Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – ABS-CBN Corp., the country’s largest media and entertainment company, is confident of delivering its promised earnings of P2 billion this year as profits jumped 22 percent in the first nine months. Ronaldo Valdueza, chief financial officer of the ABS-CBN Group, said the company is maintaining its profit target this year amid the softening in advertising revenues in September and October. “We are still maintaining our net income target of a little over P2 billion for the year,” Valdueza stressed. ABS-CBN Corp. chief finance officer Aldrin Cerrado said in a briefing that the consolidated net income of the company reached P1.89 billion from January to September or P340 million lower compared to P1.55 billion in the same period last year. “The growth in income was fuelled by strong regular advertising revenues as well as election-related ads,” Cerrado said. Consolidated revenues, he said, went up 16 percent to P25.23 billion in the first nine months from advertising and consumer sales. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 According to him, advertising revenues rose 20 percent to P14.77 billion while consumer sales grew 11 percent to P10.45 billion. Revenues of cable TV giant SkyCable jumped 21 percent to P4.98 billion due to higher number of subscribers as a result of the acquisition of Destiny Cable.  Cerrado said the company’s total costs and expenses increased 15 percent to P22.75 billion brought about by increases in production costs, cost of sales and services, and general and administrative expenses. He explained Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is amenable to adjust the provisions under the agri-agra law, which mandates banks to set aside 25 percent of their loanable funds for the farm sector. “The BSP has long advocated that there are challenges in mandatory credit,” BSP Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. told reporters. Espenilla was reacting to a comment by Batangas Rep. Nelson Collantes, who said the congress may amend Republic Act 10000 or the new agri-agra law in order to gradually decrease the mandated 25 percent lending to the agriculture sector. Collantes currently chairs the House Committee on banks and financial intermediaries. “What’s happening right now is basically, banks are torn between two conflicting demands,” Espenilla recounted. “On one hand, the law says lend to this segment that they may or may not be ready to lend to, and on the other hand, the BSP which is implementing banking laws on safety standards is asking banks to be prudent in lending,” he said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “So what happens is that they protect their balance sheets so they end up paying penalties if they cannot lend contrary to expectations of the law,” he added. The BSP in 2011 issued the implementing rules and regulations for the new agri-agra law. Banks may opt to lend to the agriculture sector or lend to accredited rural financial institutions, which will re-lend these funds to the end-users. The law also require banks to pay Read More …