New PSE chief

We’ve known that change is coming at the Philippine Stock Exchange after six years and it’s coming very soon. Our sources say that the incoming PSE president and chief executive officer, Ramon Monzon, is set to take over the helm of the local bourse by April 1, around a month before the PSE’s annual stockholders meeting.

Monzon has been an incumbent independent director at the PSE since 2015 and only needs to be reelected for a board seat.

Like the outgoing PSE chief Hans Sicat, we heard that Monzon has not signed up for a long-term management contract. The PSE board believes that for the CEO position, it’s “best to go on a year-to-year basis.”

Now that the PSE has formalized its renewed takeover bid for the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS Group)—the holding firm for fixed-income trading platform Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx), Philippine Depositary and Trust Corp. (PDTC) and Philippine Securities Settlement Corp.—outgoing PSE president Sicat’s work as the chief integrator officer has only begun.

After gaining control of an initial 49.91 percent of PDS as part of its renewed P2-billion bid to unify the country’s capital market infrastructure, the PSE will next have to seal separate deals to buy out other minority shareholders. But since they have previously agreed to sell their shares, they will only have to be convinced to accept a slightly lower valuation to reflect the carving out of the government securities business under PDEx. Other PDS shareholders included the Singapore Exchange (with a 20-percent stake); Tata Consultancy Services (8 percent); Computer Technology Services (8 percent); San Miguel Corp. (4 percent) and Financial Executives Institute (3.1 percent).

Back to the incoming PSE chief, Monzon chairs the PSE’s audit committee and has been “immersed” into the local bourse in the last two years. A certified public accountant, Monzon was a partner at SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co. He finished his BA degree major in Political Science at the Ateneo de Manila University and a BS degree major in Accounting from the Manuel L. Quezon University. He holds an MBA degree from the University of Chicago.

During the last changing of the guard at the PSE, there was a wave of resignations from other high-ranking officials. This time around, however, hopes are high that there will be continuity and talent retention despite the forthcoming leadership turnover. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

New Manila Golf chief

The ultra exclusive Manila Golf and Country Club has a new president in the person of lawyer-dealmaker Perry Pe.

His ascent to the pinnacle of the country’s most expensive golf property came a few days after a hotly contested board election where club members chose six new representatives to augment the five holdovers.

Garnering the top votes were Edward Tiu (220 votes), Pe (188), Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola III (180), Henry Sy (a namesake of the country’s richest man, but unrelated, 159), Jose Alvarez (138) and Luisa Lorenzo (138).

Five other candidates did not make the cut.

The group of elected board members then chose among themselves Pe as president, George Blaylock as vice president and Montinola as treasurer. Completing the 11-member board are Ritchie Garcia, Arsenic Laurel, Martin Romualdez and Anthony Te.

Asked how the new board members will work among themselves, especially with some supposedly being members of a “reform group” that wanted to upend the established practices of some more traditional members, Pe said there was “no such thing.”

“This will be a hardworking team,” he said optimistically. “We will be consultative, transparent and fun.”

Incidentally, those who have newfound wealth and want to break into the exclusive circle of Manila Golf, Biz Buzz hears that a corporate share is now worth as much as P45 million. And, of course, having money alone won’t guarantee admission because every single member will have to approve any prospective new member as well. —Daxim L. Lucas

Right warrant, wrong company

Some agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have a lot of explaining to do following what looks like an unjustified raid on a Pagcor-licensed online gaming company last Friday.

The association of online gaming firms called Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) is crying foul over the alleged harassment of one of its members whose offices were raided despite an obviously wrong warrant.

While the company—Greatfeat Services Inc.—was not the gaming firm listed in the warrant issued by a Quezon City judge, the NBI agents proceeded to search its offices and even carted away several computers. The arguments of Greatfeat’s lawyer, including the company’s Pagcor license and lease contract for its Makati office, were apparently ignored by agents of the NBI’s anticybercrime unit.

Worse, an office inventory after the raid showed that several items like mobile phones, high-end headsets and electronic gadgets, a laptop, some P60,000 in cash and registration papers for a BMW X5 were discovered to be missing.

Taking the cudgels for Greatfeat, Pogo has alerted Pagcor on what it viewed as plain and simple harassment of a legitimate, licensed online gaming company.

To protect its licensees, the gaming regulator is seriously looking into Friday’s incident preparatory to reporting the matter to the Department of Justice, NBI’s parent unit. After all, the DOJ and Pagcor are partners not only in the crusade against illegal gambling, but also in protecting legitimate operators that contribute more than a billion pesos in license fees to government.

How NBI will explain Friday’s raid is an issue worth watching. Watch this space for developments. —Daxim L. Lucas

Japanese milking cow

Three years ago, it was well reported that Max’s Group of Companies bought the restaurant chain Pancake House Inc., creating a consolidated powerhouse of casual dining brands. Apart from owning the “House that Fried Chicken Built,” Max’s also launched international brands Jamba Juice and Krispy Kreme in the country. Pancake House, on the other hand, brought its eponymously named flagship restaurant, as well as familiar names such as Dencio’s, Kabisera, Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak, Le Coeur De France, The Chicken Rice Shop, Maple, Yellow Cab, and Teriyaki Boy to the combined table.

Recently, however, Biz Buzz learned that all is not well within this big dining family. The minority shareholders of Teriyaki Boy—still very much present, since Max’s only acquired 70 percent of this particular business—are up in arms about how their beloved brand has seemingly been (in their words) “turned into a milking cow” by the new owners.

A staggering amount of more than P800 million has allegedly been diverted from Teriyaki Boy’s coffers to various expenses that are unrelated to the business. These included entries such as advances, purchases from sister companies, salaries and undocumented debit movements. To make matters worse, these transactions were reportedly done without the knowledge, much less the approval, of the minority shareholders and directors.

“Instead of saving on transaction costs and preventing the disruption of Teriyaki Boy’s value, these transactions resulted in losses and caused Teriyaki Boy to incur additional costs. Furthermore, Teriyaki Boy incurred loans that were not at all disclosed by its directors and approved by the board. These are likewise concealed and unreported to stockholders and to the Philippine Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission,” read a very serious demand notice that was recently sent by the minority shareholders to the owners of Max’s.

Even as an appetizer, this development is already quite juicy. All eyes are now on the restaurant magnates to see how they will respond to the grilling. —Daxim L. Lucas