A senior official of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority said that the Subic agency will reduce greenhouse gas emissions here and bring it to zero balance within 16 years under a program to make Subic the country’s first carbon-neutral economic zone.
Read More
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport is now under the management of the San Miguel-led New NAIA Infra Corp., marking the start of a major modernization effort that has been in the works for 30 years.
Read More
Despite territorial tensions between the Philippines and China, Hong Kong officials have reaffirmed their openness to nurturing business opportunities with the Philippines, highlighting the strength of their “historical friendship.”
Read More
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines
will resume its nonstop flights between Cebu and Osaka in December, just in time for the Christmas surge in air travel.
Read More
The local stock exchange has managed to stay above the 7,000-level to close the week, gearing up for whatever interest rate decision the US Federal Reserve makes.
Read More
The government has released P5.59 trillion or about 97 percent of the record P5.768 trillion allocation as of end-August as state agencies move to implement their priority programs.
Read More
MANILA, Philippines — Consumer goods giant Unilever is providing grants to Philippine enterprises that help reduce plastic waste in the country.
In a statement, Unilever said the grants would be awarded through the Catalyzing Inclusive, Resilient and Circular Local Economies or the CIRCLE Alliance, founded by the company with partners such as the US Agency for International Development and Ernst and Young Global Ltd.
Read More
The Philippines posted the second fastest growth in motor vehicle production from January to July in Southeast Asia as the country’s output rose by 15.2 percent, data from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Automotive Federation
showed.
Read More
Food giant Jollibee Foods Corp.
is bringing its premium milk tea brand to the United States, hoping to sip a cup of the demand for specialty beverages abroad.
Read More
Paul Harvey tells the following story: It was a terrible winter in Chicago. Many of the rooftops were overloaded with snow. Robert McGrath watched his wife enter the backyard garage to fetch some boxes. Seconds later, he heard a crash. Looking out, he saw that the garage roof had caved in.
Without even stopping for his hat or coat, Mr. McGrath ran from the house, grabbed a snow shovel and called out to his neighbors to come and help. Yelling and digging with his sweat freezing on his face, frantically throwing snow and pulling away boards, he dug at the rubble until he was nearly exhausted. Then, finally, he heard his wife’s voice. Minutes later, he saw her hand. He kept working until his wife was safely in his arms and asked if she was all right. She was.
Read More
The country’s current account deficit widened by 25 percent to $5.1 billion in the second quarter from $4.1 billion in the same period a year ago, due largely to the higher trade in goods gap, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Read More
Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands expects headline inflation to ease further to a near four-year low of 2.5 percent in September, paving the way for the central bank to deliver more interest rate cuts in the coming months.
Read More
The government has completed four priority infrastructure projects under the infrastructure flagship projects
list, according to the National Economic and Development Authority.
Read More
The Department of Agriculture
targets to cover 1.2 million hectares of rice farms under its new credit program that seeks to more than triple farmers’ income, boost domestic productivity and reduce the country’s reliance on imports.
Read More
The Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, chaired by President Marcos and composed of representatives of Congress and the Cabinet, has decided to prioritize the amendment of the Foreign Investors’ Long Term Lease Act.
Read More
The Government Service Insurance System confirmed a cybersecurity threat in one of their computers on September 12 and has since started investigating the incident.
Read More
MANILA, Philippines — Federal Land Inc. continues its winning streak with new accolades from the Dot Property Philippines Awards. Recognized for its commitment to developing innovative and thoughtfully designed communities, Federal Land bagged three more awards this quarter, celebrating the developer’s diverse portfolio and dedication to enhancing the urban living experience.
“We are honored to receive these awards from Dot Property Philippines. These awards reflect our steady drive to provide exceptional living spaces that meet the evolving preferences of our residents. We will continue to push the envelope and raise the standards of property development to create homes and communities that enrich lives,” said Thomas Mirasol, president and COO of Federal Land.
Read More
Del Monte Philippines Inc. (DMPI), a subsidiary of Singapore-listed and PSE-listed Del Monte Pacific Limited (DMPL), announced strong financial results for the first quarter.
Read More
The Manila International Airport Authority on Friday, September 13, announced that some domestic flights have been canceled due to unfavorable weather conditions.
Read More
Short answer: Intent. Long answer: Let’s start from the beginning.
> What is a dividend? A dividend is just a distribution from a corporation to its shareholders. The distribution could be cash, property (like shares in another company), or stock (shares in the same company). Dividends are declared by the board of directors at their discretion. There are some other more exotic dividend types, but these three types cover 99.9% of what we’re going to see in our investing careers.
Read More
Global Ferronickel [FNI 1.25 unch; 11% avgVol] [link] announced that its board of directors approved a buyback program to purchase up to 2% of its outstanding shares on the open market over the next three years.
Read More
The PSEi gained 1.15% yesterday to close at 7,025 [link] and finish the day in the 7000s for the first time since Feb. 6, 2023. The pump was broadly based, with all industry groups finishing in the green, led by Property (+1.4%), Services (+1.3%), and Holding Companies (+1.2%). Foreign players were net buyers for the 9th consecutive trading day; foreign buyers have outpaced foreign sellers on 24 of the past 25 trading days stretching back to July 29. In that time, foreign investors have added P11.2 billion in investments in PSE companies.
MB BOTTOM-LINE: There’s a long list of possible drivers for why traders felt comfortable with crossing into the 7s now as opposed to some other time, like the US inflation data from August being marginally better than expected, or NVIDIA sparking a surge in US tech stocks prior to the PSE’s open, or the NEDA boss mentioning that PH GDP could grow faster in H2. As they say, success has a thousand fathers but failure is an orphan. Now that we’ve finally entered a new biome, let’s see how enthusiastic investors are about staying here. The next level of resistance is just 75 points away at 7,100 to 7,150, and we are just 25 points above the 7k level of support. We’re in a really tight band after nudging up against the 7k class ceiling for a month. Will traders look at this as the new floor to support another...
Read More
The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization has turned over to a coconut farmers group in Surigao Del Norte its first ever coconut shared processing facility financed by the coconut levy fund.
Read More
While projections for global crude oil prices have been revised downwards following signs of weakening demand, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas warns that inflation may breach the two to four percent target in 2025 and 2026 if Dubai crude oil prices surge.
Read More
MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market has returned to the 7,000 level after more than a year and a half on the back of a slower US consumer inflation in August.
The last time the PSEi finished above 7,000 was on Feb. 3, 2023 at 7,027.38.
Read More
Government and telco executives have put up an umbrella group that seeks to protect technology assets from digital crimes and natural disasters that are causing the Philippines billions of pesos in losses.
Read More
Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
is boosting investments in the Philippines to $30 million by the middle of 2025 to rev up its planned massive wind projects.
Read More
San Miguel Corp. chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang has vowed to address backlogs affecting two of his three airport projects, concentrating
on resolving issues that are delaying the delivery timeline that he has committed to, admitting that with the three airports “sobra na” (It’s too much).
Read More
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
has released guidelines on the compensation and per diem of trustees, officers and employees of non-stock savings and loan associations
to regulate and supervise their activities.
Read More
Alliance Global Group Inc.
is raising its 12,000 room keys target before the end of the decade on the back of its optimism on the growth of the country’s tourism industry.
Read More
The tax cooperation convention drawn up by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
is now in full force in the Philippines to address tax evasion in the country.
Read More
Showing political will is rare among our leaders. It may be too early to praise BBM for his decision to scrap POGOs. We will see by the end of the year if there are no ifs. His man in Pagcor seems to be vacillating and will probably try to save some POGOs under a new name. We shall see.
Shortly after BBM declared his tough stance on POGOs, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission did two big raids on POGO hubs in Tarlac and Pampanga and scored big time. We found out that the Bamban mayor may have been a fake Filipino and reports from the commission seem to indicate her connection with the POGOs in her backyard. Then there was this other raid in Pampanga that reportedly revealed criminal tentacles attached to the POGO there.
Read More
The Metro Pacific Group is wasting no time in completing the Cavite-Laguna Expressway
in 2025, reaching another milestone in building one of the final legs of the tollway.
Read More
Kredit Hero, Asia’s first AI-powered SME lending marketplace has entered the Philippines, transforming how small and medium-sized enterprises can access financing.
Read More
MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is expected to rake in as much as P20 billion from franchise tax collection as electronic games (e-games) continue to grow.
During yesterday’s Senate committee on ways and means hearing, the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) agreed that there is an upward trend in the e-games sector.
Read More
MANILA, Philippines — Motorcycle taxi service leader Angkas has brought in e-wallet giant GCash as a payment option to promote cashless transactions for daily commute.
GCash yesterday said the e-wallet may now be used as payment for Angkas, strengthening the tie-up between two homegrown digital platforms.
Read More
The country’s economic growth next year is expected to fall short of the government’s target even with continued monetary policy easing, according to the World Bank.
Read More
Gloria Arroyo’s policies built a foundation that Duterte would later capitalize on, leading to the highest volume of Chinese investments in Philippine history.
Read More
ICT distributor VSTECS Phils. Inc. is proud to announce the successful deployment of Versa Secure SD-WAN for RCBC, one of the country’s largest commercial banks.
Read More
Victorias Milling Company [VMC 3.62, up 20.3%; 421% avgVol] [link] disclosed that the Record Date for its 100% stock dividend has been approved by the SEC to be Sept. 17, 2024. The stock dividend to issue 2,742,050,564 new shares was already approved by stockholders back on Feb. 7, 2023, and the overall plan was approved by the SEC back on August 21 of this year. While this approval sets the Record Date, the actual payment date of the stock dividend is still unknown; VMC said that it is “still being finalized.” The stock dividend is intended to satisfy the PSE’s paid-up capital requirements to support an increase in VMC’s authorized capital stock (ACS) from P3.042 billion to P10.0 billion.
MB bottom-line: This is actually a move that I’ve covered several times and even have a name for: the CLI Maneuver. I did a special “ Inside the Boardroom” episode with the CFO of Cebu Landmasters[CLI] about their 2021 stock dividend to help explain the incentives behind a massive stock dividend like this. From the outside, a 100% stock dividend doesn’t seem all that useful: every shareholder doubles their shares but the overall value of what is owned remains the same. But the key thing in the CLI case (and presumably here in the VMC case) is that the company wanted to increase its authorized capital stock to give its management team something it could sell to raise funds, and the PSE rules require that any ACS raise is at least 25% subscribed and paid-up. This move does both through a cashless administrative procedure. I’m not sure why...
Read More
Converge declared a special cash dividend of P0.18/share out of its FY23 unrestricted retained earnings, payable on October 10 to shareholders of record as of September 24.
Read More
The Philippines will likely benefit from a renewed wave of investor interest if the country is re-included in JP Morgan’s widely tracked emerging markets bond index, according to Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co..
Read More
Farmers belonging to the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters are supporting the government’s decision to allocate all the raw sugar production in the current crop year for domestic use as output remains insufficient to meet total demand.
Read More
The Philippines recently achieved a significant milestone in its renewable energy transition with a landmark $600-million investment deal from Actis, a leading UK-based sustainable infrastructure investor, for the Terra Solar project.
Read More
The plan to privatize some 40 casinos of state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. may be pushed back to early 2026 amid the need to amend its charter.
Read More
MANILA, Philippines — The local palm oil industry holds bright prospects for growth especially in the European Union (EU) market, leading players said.
At the recently concluded National Palm Oil Congress in Davao City, Ares Merchants Philippines Inc. (AMPI), a leading supplier of vegetable oils, noted significant improvements in local palm oil production and indicated the possibility of further growth.
Read More
The Philippine economy may grow within the six to seven percent target for this year, but it could fall below the targets set for 2025 and 2026 due to the negative impact of previous rate hikes on demand, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Read More
SP New Energy Corp. of tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan is searching for a new site for its 280-megawatt solar project as transmission woes derailed plans at the original location.
Read More
MANILA, Philippines — The stock market’s four-day climb came to a halt yesterday as investors decided to pocket gains.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index slipped by 0.57 percent or 39.75 points to settle at 6,944.88.
Read More
Reducing the minimum liquidity ratio
of thrift banks to 16 percent from the current 20 percent is not needed at this time as the industry remains capable of complying with the requirement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
said.
Read More