Biz Buzz: Mi casa no es tu casa
A marriage between two members of central business district-landowning families, once touted to have been made in heaven, has crashed down to earth, according to our reliable Biz Buzz source.
One of the spouses has left the other, leaving the latter with a sprawling house and, reportedly, a new third-party occupant. To ensure that the new occupant and the dalliance within are kept secret, the household staff—which was paid for by the leaving spouse (along with everything else)—have been hurriedly ushered out of the door and declared persona non grata (aptly, a diplomatic term) in their gated village.
It seems this is the opening bell in what promises to be a legal and social slugfest. Tickets to front row seats, anyone?—Daxim L. Lucas
Banking plus equities
Malaysian banking giant CIMB, now in the thick of discussions to acquire a controlling stake in San Miguel’s banking arm Bank of Commerce, is not only keen on setting a foothold in the banking system. CIMB also wants to build its capacity in the local equities market. Its stiffest rival, Maybank, after all, has both a commercial bank and an investment house unit (ATR-KimEng Financial).
Simultaneous with its discussions with San Miguel, CIMB is likewise in talks with Security Bank on a stock brokerage arrangement although this would initially be limited to collaboration on research capability through SB Equities. Several high-ranking Security Bank officials recently flew to Singapore to meet with CIMB’s regional equities headquarters to explore such a tie-up.
Eventually, our banking sources said CIMB wanted to establish a strong presence in Philippine equities. It has many equity deals in the pipeline, harnessing its expansive presence in Southeast Asia. One of its first potential deals, for instance, is a planned dual listing of a local company on the Singapore Stock Exchange.—Doris C. Dumlao
Ceasefire broken
The temporary truce between the Department of Finance and the Philippine Stock Exchange seems to be on the verge of collapse.
According to our sources, things came to a head during the latest meeting of the Capital Markets Development Council meeting, which Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima attended, with Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares in tow.
The duo were there to “lay down the law,” so to speak, concerning the issue of taxation for listed companies, which have less than 10 percent of their stocks freely available for trading on the bourse.
Purisima’s logic? If you don’t have enough shares available for the public, you’re just taking advantage of the lower tax rate for listed firms and, as such, just cheating the government of taxes.
Not so, says the Philippine Stock Exchange. The PSE leadership contends that changing the long-established rules now will put the local equities market back into the dark ages, with no companies interested in selling shares to the public because of the harsh “free float” rule that Purisima wants imposed.
Both sides present compelling arguments, but there is clearly another element in play, the PSE side thinks. A few months ago—in the weeks approaching its annual board elections—the bourse leadership successfully fended what looked like an attempt by a government official to “install” his own man as PSE president (this candidate has since been appointed as head of a banking regulatory agency).
Some PSE people now think that that official—who is rumored to be a man who “never forgets”—is preparing for another round in the long-running “low intensity conflict” with the bourse.
During that recent CMDC meeting, the exchange between the DoF officials and the bourse side was becoming so testy that even mild-mannered PSE president Hans Sicat (easy to think you could bully him if you didn’t know him well) couldn’t contain himself and was starting to raise his voice as well.
Both sides have their own tricks and aces up their sleeves so this should be an interesting battle royale to watch.—Daxim L. Lucas
Divided we fall
The “unequivocal” show of support and effort by the business, academic and labor sectors to arrest the increases in the country’s electricity rates recently was impressive. The drafting of the joint proposals showed an “astounding” collaborative effort that may finally lead to concrete results—if only its signatories could get their act together, that is.
Apparently, not all of the signatories to that joint proposal agreed to the measures being put forward to the government, according to Energy Secretary Rene Almendras. The energy chief himself disclosed that days after the announcement of the joint proposal—in a press briefing and with all of the signatories present at that—some quarters have called him to clarify their positions.
“Some of the groups that were claimed to be part of the joint statement have officially informed me that they do not agree with all of the context of the joint statement,” he said, pointing to the Foundation for Economic Freedom and some members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry who said they agreed only with specific portions of the recently issued manifesto. Dissension in the ranks?—Amy R. Remo
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