Biz Buzz: Craving for sweets

The group of businessman Manny Pangilinan has recently taken a liking for a soft commodity that doesn’t seem in sync with its local interests in infrastructure, telecom or mining. Specifically, the First Pacific group was spotted on the prowl for prospective local sugar investments.

Industry sources privy to the matter confirmed that the group had indeed taken a look at some sugar firms. This may have obviously fueled unusual trading activity in some sugar-related stocks in recent history.

The source said the main rationale for this “sweet” foray is that the group had the ability to unlock a lot of operating efficiencies in this business. It was cited that on sugar-producing Negros island, for instance, there are too many mills that sugar planters are pitting them against one another. But, there’s also some naughty speculation by outsiders that this sweet liking could also be to a way of getting ahead of the “frenemy” (who needs sugar as a basic input for his traditional businesses). Or maybe it’s something that will benefit Indonesian affiliate Indofoods.

So will the Metro Pacific group be a consolidator acquiring one sugar mill after another just like its strategy in scaling up hospital operations? It seems now that there are certain issues that hamper doing so. For one, to be more viable in running sugar mills, one must also own sugar plantations. As we all know, Metro Pacific has given up on the property business years ago. It remains to be seen whether farmlands would be a different story.—Doris C. Dumlao

Speaking of which…

Regional Apple officials were reportedly peeved by MVP’s announcement of Smart’s impending tie-up with the Silicon Valley giant for the distribution of the new iPhone 4S in the Philippines. The telecom executive made the revelation last week much to the chagrin of Apple officials known for their strict publicity guidelines.

Rival Globe Telecom—which is so far Apple’s exclusive carrier for its iPhone 4 and iPad 2—has so far kept mum about MVP’s announcement about the Ayala-controlled telco’s impending loss of exclusivity for distributing the popular device (although one can surely expect a “retaliatory” move, given the rising level of competition in the industry).

Word in IT circles now is that Apple officials are debating how to handle the premature revelation about negotiations to offer the iPhone through Smart’s network.

“If you want to play with Apple, you play by its rules,” one industry official said. “Otherwise, it’s a ‘no go.’” Uh oh.—Daxim L. Lucas

Stolen words?

After being accused last year of copying Poland’s tourism promotions logo, the Department of Tourism last week found itself in the middle of yet another embarrassing situation, and for almost exactly the same offense.

Last Wednesday, food blogger Marketman—who prefers not to reveal his true identity—of the popular Market Manila blog (www.marketmanila.com) posted an entry accusing the DOT of lifting an old article he posted on his blog more than five years ago.

In his November 2 entry, he posted a screen shot of the DoT article titled “I am doing this from 10 to 1” bylined “trinadelro,” and proceeded to prove that the article was indeed plagiarized.

The DoT website article was a verbatim copy of Marketman’s June 20, 2006, post titled “Putahe Idol—the results,” as proven by his inclusion of that old article in his November 2 post. Readers of his blog reacted in all sorts of negative ways, with some of them calling whoever plagiarized his piece an imbecile. Others described the act as embarrassing, ignorant and moronic.

In fairness to Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, he was quick to react, issuing a memo the day after, directing DoT employees to “ensure that all written materials coming from or identified with the DoT are originally written and they contain proper citation or attribution of source.”

While the head of the department took the high road to prevent any such action from being repeated, the officer-in-charge of the DoT’s information technology division, a certain June Garduque, was quoted in a GMA News Online article as saying that the page Marketman was referring to was a “test page” that had been taken down years ago.

Funny statement though, as the DoT website page with the controversial article was still accessible when Marketman posted his November 2 blog entry, which contained a screen shot and the link to the write-up. Excuses. Not even air-tight ones. Let’s see how the DoT handles this one.—Abigail L. Ho

Stocks trading app

Heating up competition in online trading, First Metro Securities last week offered a sneak peek into a newly developed application for Apple’s iPad tablet—the first by a local stock brokerage—which trading enthusiasts can download from Apple’s online store in a few weeks (but one needs an account with the brokerage for it to work).

The preview was given alongside the launch of version 2.0 of FirstMetroSec’s online trading system. The app has practically all of the features of the improved online trading system, and the same look and feel. But as FirstMetroSec president Gonzalo Ordoñez stresses, it has “more intuitiveness and fun added. And you can set its features to suit your particular trading style.” He added: “We designed it especially for the iPad so you can take the stock market with you.”

FirstMetroSec, which aims to be a leading online trading brokerage, has now doubled its client base to 8,000 (half of whom trade online) over the last 12 months and is now starting to harness the retail distribution capability of its parent Metrobank.—Doris C. Dumlao

East West rebranding

Gotianun-led East West Bank, which is aiming for a bigger share of the local consumer banking market, is undertaking a fresh rebranding, which will soon see the brand marks in its branches changed to a new one conveying the bank’s new tagline: “Your Dream Our Focus.”

In a recent letter to depositors, EWB chairman Jonathan Gotianun and president Antonio Moncupa Jr. said the new brand mark was created from two arrows—or “chevrons”—representing east and west. Fusing these arrows results in synergy while the movement signified by the arrows represents progress.

“The solid core of our logo, which is in the shape of a diamond, symbolizes the value that we create in the lives of our clients through our products and services,” Gotianun and Moncupa said. The letter added that green, purple and magenta were chosen as the bank’s new corporate colors “primarily for their uniqueness in the banking industry as well as the enthusiasm and out-of-the-box thinking that these shades denote.”—Doris C. Dumlao

Like father, like son

Real estate executive Mario Oreta has a full plate nowadays. Having filled up the former eyesore that is now the gleaming metallic blue Alphaland Southgate Tower on the corner of Edsa and Pasong Tamo Extension, the businessman is busy breaking ground on other real estate projects of the controversial-of-late Roberto Ongpin.

But he’s never too busy to mentor his son, Quinto—the husband of TV personality Maiki Oreta—on their family’s growing real estate business.

Quinto heads residential property developer Major Homes Inc., which recently turned over the first unit of its flagship project called Mondavi 1 at Monteluce in Silang, Cavite, (other phases are now being constructed, in full swing).

Will the son rise up to the dad’s stature? Time will tell.—Daxim L. Lucas

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