW) power plant project in the next few years. The holding firm expects to reap a substantial income of P2 billion a year from its large investments in power generation in Mindanao starting 2016, officials said last week. “First [in the expansion program] is the Luzon market. The growth requirements of Luzon are substantial so we will take a look at that,” said FDC president and CEO Josephine Gotianun-Yap. “We really want to grow our power portfolio, whether greenfield, acquisition of power assets or joint venture,” said FDC chairman Jonathan Gotianun. “In general, we would start off probably with 150-300 MW. Normally you would scale it up,” Gotianun-Yap said, adding that the holding firm is also open to hydropower projects. Subsidiary FDC Utilities Inc. last year broke ground for a 405-MW clean coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental that is scheduled to start operations in 2016. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 When completed, it will be the largest power plant in Mindanao and is expected to alleviate the region’s ongoing power crisis. So far, FDC has contracted 81 percent of the power plant’s output to 17 power distributors. FDC expects to book P2 billion in profits every year when its Mindanao coal plant starts operations in 2016, making the power generation business the third biggest income contributor next to property development Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The stock market’s decline will likely continue this week following the benchmark index’s plunge below the support level, snapping the five-month upward trend. “For this week, the downtrend would continue as the main index dropped below the 6,750 support level,” Freya Natividad, investment analyst at Papa Securities, said in a phone interview. “On a technical perspective, we saw a breakdown from the five-month upward trend channel, breaching the 6,650 support level we have previously mentioned,” said Joyce Anne J. Ramos, analyst at AB Capital Securities Inc. This signals a potential consolidation of prices or a fall to its next support level at 6,625.55, Ramos said. Week-on-week, the Philippine Stock Exchange index sank 2.4 percent or 163.68 points to finish at 6,647.65, marking the third straight weekly decline of the bellwether index. Investors unloaded stocks following the release of economic growth data, which showed that Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) rose 5.7 percent in the first quarter. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 It is below the consensus estimate of 6.4 percent and slower than 7.7 percent uptick in the first quarter of 2013. Government officials said the economy was weighed down by natural disasters late last year.

MANILA, Philippines – More construction activity was seen in the first quarter compared to a  year ago as the number of approved building permits climbed by more  than a fifth year-on-year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)  said.    Preliminary results of the PSA’s construction statistics for the  January to March period showed the total number of new construction  projects from approved building permits reached 29,468, up 20.8  percent from the 24,400 in the same period in 2013.    The new construction projects for the period were valued at P61.1  billion, a 4.3 percent increase from the P58.7 billion in the  comparable period last year.    Residential type-building projects accounted for the bulk of approved  building permits for the three-month period, which grew 17.1  percent to 20,498 from 17,502 during the same period of 2013.    The value of these residential projects rose two percent to P29.1  billion in the first quarter from the previous year’s P28.5 billion.    Approved building permits for non-residential constructions likewise  posted a 15.2 percent uptick to  to 3,496 as of end-March from 3,034 a  year ago.    Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 In terms of value, non-residential constructions, which amounted to P27  billion for the January to March period, went up y 6.9 percent from  P25.3 billion last year.      Permits for additions, alterations and repairs of existing structures  which reached 5,474 in the first quarter, are 41.7 percent higher than  the 3,864 in the same three-month period in 2013.    The combined value of additions, alterations and repairs Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is increasing its exposure in Southeast Asia through its tollroad and water distribution units. MPIC intends to pursue new investment opportunities in the Philippines even as regulatory risks might dampen revenues of Maynilad Water Services Inc. by P2 billion annually in the medium term, officials said. “We continue to look at water and tollroad projects in the region, particularly Indonesia and Thailand. We are taking a prudent position by partnering with local firms,” MPIC chief financial officer David J. Nicol said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting. “The two businesses we’re attracted to are tollroad and water businesses. We have one in Thailand right now and we are evaluating opportunities in Thailand and Indonesia,” Nicol said. MPIC has taken a look at Myanmar but it still has to bear fruit, while Vietnam poses a number of opportunities but at high prices, Nicol said. In November, Hong Kong-based parent firm First Pacific Co. Ltd. and MPIC formed a joint venture to acquire a 24.9-percent stake in Thai tollroad operator Don Muang Tollway Public Co. Ltd (DMT) for P5.8 billion. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 DMT operates a 21.9-kilometer, six-lane elevated toll road stretching from Din Daeng in central Bangkok past Don Muang Airport and on to the National Monument in the north of the capital under a 27-year concession ending in 2034. MPIC president and CEO Jose Ma. K. Lim said the Thailand tollroad business is doing Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Hitachi Ltd., a diversified energy solutions company, plans to expand its infrastructure systems business in Southeast Asia by building a structure that can respond quickly to the increasingly diverse needs and changes in the region. Toward this end, Hitachi will roll out business activities with close ties to the region and its customers to maximize the value provided to those customers and increase competitiveness on a global scale. The company believes that Southeast Asia has demonstrated rapidly increasing demand not only for large-scale urban development and social infrastructures in energy, transport, and water sectors, but also for industrial infrastructures, including industrial parks and resource development. From now on, Hitachi Infrastructure Systems (Asia) will manage business with localized leadership which would create and execute business and sales strategies for the entire Southeast Asian region. At the same time, it will dramatically expand the scope of its business offerings to encompass urban and energy solutions, which will primarily provide information and control solutions for the power and transportation and urban infrastructure fields and energy management systems. It would also provide water and environment solutions, which will primarily provide water treatment systems, monitoring and control systems and other solutions; industrial plants solutions, which will primarily provide industrial plants, information and control solutions for industrial fields, and security systems; and components, which will provide uninterrupted power supplies (UPS), inverters, and compressors, the company said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 In a speech in Singapore last week announcing Read More …