Bankers’ wages exposed
The Bureau of Internal Revenue last week released its latest list of the country’s top individual taxpayers, and all eyes were on the celebrities and VIPs at the Top 10, as expected.
But people in the banking community were looking farther down the list, and the names that they saw—or more specifically, the order by which the names were listed—surprised them.
Our Biz Buzz sources called our attention to the fact that, in one case, a senior official from a foreign bank was ranked much, much higher than the company’s top official—a full 87 spots higher on the BIR’s list, in fact.
The gap was such that the underling, compared with his boss, paid almost twice as much in income taxes.
Of course, since these taxes are “withheld at the source” there’s no malfeasance involved as far as the BIR is concerned. But banking wags are wondering: Was the department of the underling making tons of money, such that the people at the unit were given heftier bonuses than their bosses? A ton of treasury gains, perhaps?
This may explain why there was a sudden surge in the number of bankers, specifically treasury bosses on the BIR’s list of top taxpayers this year. At least 16 are on the list, in fact.
All told, this group of bank treasurers and traders (there are 17 of them listed) paid almost P200 million in income taxes to the government.
And because you know that income taxes paid represent a fixed percentage of the employee’s compensation, the secretive banking industry now knows how much many of the top bankers (especially those occupying coveted treasury department spots) are making.
In an industry where one’s paycheck and bonus is a key method of keeping score, expect a lot of jealousy, gossiping and perhaps some requests for pay hikes to follow.
Incidentally, many of these treasurers and traders listed by the BIR were “newcomers” to the Top 500. Either they all got hefty bonuses last year or the taxman’s scare campaign is working. Daxim L. Lucas
Swamped IPO pipeline
Now that everyone is rushing to tap the capital market before Uncle Sam turns off the liquidity faucet, some brokers are concerned about the deluge of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the local stock market in the last quarter of 2013.
Although this development has helped in expanding product offerings in our little market, there’s still a call for capital market regulators to police the timing of the IPOs to prevent overcrowding.
Ismael Cruz, president of the Philippine Association of Brokers and Dealers, told Biz Buzz that the PSE has approved six IPOs for November alone, and two of these are really large—Travellers’ $473-million offering and Robinsons Retail’s estimated $777 million. Cruz is concerned because the schedules of the offerings are only three trading days apart.
“When I was chair of the listing committee, we had 13 IPOs in a year. But I spaced the IPOs at least two weeks apart,” Cruz said.
According to the PSE, the listing dates have been set by the issuers.
“It will be a problem,” the veteran stock broker warned.
We asked PSE president Hans Sicat about the issue and learned that, from the PSE’s perspective, spacing isn’t a problem.
“There is a short market window, and we are trying to accommodate as much issuers in the remaining time,” Sicat said. “In addition, liquidity is overflowing in the system, and the underwriters are confident of getting the deals done. Technology is not a constraint anymore. Our trading engine can handle the volumes and values.”
“The spacing issue may be the view of a few brokers, but we all have to adapt to current conditions,” he said, noting that the need for the exchange to space out offerings is now an outdated view. Doris C. Dumlao
Solaire’s Christmas pines
It will literally smell a lot like Christmas on the main floor of the Solaire Resort and Casino when the 15 fresh pine trees from Canada arrive.
The 18-foot trees, each with a 7-figure price tag, will be distributed strategically so that the thousands of gamers who come through the casino’s doors each day will catch a whiff of that pine scent associated with the festive season.
The Christmas trees are on their way, and will arrive in time for the tree lighting and cocktails on Dec. 2. Dancing fountain lights will also be put on display to mark the first Christmas of Solaire, which opened just last March.
Here’s hoping that the trees will also bring luck to the gaming patrons. Tina Arceo-Dumlao
LR penalized
Apart from absorbing trades done on the basis of an erroneous cash dividend disclosure, gaming firm Leisure & Resorts World Corp. (LR) has been slapped with penalties and damages for violation of disclosure requirements.
In a memorandum, the Philippine Stock Exchange said that LR violated the requirement to ensure “full, fair, timely and accurate” disclosure of material information. But it noted that the company had already paid the “corresponding” penalties and damages.
The amount paid was not disclosed.
Last July, LR erroneously disclosed a cash dividend of 40 centavos instead of 4 centavos, attracting extraordinary trades before the correction was issued.
Trades on LR were suspended for three days pending discussions on how to resolve the matter.
As restitution, LR also agreed to buy and sell shares to rectify transactions decided on the basis of the wrong disclosure. Doris C. Dumlao
Gokongwei’s empire
Investors and analysts packed a meeting room at the Gokongwei family’s Crown Plaza Hotel last week to hear the family discuss the IPO of Robinsons Retail Holdings, one of the country’s biggest stock deals valued at about P32 billion.
For a few minutes, the crowd was surprised when some of the guests arrive.
The program barely started when the Imperial March theme blared over the speakers and a parade—led by George Lucas’ iconic Star Wars characters Darth Vader and Darth Maul, followed by a contingent of stormtroopers—briefly stole the spotlight from the Gokongweis.
For a moment, it seemed like the family was sending a message to competition, perhaps in the same way Lucas’ fictional Imperial regime had terrified its smaller foes.
Later in a briefing, B.J. Sebastian quipped that this was not the intention, and Star Wars toys were among the best-selling items at Toys ‘R Us, which the company operates in the Philippines.
Nonetheless, vice chair Lance Gokongwei said later that growing in scale was important as he saw the retail industry consolidating. And Robinsons Retail, of course, would be a “consolidator” in this game. Miguel R. Camus
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