Maniolas

“The auction was met with strong demand,” the Bureau of the Treasury said in a statement. It did not say what accounted for what it characterized was a “slight” increase in rates. MANILA, Philippines – Treasury bond yields rose at yesterday’s auction due to strong demand from investors. Reissued seven-year T-bonds, with a remaining life of six years and eight months, fetched an average rate of 3.186 percent, up 17 basis points from the  previous offer last month. The issuance, however, was still swamped with P55.44 billion in tenders, more than twice the offer volume of P25-billion. Despite higher rates, the government awarded as planned. “The auction was met with strong demand,” the Bureau of the Treasury said in a statement. It did not say what accounted for what it characterized was a “slight” increase in rates. But a bond trader from a local bank said the yield increase was “expected” given that investors are anticipating more supply of securities in the coming months. “It was still within expectations and that the movement in the rates was basically because of investors seeing more supply of securities,” she said in a phone interview. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Another trader said this could be due to wider deficit of three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) proposed under the P3.35-trillion outlay of the Duterte administration next year. “More supply of securities means lower price and in the bond market, the price of the bond moves inversely with Read More …

Last week, in the column entitled “States of the proposed Philippine federal republic”, the idea of four self-governing states was broached. Further arguments are made today. Four autonomous states: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and Bangsamoro. Aside from the three famous “Luz-Vi-Min” – Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao – division of the country that Filipinos were taught when we became politically independent in 1946 – a fourth autonomous state will be carved out of Mindanao, the Bangsamoro entity. As islands, Luzon and Mindanao are not as big as the Indonesian islands of Java or Sumatra. But Luzon and Mindanao, separately, compare favorably with the island of Taiwan or with the contiguous territorial boundaries of South Korea, though each island is smaller in area. But the islands (including the disparate Visayan islands) are themselves rich in natural resources. Also, all regions are well-endowed in terms of population. These island groupings – all three of them, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao – represent a more logical basis for creating new federal states, with the Bangsamoro entity sliced out from Mindanao as a separate state. Georgraphically, each grouping represents a compact group of regions that could serve as bastions for new political entitiers. The 12 state proposal: Based on wrong criteria. Current sponsors of the federal constitutional change are proposing a new state that initially comprise 12 self-governing states. Such a proposal would rest on slicing parts of each of the two big islands into smaller components. In such proposals, the islands of Luzon and of Mindanao Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – A unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. reported a 38 percent increase in net earnings in the first semester from last year amid high traffic, particularly in the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) said net income reached P2 billion in first half, up from the P1.45 billion in the same period in 2015. MNTC said the higher net profit in the six-month period was “mainly due to high traffic growth and toll revenues contributed by the SCTEX concession project.” Revenues rose 30 percent to P5.28 billion in the first six months from P4.05 billion in the same period a year ago due to the steady increase in traffic, as well as toll revenue contribution from the SCTEX which MNTC started to manage and operate in October last year. A total of 45,609 vehicles entered the SCTEX per day during the six-month period, generating P797.8 million in revenues. As for the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) also being operated by MNTC, the average daily traffic in the first semester posted a nine percent increase to 219,132. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Costs incurred by the company for the six-month period grew 50 percent to P2.26 billion from P1.51 billion a year ago. “The significant increase in costs related to the newly acquired SCTEX concession that includes operator’s fee, concession fee paid to BCDA (Bases Conversion and Development Authority), amortization of SCTEX concession assets, amortization of project insurance, toll collection and medical services,” Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) has seen a  rebound in trading and listing activities after the May national elections. It reported a 1.6 percent growth in net income during the first half of the year to P372.7 million as income from other sources rose and expenses declined. PSE president and CEO Hans Sicat said “this renewed interest in our market, together with the new products we hope to launch this year, should bode well in the improvement of our financial performance in the second half.” Operating revenues fell 13.9 percent to P560.81 million due to lower income from listings and trading. Listing-related income dipped by 14.3 percent as equity issuances were put on hold due to volatilities and uncertainties ahead of the May elections. Average daily value turnover declined to P7.51 billion from P10.04 billion a year ago. This contributed to the 11.2 percent decrease in trading-related income and 22 percent drop in service fees. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The company’s other income jumped by 41.5 percent to P156.41 million due to higher gains in investment income. Costs were effectively managed as total expenses declined by 8.3 percent to P271.66 million. For the rest of the year, the PSE hopes to offer more products to investors to encourage their particiipation n the market and in the process develop further the country’s capital market. “We are hopeful we can get more investor participation once products and services like the dollar-denominated securities, Real Read More …