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Aboitiz Power unit extends running hours of power barges

Economy

Apr 232014

Aboitiz Power unit extends running hours of power barges

MANILA, Philippines – Therma Marine, a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power has extended the running hours of its power barges in Mindanao to close to 24 hours on a daily due to the ongoing power crisis in the island. In an advisory yesterday, Therma Marine said 22 electric cooperatives and distribution utilities requested for the longer operation of the power barges to fill in the supply gap, created by a combination of power plant repairs and precarious water levels in Lake Lanao because of the summer heat. These entities have existing supply contracts with Therma Marine. Therma Marine president and chief executive officer Jovy Batiquin assured that the company has enough fuel supply to meet customers’ needs. “We are ensuring our customers we have enough fuel supply to meet the power supply requirements of our customers especially this summer. We want to be able to respond to our customers when they are in need of additional power supply,” Batiquin said. Furthermore, Therma Marine has moved an earlier plan to conduct maintenance works on the power barges to a later date or only after the Steag State power plant goes back online. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Thus, Batiquin assured power consumers that the preventive maintenance works will not be scheduled until the Steag Power plant comes online in May. The 210-megawatt (MW) Steag coal plant is still undergoing repairs after it went offline on Feb. 27, triggering an island-wide power outage in Mindanao. According to the company, Read More …

DTI sees more biz missions from Taiwan

Economy

Apr 232014

MANILA, Philippines – More inbound business missions from Taiwan to the Philippines are expected as the government actively promotes the country as a gateway or hub for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said. Trade undersecretary Ponciano Manalo Jr. said yesterday more business missions from Taiwan are expected in the country following his visit there late last month to encourage firms to explore trade and investment opportunities. “With its strong economic performance, flourishing business opportunities, and proximity, the Philippines is in a firm position to encourage Taiwan in closely considering our country as their gateway or hub for the ASEAN market,” he said. During the investment seminar held in Taiwan attended by about 100 participants engaged in the electronics industry, particularly in photonics light emitting diode (LED) applications, imaging devices and photovoltaic and green technology, Manalo cited the advantages of pouring in funds here such as the country’s strategic business location to the ASEAN market, rich talent pool, first-class lifestyle, and attractive investment incentives. Manalo met with Taiwanese companies engaged in the global electronics supply chain which have expressed keen interest in investing in the Philippines. He said other Taiwanese firms were also interested in opportunities in software park development, electric vehicle production, and aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Investment opportunities in the Philippines for Taiwan’s firms include LED module packaging assembly, printer and related equipment, automotive manufacturing (including electronic auto Read More …

IFC, Phl to ramp up green buildings project

Economy

Apr 232014

IFC, Phl to ramp up green buildings project

MANILA, Philippines — International Finance Corp., a member of the World Bank Group, is stepping up its work with the Philippine government to expand the development of green buildings. IFC is also conducting technical studies that will be used in drafting laws requiring new buildings to reduce electricity use. These measures will help the country cut the greenhouse-gas emissions of new buildings by 20 percent annually. A forum titled “Green Building Imperative,” hosted today by IFC, the Climate Change Commission – which is chaired by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III – and the Philippine Green Building Initiative, was attended by nearly 100 local government officials. Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senator Loren Legarda, and Climate Change Commissioner Heherson Alvarez were among those who spoke at the forum. The participants shared green building best practices and began discussing preliminary plans to adopt such practices among local governments across the country. “The unabated use of carbon-based fuels has drastically altered our global climate—weather patterns are changing and natural disasters have become stronger, more frequent, and less predictable,” said President Benigno Aquino III in a statement released by Malacañang , adding that green building is one of the most important steps that the country must undertake in adapting to climate change and mitigating climate risk. “It is my hope that this will gain widespread acceptance among developers and major players.” IFC also is helping the Department of Public Works and Highways update the National Building Code that will set minimum green feature requirements for Read More …

DBP, MWSI ink P6-B loan pact

Economy

Apr 222014

MANILA, Philippines – State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI) signed yesterday a P6-billion term loan agreement to partially finance MWSI’s sewerage project. The loan will specifically form part of the financing to be used by MWSI’s Parañaque-Las Piñas Sewerage System. DBP’s loan to MWSI is made possible through a funding provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under its Environmental Development Project (EDP). DBP said the project involves the construction of a sewage treatment plant and sewer collection system. The project, it said, will also adopt a combined sewerage network with sewage interceptors to capture sewage from the drainage of the two cities prior to discharge to the Parañaque River. The project is also part of MWSI’s commitment to establish sewage treatment plants with a total capacity of 435 million liters per day. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 It is expected to serve about 1.8 million people within its concession area. The proposed Parañaque-Las Piñas sewerage facility will initially contribute 77 million liters per day to the total capacity.

Boracay tourism to get even bigger

Economy

Apr 222014

Our biggest tourist destination is about to get even bigger. The new airport in Caticlan, costing P5.3 billion, is set to be completed by yearend 2015 and that means Airbus 320s that used to land in Kalibo will use Caticlan as the gateway airport to Boracay. It is a 25 year Built, Rehabilitate, Operate and Transfer project. The current runway of 30 meters x 950 meters will be extended to 45 meters x 1800 meters to satisfy international standards for aircrafts like the A320. Construction of the runway will be done by end of this year. Also to be constructed is a taxiway. The new airport being constructed by San Miguel in Caticlan will also have a terminal building that can service 12 aircrafts at a time with 12 air bridges. That’s a far cry from the current terminal building that gets crowded with just two or three flights of smaller aircrafts. The new airport will also have the latest navigational system to make it an all weather airport. It will also have night landing facilities, something most of our airports outside our major airports do not have. No more daily flight cancellations due to sunset limitation. That probably means the Kalibo airport that now takes in direct foreign flights from South Korea and other countries will return to its previous status as a typical decrepit provincial airport. Right now, it is an embarrassing gateway to foreign tourists vacationing in Boracay. Kalibo airport is now so congested that many foreign Read More …

DA turns over P7.2-M farm infra projects, eqp’t to Tawi Tawi town

Economy

Apr 222014

DA turns over P7.2-M farm infra projects, eqp’t to Tawi Tawi town

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) has turned over to a municipality in Tawi Tawi P7.2 million worth of farm infrastructure projects and equipment. Turned over recently to Panglima Sugala mayor Regie Sahali-Generale are a one-kilometer farm- to- market road, a new trading station, as well as eight units of cassava graters. The new farm-to-market road connects Barangay Thumbhill to Sitio Siola that covers 250 hectares of growing areas for bananas, cassava, coconut, and rice. The trading post, meanwhile, is in Barangay Batu-Batu where it now serves as the main marketplace in the entire municipality. The eight units of cassava grater and pressers were distributed to various farmer associations (FA). These are: Interior Magsaggao FA and Upper Magsaggao FA in Barangay Magsaggao; Kabbun Jati FA in Barangay Sumangday; Thumbhill FA in Barangay Thumbhill; Batu-Batu FA in Barangay Batu-Batu; Kulape Kasanyangan FA, Kulape Karayawan FA and Kasambuhan FA in Barangay Kulape. The projects are funded under the DA’s Support to Emergency Livelihood Assistance Project (SELAP) program. The local government of Panglima Sugala provided a counterpart fund of around P700,000 for the projects. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 SELAP is a special project of the DA funded by a US loan under United States Public Law 480. The program aims to accelerate rural development in Mindanao. Its components are: rural infrastructure development, livelihood assistance, capability building and program management. “The FMR (farm-to-market road) will allow the farmers to bring their agri-products to the market much faster Read More …

Added business cost

Economy

Apr 222014

As if doing business in the Philippines wasn’t difficult enough. In the 2014 Doing Business survey by the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the Philippines ranked 108th out of 189 economies covered. While this meant that the Philippines improved 30 notches from its rank of 138th in the 2013 edition, the sad fact is that we are still 6th highest in the ASEAN and that there are 107 economies that are better than us in terms of business-friendly regulations. In the top 10 of the list of most business-friendly are Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Malaysia, South Korea, Georgia, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The survey, of course, does not measure all factors affecting business. It instead simply measures how much red tape private businesses encounter when dealing with government and ranks economies in terms of how easy it is to set up a business. The Philippine mining industry probably does not see how our government can rejoice with the “improved” ranking when all indications point to the fact that the country is becoming a very difficult place to do business in. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Not only is our mining industry faced with government mining policies that do not promote the growth of the sector, but instead stifle it. It also has to deal with environmental activists and host LGUs which impose oftentimes unreasonable conditions that make it difficult, if not impossible, for mining companies to operate. But there is another Read More …

Century pegs IPO price at P13.75

Economy

Apr 212014

MANILA, Philippines – Century Pacific Food Inc. of the Po family has pegged the selling price of its shares at P13.75, the upper end of the indicative price range. The country’s largest canned goods producer stands to raise P3.16 billion in the second initial public offering (IPO) this year. In a text message, Eduardo V. Francisco, president of underwriter BDO Capital & Investment Corp., said the final offer price is near at the high end of the P12.50 – P14.50 target. Century Pacific will raise P3.157 billion in fresh capital from the sale of 229.654 million shares from April 23 to 29. The company’s shares will debut on the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange on May 6. Proceeds of the IPO will be used to pay short-term obligations, complete a tin can manufacturing factory and dairy mix plant facility in Taguig, and support general working capital given an intensified marketing and sales initiative or possible acquisition. Nisha S. Alicer, research strategist at DA Market Securities, said Century Pacific is a value stock, with the P12.50 P14.50 price range representing a 18.6x-21.9x 2014 price-to-earnings ratio, lower than the industry average of 22.9x. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Century Pacific is banking on its market leadership in the consumer-based Philippine economy, and multi-category, multi-brand product portfolio with a strong record of product innovation and successful new product introduction. The company also has a “multi-pronged growth strategy through cost improvement, expansion of distribution network and achieving economies Read More …

AVID sales up 13% in 1st qtr

Economy

Apr 212014

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s vehicle importers achieved a 13 percent growth in sales in the first quarter compared to a year ago amid strong performance of both the passenger car (PC) and light commercial vehicle (LCV) segments. In a statement, the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors, Inc. (AVID) said it sold 9,055 units in the first quarter, up from the 7,990 units sold in the same period last year. The group’s PC sales rose 13 percent to 4,558 units as of end-March from the 4,016 units sold in the comparable period in 2013. LCV sales also posted a 13 percent increase to 4,497 units in the January to March period compared to the 3,974 units sold in the same period in the previous year. For the month of March alone, total sales of the AVID reached 3,189 units, 5.35 percent higher than the 3,027 units sold in the same month last year. PC sales however, declined 1.51 percent to 1,568 units in March from 1,592 units sold in the same month a year ago. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 LCV sales climbed 12.96 percent to 1,621 units last month from the 1,435 units sold in March 2013. Compared to February’s 2,675 units, the AVID’s total sales in March posted a 19 percent uptick. AVID is confident the positive sales performance in the first three months of the year would be sustained for the rest of the year. “With AVID finishing the Q1 (first quarter) Read More …

Philrealty in the black for second straight year

Economy

Apr 212014

Philrealty in the black for second straight year

MANILA, Philippines – Listed real estate firm Philippine Realty Corp., fresh from exiting a court-assisted corporate rehabilitation, has recorded its second consecutive year in the black. In a regulatory filing, Philrealty said its net income hit P39.35 million last year, up from P4.22 million in 2012 and a reversal of the P212.6-million net loss in 2011. Income from rent, real estate sales, management fees, interest income and commission sank 23 percent to P364.27 million from P475.22 million in 2012. “Sales of Skyline Tower slowed down as fewer units became available to buyers while new sales were booked on sale of Icon Plaza units which is 74.28 percent completed as of yearend,” Philrealty said. Rental income of subsidiary PRHC Property Managers Inc. improved due to escalation in rental rate, the firm said. However, Philrealty said its costs and expenses eased at a faster pace to P325.59 million, down 32 percent from P482.74 million a year ago. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Reeling under debt for 12 years, the property firm exited a corporate rehabilitation program early this month and committed to capitalize on a resurgent real estate market. To regain its prominence as a leading high-end property developer, Philrealty is fasttracking the completion of the second of five towers to rise at the P250-billion Andrea North in New Manila, Quezon City. The company needs to raise P700 million to complete construction of Sky Villas, which will offer about 108 units in 31 floors and targeted for turnover Read More …

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