Biz Buzz: With a smile[y]

Just like Mona Lisa’s smile, as depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, a “smiley” emoticon (a pictorial representation of facial expressions usually sent through text) that BIR chief Kim Henares sent to inquiring journalists evoked that same mystery.

A day after media reports came out that the High Court had ruled to keep the tax-exemption perk of state-run Pagcor, reporters sought Henares’ reaction via text message—expecting the routine decision to appeal cases where it had suffered setbacks.

Only this time, Henares replied like this: “:)”.

Of course, we clarified if that meant a “yes,” but Henares remained coy and responded with another emoticon: “:/” or “Huh?” using her mobile phone.

Speaking to reporters later, Henares still refused to comment but gave the go-ahead to be quoted with the smiley. “You can publish it. ‘When asked to comment, she sent a smiley.’”

“Let the readers wonder what that smiley means,” she added, seemingly in jest (but knowing Henares, she’s probably serious, just like her no-nonsense approach to doing her job in the BIR).

While she refused to comment on the ruling, Henares said: “You will know after a while why I don’t want to comment yet … We’re going to do something.”

For those wondering what the BIR’s next move will be, we’re betting Henares won’t keep it a mystery for long and when it does happen, she’ll probably do it with a “:)”. Ben O. de Vera

FED play

While everyone is trying to second-guess when the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will jack up interest rates, another kind of “FED” play has emerged in the local stock market.

We’re talking about holding firm Federal Resources Investment Group Inc. (FED), which sizzled at the local bourse last Friday on backdoor-listing speculations. Its shares surged 14 percent in a single day and in relatively heavy volume (second most actively traded at the market next to Universal Robina Corp.). Its shares have actually crept higher since early February but did not usually make it to the list of most active—until last Friday, that is.

We heard from reliable market sources that there were advanced talks to sell a controlling stake in FED to the group of businessmen Luis Yu Jr., Januario Jesus Gregorio “JJ” Atencio III and Mariano Martinez Jr., the principal shareholders of mass housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. (HOUSE). FED is chaired by Tommy Kin Hing Tia, who also heads mining firm Omico Corp. We heard that a deal was being hatched to sell a 70-percent stake in FED for between P280 million and P300 million. Targeted consummation of the deal is by March.

But what will these veteran real estate developers do with the shell company? Do they have any new business to infuse into FED? We gather than it’s the same as landbanking. But instead of developing this “landbank,” they may just resell in the future to another group with a worthy business that’s looking for a backdoor ticket to the local bourse. This was the same way Southeast Asia Cement Holdings Inc. (CMT) was flipped and reincarnated into Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. (FNI). Doris Dumlao

CPG in Palawan

It simulated a white beach in the city using real sand—the central amenity in its Azure resort-residential community in Parañaque—and got Paris Hilton to design its beach club and is now replicating such lifestyle concept in Pampanga.

But the Antonio family-led Century Properties Group (CPG) will soon go outside the city to build a resort-themed mixed estate where the real thing is and has chosen for its newest hub an idyllic seaside town that’s still under the radar of mainstream holiday-makers—for now.

We heard that CPG will soon break ground for a beachfront estate in San Vicente, Palawan, which boasts of a 14-kilometer stretch of pristine, white sand. That’s more than three times the length of Boracay’s famous White Beach.

Although some other big developers have reportedly started landbanking in San Vicente, which people say could be the next big beach hotspot in Asia, CPG could thus be the first mover in this picturesque town in terms of actual development.

At present, San Vicente is still a haven for backpackers and less known compared to the likes of El Nido, Coron or the capital city of Puerto Princesa. These days, it takes a three-hour drive from the capital to reach the town. But soon, tourists can directly fly to the town, which has a two-kilometer runway that can serve even regional international flights. The airport terminal is under construction and is set to be finished very soon.

CPG, our sources said, was preparing for a “sizeable” development there with a beachfront and a cove. It will offer not only leisure but other property components as well. Doris Dumlao

Premature celebration

Publicly traded firms tend to be careful with their corporate updates considering their share price can rise and fall according to what they disclose or what news reach stockholders.

Curiously, though, this renewable energy (RE) company announced a milestone that has not yet taken place, resulting in confusion among stakeholders, regulators and the press alike.

On Feb. 19, 2015, the company disclosed that it got a certificate of compliance for its wind project in northern Luzon. Having clinched the certificate would mean eligibility for incentives given RE developers in the form of fixed power rates. The thing is, this company has yet to get the certificate.

Apparently, it was still being processed by energy regulators and the disclosure was released “prematurely.”

The next day, on Feb. 20, the company sent the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) an “amended disclosure” where it requested that its earlier announcement, together with the news items that arose from it, be disregarded as the disclosure was uploaded and released in error.

The explanation? Apparently, as part of the company’s usual procedures, an announcement had been prepared in anticipation of the Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the certificate and someone bungled the timing of the release.

Press releases, the company said, were usually prepared in advance and in several versions so that the appropriate one could be chosen at the correct time and immediately uploaded within minutes of the event in order to comply with PSE rules.

“In this case, however, there was a lapse in procedure and the unapproved draft press release was mistakenly released,” the company said. “This statement is being issued to clarify any misconceptions arising from the premature release of the press release.”

The result? Key company officials found themselves besieged by calls, some of them premature congratulations and some of them requests for clarification.

In Filipino parlance, “naipit,” or caught in the middle of a mess.

The bigger trouble may be after the correction, however. Not only does this company have more explaining to do with other regulators, it may have to contend with more requests for verification when it makes further announcements—at least in the short term. Riza Olchondra

Aborted

Many corporations nowadays are eager to tap the debt markets, both locally and internationally, since interest rates everywhere continue to be very attractive for borrowers.

But not everyone has a warm relationship with the debt market, apparently.

Biz Buzz learned that a property developer tried to raise $150 million through a bond issue earlier this month and had, in fact, mandated three banks to underwrite the deal.

This powerhouse cast of banks included three foreign banks, including one whose local head is known to be able to sell practically anything on either the debt or equity side (so much so that he has become the prime target of international headhunters).

In any case, Biz Buzz gathered that the planned bond issue would have a tenor of five years and was given an indicative interest rate of “mid-9 percent,” which—given that it is a dollar-denominated issue—should theoretically be a very, very attractive yield for any would-be lender (or shall we say “investor” in the bonds).

Note, of course, that this same firm had a bond issue last year that was underwritten by one of the current underwriters. That issue, which raised P3 billion, matures in 2021—therefore, a seven-year tenor—and a coupon rate of almost 7 percent.

It was a challenging task for the foreign bank to market those bonds back then, but they were able to sell it with some encouragement, we understand.

But for reasons yet unknown, the property developer decided to pull the plug on its latest issue. With a higher indicative yield of above 9 percent, it should have been easier to borrow in dollars, especially since dollar-denominated yields are even lower than their peso counterparts, for the $150 million (about P6.7 billion) that the developer needed.

We heard from our sources that the real estate firm had cited volatile market conditions as the reason for its decision to put the issue on hold. Daxim L. Lucas

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