So San Miguel Corp. has finally decided that it was open to suitors wanting to acquire its 32.8-percent stake in Manila Electric Co. Given that the share price of the country’s biggest electricity distributor is now P384, such a sale makes a lot of sense for SMC head honcho Ramon Ang.
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.
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.
This Western Visayan electricity distributor is now sending shockwaves to stakeholders as P825 million of hard-earned funds—equivalent to more than half of its total cash holdings and more so of its equity—have been trapped in Export and Industry Bank, which was shut down by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last year.
The single biggest stockholder of Victorias Milling Corp. unloaded its 24-percent interest in the sugar firm last Friday, possibly cashing out ahead of further tariff cuts under the Asean Free Trade Agreement (Afta). No, it’s not the Lucio Tan group but a foreign fund named CVI GVF Lux Masters, which has a more substantial (compared [...]
BUSINESSMAN Bobby Ongpin received an unexpected gift a couple of days before Christmas when regulatory agencies gave their final approval for his group’s acquisition of 97 percent of Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom).
