THE GOVERNMENT will revisit the Foreign Investment Negative List (FINL) to open up the economy even more, but it reiterated that it will not consider lifting limits stated in the Constitution.
Feb 192013
Feb 192013
THE DEPARTMENT of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P599.5 million for various irrigation projects across the country.
Feb 192013
A TEAM from international debt rater Fitch Ratings arrived in the country early this week in a visit that would assess the country’s socioeconomic developments.
Feb 192013
MANILA, Philippines – Luxembourg-based Transcom Worldwide S.A. is set to hire 5,000 new workers this year to maintain the Philippines as its largest operations in terms of workforce in its global business. Transcom Worldwide president and chief executive officer Johan Eriksson said in an interview with The STAR that the company is bullish about the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines after the country posted a strong growth last year. “We definitely see the Philippines as a growth area. Things are growing rapidly here and we see some more opportunities,” Eriksson stressed. Data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.6 percent last year, exceeding the target of five percent to six percent set by the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC). This made the Philippines the second fastest in terms of economic growth in the region after China. This year, the DBCC has set a GDP growth target of six percent to seven percent. The company through Transcom Worldwide Philippines Inc. is looking at raising its workforce by 50 percent to 15,000 by the end of this year from the current level of close to 10,000. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Eriksson said the Philippines is its largest in terms of the number of workforce, currently accounting for a third of its 30,000 global workforce. The company operates 70 contact centers in 28 countries including four sites in the Philippines. He pointed out that Read More …
Feb 192013
MANILA, Philippines – The mining unit of Consunji-led DMCI Holdings Inc. has beefed up its stake in a London-based nickel miner for £24 million. In a disclosure to the stock exchange, DMCI Holdings said its wholly-owned subsidiary DMCI Mining Corp. jacked up its shares in Toledo Mining Corp. Plc to 37.7 percent from 17 percent. “The offer will comprise 50 pence in cash for each Toledo share, valuing the whole of Toledo’s existing issued share capital at approximately 24.9 million pounds,” DMCI said. The purchase price represents a premium of 66 percent from 30 pence, the weighted average price for the past three months. DMCI Mining bought the entire 20.7- percent share in Toledo held by investor Jason Cropper using its existing cash. “As a result, DMCI Mining confirms that it will make a mandatory cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Toledo not already owned by DMCI Group,” the company said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Our offer to the remaining Toledo shareholders represents an attractive opportunity to crystallise a significant premium to the prevailing market price in cash today,” said DMCI Mining president and CEO Isidro Consunji. Toledo has strategic shares in four large nickel deposits in Palawan through joint venture agreements and owned properties. Specifically, the London Stock Exchange-listed miner owns shares in the Berong and Ipilan nickel mines, and Long Point and Moorsom nickel properties. For its fiscal year that ending March 2012, Toledo posted Read More …
Feb 192013
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has finally issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate for the $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project of Sagittarius Mine Inc. in Mindanao. The Office of the President (OP) this month remanded to the DENR the petition filed by SMI for the provision of an ECC, directing the department to rule on the application “without any consideration of requirements other than those imposed under EIS (Environmental Impact Study) System itself.” The DENR has repeatedly rejected the company’s application for an ECC because of an existing ban in South Cotabato on the use of the open-pit mining method. An ECC guarantees that a project will not harm the environment. “There is already an ECC issued but the granting is subject to certain conditions,” said Environment Secretary Ramon Paje in an interview yesterday. He said failure to comply with the conditions may result to cancellation of the ECC. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The conditions set by the DENR are as follows: SMI should obtain Free and Prior Informed Consent from occupants of ancestral domain, land access permits from the Department of Agrarian Reform, and endorsement from the local government units. SMI must also have “continuing liability” for any environmental damage that occurs within its tenement. “Whether the incident is caused by force majeure or not, they will be liable,” said Paje. Paje said an environmental permit was issued to SMI upon the recommendation of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), an Read More …
Feb 192013
MANILA, Philippines – Thrift lender Philippine Business Bank (PBB) listed its shares at the local stock exchange yesterday, the first listing for the year. Shares of PBB, which were sold at P31.50 apiece during the IPO, opened at P34.75 each, strengthening further to end the trading day at P36.35, an upside of 15.39 percent from the IPO price. “I guess the advantage that PBB has is we focus on small and medium enterprises (SME), the underserved market,” PBB president Rolando Avante told reporters. Juanchito Dispo, president of issue under writer First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), said the IPO, was more than four times oversubscribed amid robust demand from both institutional and retail investors. Avante said PBB expects a loan growth of 20-25 percent this year that can be used by SMEs for business expansion. PBB listed 343.33 million of its common shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Underwriters FMIC and SB Capital Investment Corp. earlier trimmed the offer P31.50 per share from a maximum P41.94 earlier to give investors more leeway to earn from stock price appreciation. Fresh capital from the IPO will allow the bank to strengthen its foothold in the SME sector. PBB plans to put up 22 additional branches to reach a total 100 branches at the end of the year. As of end-September last year, PBB is the fifth largest thrift bank in the Philippines with P29.7 billion in assets last year. PBB, which ended last year Read More …
Feb 172013
THE PLANNED monorail linking the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) in Pasay City is estimated to cost P70 billion, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said.
Feb 172013
ABACA EXPORTS for the 11-month period ending November 2012 fell by 24.24% to $100.04 million amid lower demand from the country’s major markets.
Feb 172013
(Third of three parts)IN THE LAST two columns, we discussed in significant detail the recently released Revenue Regulations No. 2-2013, The Transfer Pricing Regulations (more informally called the TP Regs), which took effect on Feb. 9, 2013. The guidelines are largely based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) TP Guidelines, which have served as the framework for TP regulations around the world. In this article, we will now discuss the relevance of the new regulations on Mutual Agreement Procedures (MAPs).