Azkals in PSE

Football stars James and Phil Younghusband turned heads on the trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange Tuesday at the launch of Maybank ATR Kim Eng Securities’ online trading platform “MakeTrade.”

Their teammates from the Loyola Meralco Sparks Football Club Armand Del Rosario, Matthew Hartmann, Rex Cuaresma and Simon Greatwich also graced the ringing of the opening bell at PSE.

Apart from Maybank ATR Kim Eng being one of the sponsors of the football club, Randy Roxas, the big boss of MATRKE Securities, shares the same passion for football, having played the sport years ago and as president of the country’s main football league United Football League (UFL).

Of the group, Phil is the one who has started investing in stocks and his portfolio is being managed by the MATRE group.  Phil regularly sets aside a portion of his earnings from the football club and from company endorsements for investment. He said he was “very happy” with his portfolio, especially citing one “lucky break” recently. As to how much Phil’s return on investment has been, Roxas says it’s confidential but adds it outperforms benchmark stock indices. His brother James, on the other hand, has not tried stock investing yet but said he would, soon.

Teammate Armand Del Rosario favors mutual funds although he is quite familiar with day trading as well.

But after watching the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street,” these athletes had such an ugly impression about stockbrokers, Roxas said in jest. “We have to correct that,” he added.

On whether they are dabbling in entrepreneurship, Phil said instead of building big businesses, the Younghusbands’ focus would be to create opportunities for kids and coaches through their football academy. The siblings fervently advocate a grassroots program to catapult Philippine football to new heights. Doris C. Dumlao

Whatever happened to …

OLONGAPO City folk still remember how businessman Michael Ted Macapagal caused quite a stir at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in February 2012 when he issued a statement to the media that he had been appointed SBMA administrator.

The announcement elicited mixed reactions from SBMA employees and locators at the Subic Bay Freeport, even drawing expressions of support from some quarters.

It soon turned out, however, that there was no such appointment. [It was too much to believe, in the first place, because he would then have been the first Macapagal to be appointed under the Aquino administration.]

Macapagal happens to be the eldest son of the late Olongapo City OIC Mayor Teddy Macapagal—a distant cousin of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was also a supporter of the late President Corazon Aquino.

Macapagal was supposed to have been appointed to the top SBMA post on Jan. 30, 2012, effective on Feb. 27, 2012. The announcement  prompted  Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to issue a denial on the supposed appointment.

Ochoa, instead, stressed that President Aquino had appointed  SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia as SBMA administrator in a concurrent capacity on Nov. 21, 2011. [He then asked the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the fake appointment, but nothing more was heard of the controversy since then.]

For his part, we’ve heard that Macapagal has kept a low profile since then.

The last that was heard of Macapagal was that he recently formed a small company called First Reliance International Inc., which is involved in the real estate business. Daxim L. Lucas