Maniolas

BRUSSELS – Following weeks of recrimination and distrust, Greece and its creditors in the 19-nation eurozone reached an agreement Friday on extending the country’s rescue loans, a move that should dramatically ease concerns it was heading for the euro exit as soon as next month. The agreement, which looked a long way off Thursday when one German official compared Athens’ request for more time to the infamous Trojan Horse, will mean that Greece will avoid going bankrupt, at least over the four months of the extension. It should also mean that capital controls won’t be needed and that Greek banks will have enough money to stock up their ATMs. To get the money though, the Greek government has one more hurdle to clear. On Monday, it has to present a series of unspecified economic reforms measures that are deemed acceptable by creditors and rooted in Greece’s previously enacted bailout agreement – something the government had promised not to do. Still, the Greek government will be the author of the reforms pursued and that represents a change from the past five years when Greece has relied on rescue money to avoid going bankrupt and was effectively ordered to enact a series of austerity measures. “We have established common ground again,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone’s top official, after the meeting in Brussels. And Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the deal allows both Greece and Europe “to turn a page … As of today, we are beginning to be co-authors of Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Collection agents that fail to promptly or fully remit revenues from the feed-in tariff (FIT) allowance (FIT-All) collections would be slapped penalty charges, according to the National Transmission Co. (TransCo), the administrator of the FIT-All. At a rate of four centavos per kilowatt-hour, the FIT-All would be charged to all electricity consumers, similar to a universal charge which is a separate line in electricity bills and is used to pay off the debts of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), the state-owned power company. The FIT-All would be given to renewable energy players as an incentive to invest in the more expensive but less lucrative renewable energy (RE) sector.  Renewable energy players are solar, wind, biomass and small hydropower companies. The charge would be collected by distribution utilities such as Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), retail electricity suppliers, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), the grid operator. According to TransCo, collection agents that fail to remit the collections would be slapped with penalties such as a monthly interest on unpaid amounts based on the prevailing 91-day Treasury Bill rate at the close of each billing period that the amount remains unpaid; a 20 percent surcharge if there was failure to remit the collections for two successive billing periods and possible disconnection from the grid by the NGCP upon instruction of TransCo in case of failure to remit collections for more than two successive billing periods. The FIT-All charge has already Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – With the mandate of the SEC to require all board directors of public and publicly-listed companies to attend a corporate governance seminar once a year to be eligible for election / re-election to the board of a corporation, the Center for Global Best Practices (CGBP) is launching a pioneering program entitled, “Board Effectiveness Best Practices” on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at the EDSA Shangri-la Hotel, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. This seminar would provide a new and fresh perspective from the repetitive lectures done by other corporate governance providers.  As one of the few SEC-accredited training providers, CGBP will feature the best practices for board directors to help them enhance their skills to become better members or leaders of the board.  For details and a complete list of upcoming best practices seminars including How to Set Up an Internal Audit System, Board Directors’ Guide for Audit Committees, Best Practices in Corporate Housekeeping for Board Secretaries, and more, you may log on to www.cgbp.org or call (+63 2) 842-7148/ 59 and 556-8968/ 69, Cebu lines: (+63 32) 512-3106 or 07 or Baguio line: (+63 74) 423-5148 and Legaspi City telephone (+6352) 736-0126. This one-day special corporate governance program is designed to address two important issues: (1) To provide capacity building for board directors by presenting to them the global best practices in board effectiveness drawn from the most updated global research of the largest accounting firm in the world – PriceWaterhouse Coopers / Isla Lipana to be presented by former Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Realty and Holdings Corp. (PhilRealty)  has sold four parcels of land in La Union for P202.1 million. Two parcels of land located in Barrio Carlatan, San Fernando and another two parcels in Barrio San Juan, in La Union were sold to Humboltbay Holdings Inc., Philrealty said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. Philrealty said the proceeds of the sale will boost the company’s liquidity. The properties will be paid in 20 percent donwpayment while the remaining  80 percent is payable in 24 equal monthly installments. The real estate developer noted that the president of Humboltbay,  Antonio Reyes-Cuerva, is the also president of Tektite Insurance Brokers Inc., a subsidiary of PhilRealty. PhilRealty exited court receivership last year following a 12-year court-assisted rehabilitation. The company aims to return to mainstream to reclaim its old glory. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Once a high-profile  real estate company, Philrealty is primarily known for its projects in the Ortigas Center, foremost of which is the Textite Towers, which used to house the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). Philrealty’s other notable projects include the Alexandra, a luxury mid-rise residential condominium in  Ortigas ;and La Isla, an exclusive high-end condominium with 28 units on a 20-storey building. The company filed for rehabilitation with the courts after being saddled with losses since the slump of the  real estate industry in 1997. To mark its grand comeback, PhilRealty earlier unveiled a P10 billion 10-year investment in Andrea North, an upscale Read More …

Hifalutin words like economic freedom seldom ring a bell for majority of our citizens who aspire for a better life. Somehow, these words just don’t seem to connect to their everyday lives. Yet, this simple phrase spells the difference between a dogged day-to-day existence and one where they are able to realistically plan for a brighter future. Yes, economic freedom is a measurement that is tracked by a few international agencies, the two highest ranked being that of Fraser Institute (Economic Freedom of the World or EFW) and The Heritage Foundation with The Wall Street Journal (Index of Economic Freedom or IEF). Both are guided by the principle that a country’s laws can be measured to equate to how an individual is able to accumulate wealth in a free economic environment. The EFW tracker is more comprehensive and authoritative but is about two years late. The IEF, on the other hand, is more current and used by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and as such will be cited in this column. In the most recent IEF ranking, the Philippines performed well, with its standing moving to 76, clearly now belonging to the top half of the list of 178 countries. In the previous year, the country was at the lower half, having been ranked 89th. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The IEF indices for economic wealth are: property rights, freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, government spending, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, Read More …