Biz Buzz: Looming bourse buyout

Looming bourse buyout

The private sector heads of the country’s securities exchanges—Philippine Stock Exchange and Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.— have come to a “meeting of the minds” that will soon result in the union of both bourses.

The plan, which called for the PSE to buy out the Bankers Association of the Philippines and Singapore Exchange Ltd. from Philippine Dealing System Holding Corp., was originally scheduled to be executed in August last year, but was pushed back to November due to disagreements over valuation.

Obviously, the PSE felt that the price for the PDS Group (which operates, among others, the country’s only bond exchange) should be lower, while the selling party wanted a better price.

According to our source, however, a price (reportedly pegged at P2.2 billion) has now been agreed upon and that both sides of the transaction were happy with it. Once the sale is executed, the Philippines will end up having a unified bourse where stocks and bonds—and in the future, derivatives—will be traded using a single platform.

But hang on. There is still one potential spoiler of the deal. We understand that the government (through Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima) wants to have a board seat on the securities exchange that will result from the bourses’ union.

Apparently, the rationale for this is that the government wants to have a say in how the country’s capital markets develop. However, we heard that financial market players are deeply suspicious and wary about the idea of having Big Brother looking over their shoulders from within their organization.

And besides, will the government actually pony up the money to buy a seat on the bourse? Watch this space, people. Daxim L. Lucas

COA chief’s power moves

By most accounts, Commission on Audit Chair Grace Pulido-Tan is the frontrunner to fill the vacant seat in the Supreme Court.

The hard-nosed anticorruption stalwart is popular and has earned her chops in government service at the Department of Finance, where she served as undersecretary.

However, at least one person is unhappy with the prospect of Pulido-Tan being appointed by President Aquino to the high tribunal.

Uriel Borja—a self-described “advocate for affordable and reasonable electricity rates”— wrote the Judicial and Bar Council last month to oppose the inclusion of the COA chief in the group’s shortlist (from which the President will choose the next Supreme Court associate justice).

According to Borja, he filed a plunder complaint before the Ombudsman against Pulido-Tan “as a concerned citizen and an interested party” for what he described as the “illegal” sale of the 104-megawatt Iligan diesel power plant complex.

According to Borja, the officials of Iligan City and the COA chair approved the sale of the power plant, which was valued at P3.6 billion, for only P386 million “to the extreme prejudice of the people of Iligan City.”

The complaint, which was filed in April 2012, is still pending, ostensibly because of the backlog caused by the Napoles pork barrel cases.

Who is Uriel Borja? He apparently ran under the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino party for the lone congressional slot for Iligan City in the 2013 elections, losing to the Liberal Party’s Vicente Belmonte Jr.

Incidentally, Pulido-Tan’s current government career supposedly enjoys the backing of key members of the Liberal Party, according to the grapevine. Let’s see how this plays out. Daxim L. Lucas

Pinoy pride

Another Filipino proudly rises through the ranks of a multinational company.

Joseph Jorel Nuyda was recently appointed chief executive officer and president of Siemens Inc. Philippines, the first Filipino to lead the local unit of Munich-based Siemens AG since its incorporation in 1992. Nuyda, 46, replaces Jacky Chan (yes, that’s his real name) who has since left the company on a mutual decision.

The appointment of Nuyda came on the heels of a global reorganization initiated by the company’s headquarters to increase market viability, enhance customer proximity and simplify internal processes.

Dubbed Siemens Vision 2020, the restructuring program identifies new growth markets that offer the greatest long-term potentials for the company along the value chains of electrification, automation and digitalization.

Nuyda vows to live up to his appointment as he committed to ensure that the Philippine unit would “contribute to the fulfillment of Siemens Vision 2020, and at the same time reaches its full market potential in the country by pursuing this direction.”  Amy R. Remo

Pay up! Music isn’t free

There is indeed a price to pay for playing music, but a number of leading malls, department stores, bars, restaurants, hotels and radio stations have been reluctant to cough up the fee being charged by the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Filscap is accredited to collect public performance royalties in the Philippines on behalf of both foreign and local music copyright holders, being a society and a collective management organization and an affiliate of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.

Filscap, which is chaired by singer/composer Nonoy Tan, has been religiously sending demand notices to these establishments that also depend on music for their livelihood.

It is going the way of moral suasion and gentle reminders for now, but it may just be a matter of time before Filscap stops being the nice guy and starts taking these firms to court. Tina Arceo-Dumlao

Outstanding alumni

It is easy nowadays to feel a bit disillusioned with the government, with daily headlines reporting the misuse of public funds.

But there remain some standout public officers, at least according to the University of the Philippines Alumni Association. UPAA recently recognized several top government officers as part of its 2014 Distinguished Alumni Awardees last June 21, which also marked their 101st foundation year.

Among those in the list was Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Administrator Gerardo Esquivel for “good governance and public service”.

UPAA cited Esquivel’s efforts to clean up the institution “ridden with corruption” as well as his taking a bold stance against a water rate increase that naturally made him unpopular with Metro Manila’s water concessionaire firms.

(That issue, of course, is now being decided by courts abroad. Also, we do hope water services to UP have still been flowing smoothly, post-award.)

UPAA’s top award, or its “Most Distinguished Alumnus” went to Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, whom it described as a “gifted, multi-awarded engineer and inventor with a long list of technological innovations.”

Others in the list included Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza for law and judiciary and Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Teresita J. Herbosa for public service. Miguel R. Camus

By the way …

REMEMBER last week’s rice warehouse raid that featured Local Governments Secretary Mar Roxas?

In the wake of that incident, “Mr. Palengke” was roundly criticized for (supposedly) unnecessarily carrying a sack of rice for the benefit of the cameras. Social media users on Twitter and Facebook came down hard on him, with many calling him “epal” (Tagalog slang for an attention seeker, a play on “mapapel”).

Anyway, we’re told that idea to lift a sack of rice for the cameras was not, in fact, an idea that emanated from Roxas or his media handlers. Instead, it was supposedly the idea of the cameramen who urged him to put the heavy sack on his shoulders for a more dramatic image.

“Suckered,” was how one person described the situation. Maybe that’s the last we’ll see of stunts like that. But then again, 2016 is coming up, so maybe not. Daxim L. Lucas

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