Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – Snacks and beverage giant Universal Robina Corp. (URC) of the Gokongwei family is taking over the leading biscuit and snack food company in New Zealand for NZ$700 million (roughly P26.4 billion), marking its largest acquisition to date. The acquisition jumpstarts URC’s goal of becoming a major regional player while continuing the trend of Philippine firms buying established companies abroad. In a regulatory filing, URC said its wholly owned offshore subsidiary URC International Co. Ltd. entered into an agreement to acquire 100 percent of NZ Snack Food Holdings Ltd. (NZFHL) from management and funds advised by Pacific Equity Partners. “The transaction is valued at NZ$700 million and is subject to approval by New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office,” URC said. NZFHL is the holding company of Griffin’s Foods Ltd., New Zealand’s leading biscuit and snack food company with approximate net sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of NZ$280 million and NZ$78 million, respectively. “In recent years URC has been looking for opportunities to explore potential acquisitions and partnerships in line with our vision to be a significant regional player in snack foods and beverages,” said URC president and CEO Lance Gokongwei. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 While URC has already built strong brands, the strategy is to continue offering existing consumers and markets in Southeast Asia and Greater China with innovative, convenient, lifestyle-focused and on-the-go products, Gokongwei added. “Griffin’s board believes URC’s significant experience in developing its own export markets makes it Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The tandem of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Inc. has asked Malacanang to dismiss the appeal filed by San Miguel Corp. (SMC) regarding its disqualification in the bidding for the P35.4 billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) project held last month. Team Orion, a 50-50 joint venture between Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. and Aboitiz Land, submitted to the Office of the President a comment on the Memorandum of Appeal filed by SMC last June 27 appealing the disqualification of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. Team Orion spokesperson Roman Azanza III said the group earlier filed a Motion to Intervene with Malacanang to inform the public about the ongoing dispute in the award of the infrastructure project. “We believe that nobody or no entity should ever be allowed to undermine the bidding process. There are rules and procedures that must be followed in a public bidding. If we do not follow it, and if we let errant participants act outside of the rules of a public bidding process, then the whole process will lose credibility,” Azanza said. He warned that the controversy puts in peril close to P900 billion worth of major infrastructure projects  under the Aquino administration’s PPP scheme. “We stand more to lose as a nation if we do not respect our own bidding rules and procedures. We need to keep the hard-earned confidence of investors in the stability and integrity of our public bidding process,” he said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Losing Read More …

THE COUNTRY’S external payments position is expected to improve in the coming months even as another deficit was recorded in June — widening the year-to-date gap — on the back of more capital inflows, robust remittances and strong exports, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

DAVAO CITY — The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) wants municipal governments on the island to firm up their respective investment codes to serve as basis for identifying priority ventures that the agency can match with prospective private investors, a spokesman of the agency said in a recent statement.

THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) yesterday sued the country’s exclusive distributor of Kopiko products, and several other businesses, for allegedly evading billions of pesos worth of taxes.