Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – Golden Haven Memorial Park Inc., the Villar family’s memorial park developer, registered a 27 percent increase in net income in the nine months to September to P135.5 million from P106.4 million a year ago. This as the company churned in revenues of P607.3 million during the nine-month period, higher than the P506.1 million recorded a year ago. Golden Haven chairman Jerry Navarrete said the double-digit growth was within expectations and in line with the company’s strategic expansion plans. “The continued double-digit growth of the company in both our top line and bottom line numbers that we have delivered were in line with our strategic expansion plans of providing premier privately-managed memorial parks and services for Filipinos all over the country,” he said. The company was the first to debut in the local stock market this year, raising P787 million from its initial public offering (IPO) last June. Navarrete said proceeds from the IPO have been funding the company’s expansion. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “The funds we raised from our successful initial public offering is now being deployed to acquire more properties for expansion, to develop our existing parks as well as to construct our first stand-alone memorial chapel and crematorium facility in the San Ezekiel complex in Las Piñas,” Navarrete said. In all, the company plans to add an average seven new memorial parks a year with the aim of having at least 50 parks in the Philippines. The company has nine Read More …

A total of P131.09 billion in notices of cash allocation (NCAs) were utilized in October, accounting for 68 percent of the P192.65 billion released during the period. File photo MANILA, Philippines – Government agencies spent slowest in October for this year, latest data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed. A total of P131.09 billion in notices of cash allocation (NCAs) were utilized in October, accounting for 68 percent of the P192.65 billion released during the period. The NCA utilization rate – the proportion of utilized NCAs over total releases – was the lowest so far this year and marked a considerable drop from 119 percent the month before. It was 83 percent in August and 78.9 percent in July, the first full month of the Duterte administration. NCAs are used by agencies to secure checks from the Bureau of the Treasury to pay for their contracted obligations. Once utilized, funds are deemed disbursed and are recorded on government balance sheet. DBM officials did not reply to request for comment, but an earlier disbursement gave some glimpse of the pace of agency spending last month. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Based on preliminary numbers, spending for the month of October this year is likely lower than that of the previous year,” DBM said in a report on its website. According to the agency, the lower figures were a result of base effects, coming from high disbursements in same period last year for preparations for Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) plans to come up with a database, which will list all destinations in the country in response to the ever-changing preferences of tourists and tourism investors. “We are starting with an extensive inventory of our destinations so we will know who offers what and what are the capabilities of each destination to deliver on expectations,” Tourism Undersecretary for regulation, coordination and resource generation Alma Jimenez said.  Jimenez said the initiative would pave the  way for more innovative tourism products and guide tourism development programs. “The more important priorities we are addressing include establishing the database and doing the required analytics to make sure we have all the information about every destination at our fingertips,” she said. “This will allow us to quickly react to inquiries and even tourism investments,” she added. According to Jimenez, the DOT’s direction is currently centered on customized and niche-specific marketing and promotion campaigns. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The agency has organized special project development teams who would create niche products to introduce more tourism segments to the traveling market. Jimenez said the DOT was developing tourism offerings focused on various thematic clusters, such as fitness, fun, family, farm and faith tourism. “The overall direction is to create a country tourism program and enable the regions to cross-sell, promote each other and get real tourism numbers up,” she said.

MANILA, Philippines – PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (PERC) reported a net income of $1.13 million in the nine months to September this year on the back of higher energy sales. This was a reversal of the $537,576 loss incurred in the same period a year earlier. Consolidated revenues rose 38.64 percent to $25.01 million mainly on higher electricity sales. Electricity sales, which refer to the electricity power generated by Maibarara Geothermal power plant (MGPP) and PetroSolar Corp., amounted to $21.06 million, up 63.49 percent year on year. The increase was mainly due to the start of commercial operations of PetroSolar last Feb. 10. MGPP, located in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, is 65 percent owned by PERC through its wholly-owned subsidiary PetroGreen Energy Corp. in joint venture firm Maibarara Geothermal Inc. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 PERC — through its subsidiary PetroGreen Energy Corp. — owns 56 percent of PetroSolar, which owns and operates the 50-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Tarlac. Improvement in energy sales more than offset the 23.36 percent drop in oil revenues to $3.96 million.  PERC said the decrease was mainly due to lower average crude oil price from $51.73 per barrel to $38.02 per barrel.  In terms of expenses, the company saw a 10 percent decline in oil production expenses because of lower royalty (Gabon) and other operating expenses brought about by the decline in average crude oil price.  Costs of electricity sales soared by 125.87 percent mainly due to maintenance of the solar Read More …

In a nine-page joint statement on their meeting on Nov. 17 and 18, the APEC ministers said open trade policies “are essential for sustained recovery and boosting growth for coming years.” File photo LIMA – Ministers of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies have vowed to promote free trade and small businesses in the face of growing skepticism over economic integration and renewed concerns over protectionist policies.  In a nine-page joint statement on their meeting on Nov. 17 and 18, the APEC ministers said open trade policies “are essential for sustained recovery and boosting growth for coming years.”  “Faced with rising skepticism over trade and stagnated trade growth, we reiterate our commitment to build an open economy in the Asia-Pacific featuring innovative development, interconnected growth and shared interests,” the APEC ministers said.   “We also believe that the benefits of trade and open markets need to be communicated to the wider public more effectively, emphasizing how trade promotes innovation, employment and higher living standards, and creates opportunities for our citizens that can support inclusive growth,” they added.  The ministers also promised to use policy tools namely monetary, fiscal and structural to strengthen global demand and address supply constraints. “We reaffirm our commitment to strengthen the multilateral trading system and recognize the important role of international trade to job creation, and sustained economic recovery, development and prosperity,” they said.  “We underline our confidence in the value and centrality of the rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open, and inclusive multilateral trading system embodied in Read More …