Preparing cash

Some equity investors must have had their jaws drop to the floor earlier this week after Petron Corp.’s stock price declined by 7.24 percent in a single day. Having closed at P12.70 apiece last Monday, the share price of the country’s largest petroleum refiner and distributor fell to P11.78 by the end of Tuesday’s trading, slipping further to P11.62 on Wednesday.

The culprit was a sale by the company’s retirement fund of some 380 million shares at P11.50 each to an undisclosed buyer. Brokered by UBS, the deal was worth P4.37 billion, or almost $100 million.

This is making people wonder. Is Petron—or its parent, the San Miguel group—readying cash for an acquisition?

San Miguel head honcho Ramon Ang was quick to downplay speculation to this effect, saying the funds were not yet allotted for a specific purpose—emphasis on “yet,” of course. That could change in the blink of an eye next week.

Speaking of which, word on the street is that the camps of Ang and tycoon Lucio Tan have agreed on Aug. 27 as the decision deadline on whether Philippine Airlines’ 49-percent stake will stay with the former or revert to the latter. Watch this space, folks. Daxim L. Lucas

Six fund managers

It’s four down, two more to go for COL Financial to sign up the country’s major mutual fund providers for an upcoming online mutual fund distribution service.

Riding on the same platform that has made it a leading online stockbrokerage, the launch of this new service before the year ends aims to transform COL into a more diversified financial service provider using an “open architecture” model—one where it doesn’t have to manage the funds that it will distribute.

COL Financial has so far inked deals to distribute the mutual funds of ATR Kim Eng Mutual Funds, BPI’s ALFM, Sun Life Asset Management Co. and most recently, Philam Asset Management Inc. The two remaining mutual fund firms that COL Financial has yet to sign up but intends to bring onboard are Philequity Management and First Metro Asset Management.

If and when all these six funds are all aboard, the online fund distribution platform will be able to offer to COL’s client base (seen to breach 100,000 soon) a selection of more than 20 funds from the country’s major mutual fund houses. Doris C. Dumlao

The Kiddo-preneur Show

Broadcaster Maiki Oreta is taking her advocacy to teach entrepreneurship to children by producing (apart from hosting) a new program—“The Kiddo-preneur Show”—on her home network, ANC. The show will air at 11 a.m. every Saturday beginning Oct. 25 with replays on Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Oreta started Kiddo-preneur in 2011 as a passion project with her own children, with the goal of creating a venue where children can learn math, money and entrepreneurship through practical experience. Apart from organizing bazaars for kids (some of which gross more than P100,000 in a day), Oreta has taken kids to visit institutions like the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Philippine Stock Exchange to make them interested in financial literacy at an early age.

“Content-wise, we’ll talk about simple economic concepts and terminology on a level that kids will understand. And then we’ll feature actual Kiddo-preneurs and their businesses, plus we’ll talk to highly successful entrepreneurs about what they did as kids to develop their entrepreneurial drive and spirit,” Oreta told Biz Buzz.

“This show will have nothing to do with news, but everything to do about creating and developing the nation’s next generation of entrepreneurs.” Doris C. Dumlao

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