MANILA, Philippines — This profitable commercial bank has started entertaining suitors. But like a prized bride, it wants a hefty dowry.
According to well-placed industry sources, the bank’s stockholders are asking for double the bank’s book value. And because it has a very good balance sheet, enjoying the patronage of the Chinese-Filipino community, it has caught the fancy of the country’s largest banks.
In recent weeks, there were rumors that Banco de Oro Unibank was nearing a deal to acquire the bank, but this was denied by its president, Nestor Tan.
Bank of the Philippine Islands president Aurelio Montinola III simply smiled when asked whether his bank was interested.
A deal may be likely soon, that is, of course, if the price is right. Doris C. Dumlao
Financing in the dark
There’s a power crisis at the Department of Finance, and all personnel—including Finance Secretary Margarito Teves—have evacuated the building.
After a major electrical problem hit the Finance building last week—leaving the entire structure in darkness—staff members have scattered across Manila, seeking refuge where they can. According to reports, they may have to squat on other people’s workspace for the next six months, at least.
Teves has set up camp at the chairman’s office in the building of state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines. Some departments were “adopted” by the Bureau of the Treasury at the Palacio del Governador. Still others set up shop at the central bank building. Doris C. Dumlao
Defensor takes round one
Unknown to many, there has been a brewing “rivalry” between Michael Defensor, a Malacañang troubleshooter and head of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 Task Force, and Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza ever since Defensor was ordered by Malacañang to open the controversial Terminal 3 ASAP.
Defensor has taken his marching orders to heart and has been gung-ho about it, sweeping aside roadblocks to get the airport terminal opened. Mendoza and his crew at the Department of Transportation and Communications are lukewarm about Defensor’s plans, preferring a more “cautious” stance, noting structural concerns, among others.
With Tuesday’s inaugural flight of Cebu Pacific Air from Terminal 3, Defensor appears to have taken round one.
But there is more than one round to this fight, and there are apparently more than just egos involved. Daxim L. Lucas
Canning the canners
The marketing team of a food-canning business was recently canned for allegedly receiving kickbacks and bribes from suppliers amounting to millions of pesos.
Our source said the group was not even given a chance to clean up their files or collect their papers, but were simply called in by top management and shown evidence of their alleged crime before being issued pink slips.
This certainly gives credence to private studies done in the past showing that corruption in the private sector is just as rampant as that in government.
Often, corruption sets in when purchasing or marketing groups acquire too much freedom in disbursing the budget. Other areas prone to this kind of abuse are advertising and printing. Margie Q. Espino
Philippines as guinea pig
Canada’s Bridgewater Systems, a network solutions provider to telecommunications companies, will open a Philippine office and use the country as its “test market” for the Asia-Pacific region.
“We are still in the early phase, but we are really planning to open an office here in the Philippines,” said Bridgewater Systems’ Asia-Pacific managing director David Brook.
The Philippines has drawn the Canadian company’s attention so much that its regional technical operations director, Jean Francois deMontigny, is spending 80 percent of his time “in-country” to study the local market.
The company is aggressively pushing WiMax technology products in the Philippine market.
“The Philippines is a lead market for us in Asia,” Brooks said. “If we do well in the Philippines, it creates a good reference point for other markets.” Riza T. Olchondra
Forbidden fruit
California-based Apple Computer Inc. will remove from its roll of authorized resellers Quezon City-based Ynzal Marketing Corp.—one of the largest Mac distributors in the country—starting July 29.
The trouble began after a junior reporter of the television news channel ANC approached Ynzal to trade his old iBook in for a Macbook demo unit (which is cheaper because it’s no longer in pristine condition). The Macbook later conked out and the reporter went to Ynzal to have the unit repaired under warranty.
But confusion over the Macbook’s “missing” serial number (Remember: It’s a used demo unit) caused a delay in the repair, and the reporter filed a complaint with the Department of Trade and Indstry and with Apple’s office in Singapore. Apple ordered the firm to replace the unit.
Ynzal—which counts as its clients large media outfits like the Inquirer—said in its letter to clients that the confusion came from a mis-encoded serial number that had caused “a lot of confusion.”
Nonetheless, Apple said Ynzal committed warranty “irregularities” and unceremoniously stripped the company of its accreditation.
Ynzal is now hoping against hope that its appeal will make Apple reconsider.
Many local Mac users are up in arms, with some venting their online ire on the TV reporter. Who, you ask? You can catch him reading the hourly news during the graveyard shift. Or you can simply Google the whole thing. Daxim L. Lucas
Foreclosure in Forbes Park
The house of this businessman in upscale Forbes Park subdivision in Makati City—he is involved in a protracted legal and media war with fellow shareholders in a certain company—was recently foreclosed by Allied Banking Corp.
The businessman, who sometimes uses a Chinese name, has been involved in other disputes with other business partners in the past, but he has been heard touting his “victory” in the latest one. Supposedly, he has profited handsomely from a recently disputed corporate move.
If that is so, it is puzzling why his house was foreclosed. Daxim L. Lucas
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Business Buzz – 7/16/08
