Tired of criticisms that its ubiquitous shopping malls were mere concrete boxes sharing the same blueprint over and over, the SM group decided to show everyone that it is capable of matching the country’s most upscale mall operators with its new SM Aura Premier development.
The climate is turning more benign in upscale Ayala Alabang and it has nothing to do with Pagasa’s announcement that the uber-sizzling summer is about to end.
There seems to be little rest for Philam Life president and CEO Rex Mendoza, who is in the middle of efforts to revitalize what was once the country’s biggest insurance firm.
The group of PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan continues to be unsuccessful in expanding its growing media empire abroad, but given recent developments, MVP’s camp may soon have its very own “Financial Times.”
What’s turning out to be a game changer for the country’s fledgling gaming industry—and not necessarily for the better—is a shift in the tax regime from the 5-percent franchise tax on gross gaming revenues to a 30-percent tax on net income. This is seen affecting the bankability of the industry especially as investors had come in on the assumption of a competitive cost structure versus regional gaming hubs.
There seems to be no stopping the move to merge the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS) with the Philippine Stock Exchange, with the latter as the surviving entity—a move that will create a unified bourse and allow fund managers, bankers and even retail investors to trade both stocks and bonds.
SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy, the designated representative to the SM group’s public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives, did not realize that a lot of manual labor was required to participate in these auctions.
After the Panlilio group’s long search for a partner to unlock values out of its vast seaside landbank in Cavite, we won’t be surprised if property giant Ayala Land Inc. soon comes into the picture in a bid to replicate south of Metro Manila in its northern resort community Anvaya Cove.
The Philippines may have reached investment-grade status but its corporate watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is languishing at sub-par payroll levels and now faces an exodus of key officers.
In 10 days—or right after the annual stockholders’ meeting of Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands—the country’s most valuable bank will have a new president, investment banker Cezar Consing, who certainly has very big shoes to fill.
Is the group of tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan—through the former’s broadcasting arm, TV5—out to settle an old score with the Lopez family? Some people in the latter seem to think so.
The conflict between Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and Pacific Online Systems Corp., on one side, and Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya, on the other, has turned into a full-blown war. Berjaya’s local unit, Philippine Gaming Management Corp. (PGMC), came out with guns blazing last week, accusing PCSO and Pacific Online of all sorts of monkey [...]
