THE Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) is preparing its position paper against the government’s plan to hike the tax on automobiles, a top official of a member company said.
Nov 182016
Nov 182016
COLLIERS International Philippines predicts the economy to grow by 6.5% to 7% this year following strong third quarter gross domestic product data.
Nov 182016
Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. (PCPPI) reported a net income of P700 million in the nine months to September, up five percent on the back of strong sales as the company introduced new products. File photo MANILA, Philippines – Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. (PCPPI) reported a net income of P700 million in the nine months to September, up five percent on the back of strong sales as the company introduced new products. In the third quarter alone, net income grew 23 percent to P200 million. Net of start-up losses of the snacks business, net income reached P800 million in the nine-month period and P200 million in the third quarter, equating to a growth of 14 percent and 42 percent versus year-ago, respectively. Sales revenues reached P26.8 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of 13 percent. In the third quarter, sales revenues rose 14 percent to P8.7 billion. Revenue growth continued to outpace volume growth spurred by a strong focus on new product initiatives and revenue management, said PCPPI president Furqan Ahmed Syed. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “We are delighted by the fantastic results achieved in third quarter. This is another show of confidence by our consumers on our world-class product portfolio. Our consumers loved product innovations and campaigns such as Mountain Dew’s ‘Dewmocracy,’ Lipton’s ‘Positivitea’ and Tropicana’s ‘Straight to the Good Stuff,’ Syed said. Cost of goods sold went up 15 percent for the nine-month period and up 14 percent in the third quarter primarily due to Read More …
Nov 182016
Two years ago, there was a forum held here that got many of our young leaders involved. The forum may not have generated so much noise back then, drowned by other major developments such as the Philippines hosting APEC, and no less than US President Barack Obama attending. That was OCEANS 14 which focused more on social enterprise and working with communities, and now the convenors are all set to hold OCEANS 16 in Bohol from Nov. 24 to 25. OCEANS stands for Open Collaboration with East Asia New Champions Summit 2016. Co-chairing OCEANS 16 are Sen. Bam Aquino who is passionate about unlocking the potential for technological innovation for the benefit of the Philippines, and Winston Damarillo, a Filipino Young Global Leader recognized by the World Economic Forum (WEF). WEF held this year’s meeting at Davos –Klosters in Switzerland and Mr. Damarillo was there. He spoke about the newest trend called Fourth Industrial Revolution or “Industry 4.0” and he is excited about how this can impact emerging markets like the Philippines. In the recent media presentation for OCEANS 16 which Business & Leisure attended, the speakers in the OCEANS 16 panel included noted broadcaster Karen Davila who was already involved with OCEANS 14. She said she was struck by the fact that most Filipino entrepreneurs lacked the knowledge of how to connect and who to connect with, and how pleased she was that OCEANS 16 would be hosted by the Philippines this year. Most conferences like this would often Read More …
Nov 182016
MANILA, Philippines – The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) is set to submit to the government a unified position paper that would likely buck the proposed higher excise taxes to be slapped on new vehicles. “They’re crafting a position paper right now. An industry position on the argument that it would really affect industry sales. If sales go down, it is not only us, we also have a lot of downstream suppliers that would be affected,” Mitsubishi Motors Philippines assistant vice president for vehicle sales group Dante Calma said yesterday on the sidelines of the launch of the company’s auto financing business. Calma said the proposal to increase excise taxes on vehicles would likely drag down the growth of the country’s booming automotive industry. “I’m sure it will happen (slowdown of sales). Anything price related impacts immediately on car sales. For example, a P600,000 car. If you add the proposed excise tax, the increase is about P60,000 to P80,000. So if you have a budget of P600,000 then you go back to buying a second-hand car probably,” he said. “With what the government is proposing even the entry-level cars,which now I think the tax is only two percent, they plan to bring it up to five percent. Our customers for these low-end vehicles, they are not really rich, some are working on call centers and have a small family. So even a small addition to cost they value it,” Calma added. Calma cited Thailand as an Read More …
Nov 182016
MANILA, Philippines – The Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) will be the designated clearing house for proposed investments from China, the agency announced yesterday. Among the policy proposals approved during the NEDA board meeting held early this week were the ICC guidelines on processing China-assisted projects. This will also guide the review and approval process for projects especially for those that will require Chinese support for the conduct of pre-investment and investment activities. “The rationale of the proposal is to establish a single clearing house, which is the ICC, for the expected influx of projects or investments proposed to be supported by China,” NEDA said in a statement issued yesterday. Earlier this month, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said investments committed by China during President Duterte’s visit last month would have a “sizeable” impact on the economy. In absorbing Chinese investments, he said the government wants projects to be demand-driven rather than supply-driven to support the infrastructure needs of the growing economy. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The Philippine government would also make sure such projects are undertaken by “internationally reputable firms” with no bad track record. “We want to have that mechanism in place to guard us from unworthy or unwelcome types of companies or proposals,” said Pernia. He said the Philippine government has already asked China to have a counterpart agency that would accredit companies to have partnerships with the Philippines. The Philippine government, on the other Read More …
Nov 182016
MANILA, Philippines – Bronzeoak Philippines Inc. is pushing back the completion of the first of its three biomass power plants in Negros Island in the second quarter next year as it reconfigured boilers and retested the feedstock in the area. The company is working on three biomass power projects in Negros located in San Carlos, Manapla and La Carlota totaling 70 megawatts (MW) in capacity, with the International Finance Corp. (IFC) providing $161 million in funding, Bronzeoak director Don Mario Dia said. “We are finishing our first of its kind biomass plant hopefully by second quarter next year. First quarter was our original target,” he said, referring to the San Carlos project. The delay was due to the reconfiguration of the plants’ boilers since the company increased the capacity of the plants, Dia said. “We had to reconfigure the boilers. Originally, it was at 18 MW then we expanded it to 19.99 MW, close to 20 MW. So when we did that, we resized the boiler,” he said. Since the boilers were resized, the company had to retest the available feedstock in the area, Dia said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “The other [reason for the delay] is we retested the fuel source. Will we do pure sugar cane trash or we will mix it with others so we will have a back up of fuel source, like wood chips, coconut husks, rice husks or napier grass. So we went back to redesigning of the boiler Read More …
Nov 182016
MANILA, Philippines – Government infrastructure spending grew the fastest in six months in September, putting the year-to-date result on track toward government’s target for 2016, data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed. A total of P57.7 billion was disbursed for capital outlays, up 63 percent from P35.4 billion in the same period a year ago. The growth rate marked the fastest since March’s 65.1 percent For the first nine months, outlays stood at P439.7 billion, up 40.4 percent, representing 4.2 percent of GDP, slightly down from 4.3 percent as of June. “For the month of September, disbursements rallied behind strong infrastructure and other capital spending…,” DBM said in a statement on its website. “Disbursements for the first three quarters of 2016 (were also) boosted by the huge infrastructure and other capital expenditures,” it said. Capital outlays include actual infrastructure spending and fund transfers to local governments and state corporations for such purpose. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Data showed four agencies prompted the surge in September led by the Department of Public Works and Highways that paid for maintenance of existing roads. The Education and Health portfolios, meanwhile, constructed and upgraded school buildings and state hospitals. Military acquisition of the Department of National Defense also contributed, DBM said. Still, DBM said underspending was still obvious, although this was “expected,” given the transition and adjustment to the new administration. Procurement delays as well as late submission of documents by contractors also stopped agencies to Read More …
Nov 182016
MANILA, Philippines – MMPC Auto Financial Services Corp. (MAFS), the auto-financing joint venture between Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC) and BDO Leasing and Finance Inc. (BDOLF), aims to cover all 49 Mitsubishi dealership outlets in the Philippines by the end of March next year. “We just started in Metro Manila. But we are gradually expanding our coverage area nationwide,” said MAFS president and CEO Mikihisa Takayama. Currently, MAFS has business in 16 Mitsubishi outlets in Metro Manila and surrounding areas. The company earlier projected it would finance a total of 20,000 car units by 2020 or about 20 percent of MMPC’s 100,000 car sales target for that year. Takayama said MAFS’ entry into the auto financing business would enhance Mitsubishi’s sales through its flexible loan products and fast application process. “We believe our operation can be very effective, he said, adding the application could be processed as fast as one day. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Takayama said they could be more lenient on the downpayment charged to car consumers since MAFS is a non-bank financial company. “We are more flexible and free so we can consider lower downpayment from the usual 20 percent. But I can’t say how many percent yet because we are still in the start-up period,” he said. Dante Calma, first vice president for MMPC’s marketing division, noted the preference of consumers to purchase cars through loans, rather than cold cash. He said the ratio of consumers who favor financing options has Read More …
Nov 182016
After the announcement of new appointments in management, PLDT Inc. will start the selection process for a new CEO to lead the digital pivot by second-half of next year to be able to name the new head no later than 2018. File photo MANILA, Philippines – After the announcement of new appointments in management, PLDT Inc. will start the selection process for a new CEO to lead the digital pivot by second-half of next year to be able to name the new head no later than 2018. As PLDT is hoping to see better performance in terms of core earnings by next year, the company is bent on lowering capital expenditures and having greater scrutiny on spending to ensure investments would generate revenues. “I would hope that we could find a CEO in the second-half and I could let go by either end-2017 or no later than early 2018,” PLDT chairman, president and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan told reporters. Pangilinan who assumed the position of president and CEO of PLDT after the retirement of Napoleon Nazareno on Dec.31 of last year, said he hopes the search process could start in the second-half of next year with the new management team on board by January next year. Earlier this week, PLDT announced leadership changes and appointments as part of the company’s ongoing digital transformation pivot. Pangilinan said PLDT would need a new CEO who would have the fortitude to take the job in leading the company’s new digital thrust. Business ( Read More …