Biz Buzz: Villar’s newest venture comes alive

TYCOON Manuel Villar Jr. has spent most of his life providing for the housing needs of living, breathing customers and making a fortune in the process. What’s next? Why, providing that same quality housing for the dead, of course.

It might not be a huge name today but Villar said his Golden Haven Memorial Park would become the biggest private cemetery operator in the Philippines.

He said that an ambitious plan, which starts next year, made sense given “surprisingly” attractive margins. Golden Haven can likewise capitalize on more than 100 locations near his group’s Camella Homes subdivisions all over the Philippines.

So bullish is Villar on the business that he said Golden Haven could eventually list on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The best part? Golden Haven’s clientele is expected to be a rather passive group who aren’t likely to raise any complaints. Talk about 100-percent customer satisfaction. Miguel R. Camus

Malling Jack Ma

THE SINGLE most anticipated corporate speaker during last week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit was Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, co-founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba. Ma’s rags-to-riches story in the Internet age is the stuff of legends.

He was not exactly the #ApecHottie material that made women swoon over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, but Ma—who has an estimated net worth of $21.8 billion, making him the second wealthiest man in China, according to Forbes—was himself much sought after for photo ops even by the Philippine elite. JG Summit Holdings’ Lance Gokongwei, who was among those who eagerly posed with Ma during the welcome reception for Apec leaders on Wednesday night, later on told Biz Bizz: “I’m a fan.”

But since he was on Philippine soil, it appears that the Chinese billionaire just had to check out the local shopping scene as he was spotted strolling at the mall nearest to the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, the venue of the Apec CEO summit where he was speaker last Wednesday. Ma was spotted enjoying relative anonymity at around lunch time that day in Glorietta, walking with a female assistant and one Caucasian bodyguard. (It’s unclear whether there were other bodyguards discreetly following the billionaire).

Maricis Florendo-Liggayu, a former banker who retired to become a full-time mom a few years ago, had just watched Ma’s session with US President Barack Obama and Filipino entrepreneur Aisa Mijeno that same morning before going to Glorietta, where she chanced upon Ma walking near the bridgeway connecting to Landmark.

“It’s hard to miss him because he is tall and his bodyguard is even taller. When I saw him, I dashed toward him and asked him if we could have a photo with him,” Florendo-Liggayu said.

The bodyguard was initially apprehensive but calmed down as Ma kindly obliged to be photographed with the local fans. This FilipinO lady—who had two young boys in tow—seemed to pose no threat, after all. “He was so nice and accommodating. You will feel his aura—he is calm and not snooty at all. He even shook my hand when I said ‘thank you.’” She also managed to say: “Welcome to the Philippines.”

Florendo-Liggayu found it odd for being the only one who had recognized Ma in the mall at that point in time. As a result, she and the kids—even without access to the tightly guarded Apec summit—had Ma for themselves for a moment. The result was a priceless picture with the Chinese billionaire, which she proudly posted on her Facebook page. “It was my lucky day,” she said. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

SMB’s floating billboard

AS PART of the 125th celebration of iconic San Miguel Brewery Inc., the beer giant decided to create the country’s biggest floating billboard made of vetiver, that wonder grass now widely used in bioengineering.

This “green” campaign was launched at the McArthur Highway side of the polluted Tullahan River in Valenzuela City, where SMB operates a brewery. The vetiver billboard—which resembles the San Miguel Pale Pilsen’s 125th anniversary logo—was recently launched by SMB in partnership with Vetiver Farms Inc. The floating billboard used vetiver pontoons with a footprint of around 400 square meters.

The use of vetiver grass is gaining popularity among property developers and infrastructure builders in the country as a convenient, effective and affordable means of preventing soil erosion, stabilization of embankments and land rehabilitation. It is also used to protect fields against pests and weeds, which are averse to its distinct odor. Oil extracted from its roots is also being used as base by top perfumers and cosmetics companies around the world.

Noah Manarang, president of Vetiver Farms, said the vetiver pontoons could help improve the water quality of Tullahan River, which had been declared ecologically dead in the 1990s. She said the roots of vetiver, which can grow up to three meters, could help absorb excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the river as well as regulate oxygen demand for aquatic life.

“The launch of this vetiver water billboard not only upholds San Miguel’s tradition of implementing novel corporate social responsibility programs. It is also a fitting tribute to the heritage of our flagship brand, San Miguel Pale Pilsen, which is also celebrating its anniversary this year,” said Roberto Huang, president of SMB, which has been involved in various initiatives aimed at rehabilitating the river. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Ayala Alabang gate wars, redux

THE LONG-RUNNING dispute about whether or not Ayala Alabang Village should open another access gate (or two), ostensibly to help ease vehicular traffic congestion within the exclusive community, is far from over.

But the group opposing the opening of access gates along the village’s San Jose-Champaca St. line seems to have scored an important victory—albeit, almost certainly a temporary one—last week. This was after the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court issued an order stopping the Ayala Alabang Village Association (AAVA) from opening the two controversial access gates that cut across the east-west axis of the property, to the [temporary] jubilation of the plan’s opponents.

To recall, AAVA wanted to open an additional gate at the end of the village’s San Jose St. earlier this year to ease traffic congestion, which was at its worst during the previous Christmas season, as it would sometimes take as long as 30 minutes for a car just to be able to exit through one of three main gates of Ayala Alabang. This was naturally opposed by residents living along or near San Jose and Champaca streets, fearing that the new gates would increase traffic volume in front of their houses, making the streets noisier, busier, more congested, with the resulting decline in property values, along with safety concerns.

Ayala Land Inc., which developed the village and continues to own its public spaces, is opposed to the plan to open the additional gates, but apparently doesn’t want to get too involved in the dispute, choosing only to set tough conditions before it agrees to having both gates opened.

But AAVA went ahead and opened the Champaca access route anyway, to the consternation of the plan’s opponents, who claimed their protests were being ignored and that the consultation process was being railroaded by the AAVA leadership.

In any case, the Muntinlupa court has now ordered that the plan to open the gates be put on hold pending the resolution of the case filed by Ayala Land against AAVA for demolishing the Champaca wall without the consent of the real estate firm.

Biz Buzz learned that several property developers—all rivals of Ayala Land for dominance in the wealthy geographic area—are supporting the plan of AAVA to open the two gates.

At least three high-profile property developers, all of which have sprawling tracts of land along the Daang Hari highway on one side of Ayala Alabang, are in favor of the move to open a road that cuts across the gated village.

Why? “Obviously, the opening of a road across Ayala Alabang from Filinvest Corporate City to Daang Hari will benefit these three rival developers, since this will increase the flow of people to their properties,” said one affected resident.

What is especially worrisome to these affected residents is that one of these developers has already volunteered to take care of producing the car stickers that will control access through the village.

“We don’t know how many stickers for our village they will produce or whom they will give them to,” the resident said.

As far as the affected residents are concerned, they want to know why their community leaders are backing a move that will result in the reduction of their property values, while simultaneously resulting in the appreciation of the land values of neighboring developers.

But more importantly, what will Ayala Land do about it? Abangan. Daxim L. Lucas

Flying premium

ONE could be forgiven for thinking that airline fares should be lower these days, given that fuel prices around the world have remained low, thanks to the global petroleum glut.

But not for trans-Pacific flights, apparently.

Loyalists of Philippine Airlines’ direct flights between Manila and the US West Coast may be in for a shock, especially among the well heeled who fly business class. Biz Buzz learned recently that the price of a roundtrip business class ticket on the “Asia’s first airline” has now skyrocketed to an average of $3,900 per person (for a Manila-San Francisco roundtrip, for example). And we’re talking about an off-peak rate here. This represents an increase of almost 80 percent from business class seat prices in the same period last year for the same routes, whether to San Francisco or the most popular Los Angeles route.

Surprisingly, airfare for economy class passage hardly moved up during the period, with PAL still charging around $950 for a return trip to and from the US West Coast.

The explanation? PAL president Jaime Bautista said the entire airline industry (and we’re talking about just about everyone that flies trans-Pacific routes) realized that their clientele were now willing to pay premium prices for more comfortable trips, especially since this meant sitting in a metal tube at 40,000 feet for at least 13 hours.

“You’d be surprised because our business class cabins are full—even at these prices,” he said.

Are you willing to pay three times more for the extra legroom. Well, it seems more and more people are. Truly, it shows that Filipinos are more affluent nowadays. Daxim L. Lucas

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