Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – GT Capital Holdings Inc. of tycoon George S.K. Ty is in talks with two other conglomerates for a possible partnership in bidding for the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike project. GT Capital president Carmelo Maria Luza Bautista said discussions are going on with two firms, one local and the other a foreign company, for a potential joint venture. “You can consider them conglomerates, both the onshore and the offshore one,” Bautista said. GT Capital and 23 other groups have bought bid documents for the government’s largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project. Bautista said GT Capital is keen on securing a partner for the Laguna Lakeshore project given its scale. He said both firms they are currently in talks with would be able to provide financial muscle and technical know-how to the group. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Nothing has been signed yet. We’re still in the process of meeting and trying to find if there’s a match,” Bautista said. The Laguna Lakeshore project is seen to mitigate flooding in the Laguna Lake coastal towns, particularly in southern Metro Manila and Laguna, improve the environmental condition of the lake, and promote economic activities through the efficient transport of goods and people. GT Capital is into banking (Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.), property (Federal Land), power generation (Global Business Power Corp.), automotive assembly and imports (Toyota Motor Philippines), life insurance (Philippine AXA Life Insurance), non-life insurance (Charter Ping An Corp.) and automotive distribution (Toyota Manila Bay Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is spending as much as $90 million to expand its toll road business overseas with the acquisition of a minority stake in a toll road operator in Vietnam. Ramoncito Fernandez, president of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., said the company is spending approximately $86 to $90 million to acquire a stake in CII Bridges and Roads Investment Joint Stock Co. (CII B&R). This is the second overseas venture of MPIC for its toll road business. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), MPIC general counsel Jose Jesus Laurel said MPTC entered into an equity investment and financing transaction with Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Co. (CII). Laurel said the transaction would result in MPTC holding a significant minority equity interest equal to about 45 percent of the outstanding capital of CII B&R. The transaction would be conducted through a combination of purchase of CII B&R secondary shares from CII and subscription to Vietnamese Dong (VND)-denominated bonds to be issued by CII that are exchangeable into secondary shares in CII B&R. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The company informed the Exchange that MPTC entered into a share purchase agreement with CII covering the purchase of 30 million shares of CII B&R at VND22,100 per share. Likewise, MPTC also signed a bond subscription agreement with CII covering the issuance by CII of and the subscription to 1.02 million bonds each with a face value Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The inflow of remittances slightly slowed in November, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday, although demand for skilled Filipinos abroad remained strong. Remittances – cash and non-cash – went up 1.8 percent to $2.346 billion in November from $2.305 billion in the same period in 2013. This is the slowest pace recorded after April 2009’s 1.3-percent increase. However, this brought the January to November figure to $24.366 billion, higher by 6.2 percent than the $22.945 billion in the same period in 2013.  “The continued deployment of skilled manpower remained a key driver of the sustained growth of remittance flows,” the BSP said. Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the central bank said job orders reached 855,357 as of November last year, more than a third of which were for service, production, and professional, technical and related work in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan and Qatar. Cash remittances alone climbed two percent to $2.122 billion in November from $2.08 billion in the same period in 2013. BSP data showed this is the slowest growth rate recorded following January 2009’s 0.1 percent pace. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 In the 11 months to November, money sent home by Filipinos abroad rose 5.7 percent to $21.991 billion from $20.796 billion in the same period in 2013. Remittances from land-based workers amounted to $16.9 billion as of November, while those sent by sea-based workers reached $5.1 billion. Bulk of these funds Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Several power plants in Luzon will go on scheduled maintenance shutdown this year, with two plants closing down as early as this month, data submitted by generators to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) showed. From January to July this year, several power plants with a total capacity of 4,162.6 megawatts will go on scheduled shutdowns but the exact amount of power that will disappear from the grid will vary every month, depending on the specific schedule each month. Unit 1 of GN Power’s Mariveles coal plant in Bataan, with a capacity of 302 MW has scheduled a January shutdown, while Quezon Power Philippines’ 456.6-MW coal plant will also go on maintenance shutdown starting Jan. 17. In February, Unit 2 of the Mariveles coal plant, with a capacity of 302 MW, will also go on maintenance shutdown, according to a released schedule of plant outages. From March 15 to April, the two units of the Ilijan natural gas power plant of Kepco Philippines in Batangas with a total capacity of 1,200 MW will also go on maintenance shutdown. This will follow the scheduled maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya deep water gas to power project in the same period. The Malampaya gas field in offshore Palawan supplies natural gas to three power plants in Luzon – the 1,200-MW Ilijan plant, the 1,000-MW Sta. Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo power plants, both owned by the Lopez group. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The Sta. Rita plant Read More …