Biz Buzz: The Greg Domingo ‘shakedown’

Apparently, Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo has been doing the rounds “shaking down” businessmen these last few weeks.

Or so some unscrupulous people would like to think.

Biz Buzz has learned that a number of “big businessmen” have received calls from people asking for money on the DTI chief’s behalf.

Often, the callers claim to be staffers at the Office of the Secretary or sometimes—in a truly brazen display of moxie—claim to be Domingo himself.

The funds are solicited allegedly for projects of the secretary or as a supposed deposit for favors from his office (the amount requested ranges from P20,000 to P40,000, and the “donors” are asked to wire the funds to specific money remittance centers).

At least two businessmen, we are told, have actually made payments. Tsk tsk.

Of course, Domingo is not the only Cabinet secretary whose name has been used in this scam, as previous editions have also tried to leverage off Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa or Secretary Ricky Carandang.

So all you potential victims out there, remember: Don’t believe these callers (because this is not how a real shakedown is done!).—Daxim L. Lucas

Roller coaster ride

Prior to its voluntary trading suspension on Tuesday (lifted within the same session at 11:45 a.m.), mining magnate Felipe Yap’s Lepanto had sizzled at the stock market as the market anticipated an upbeat gold drilling report by South African mining giant Gold Fields on the Far Southeast mining project in central Cordillera.

Lepanto “B” (open to foreign investors) shares also earlier benefited from a recent inclusion into MSCI’s small cap index.

But after a much-anticipated report by Gold Fields came out, the market dumped Lepanto stocks. Some dealers said the market chose to sell on news, noting that the latest report did not offer anything new and that the only difference was that Lepanto, for the first time, had effectively hyped it up simply by seeking voluntary trading suspension.

Those who are still upbeat on the stock, however, say the market has yet to fully digest the latest Gold Fields report, being über technical and all that. Behind all the jargon, one fund manager said the long and short of it was that the production potential of Far Southeast was two to three times bigger than what was originally expected. But as Lepanto stocks have already risen rapidly from the time of MSCI realignment, investors found an excuse to pocket gains Tuesday.

And while Lepanto was out of commission for most of the trading session, stock pundits instead gobbled up Zeus Holdings (another firm owned by Yap) and Manila Mining (a subsidiary of Lepanto) as proxies.

But reflecting the underlying play, Zeus ended flat while Manila Mining “A” and “B” shares reverted to negative territory at closing.—Doris C. Dumlao

Cash machines

As part of efforts to make banking transactions easier, Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands has deployed at its busiest branches a new generation of “cash deposit” machines that allow real-time crediting of cash deposits. BPI president Aurelio Montinola III said these machines look like regular ATMs but are really deposit-taking machines which—unlike the regular ATMs where the processing and crediting of deposits take time—can immediately accept cash. This eliminates the need to queue up before a bank teller.

Montinola said BPI was experimenting with such cash machines because based on its surveys, clients with a lot of cash—like mall vendors or service operators—would need to immediately channel the cash into their accounts. This, in turn, allows better management of cash flow that will hopefully translate to better productivity.

With a local branch network of 809 plus 15 overseas branches, BPI feels it has reached an optimal scale and that capital spending, henceforth, would focus on enhancing the use of technology and electronic banking channels as well as the renovation of existing branches.

About 65 percent of BPI’s banking transactions are now being done outside brick-and-mortar structures, whether through mobile, web-based or ATM platforms.—Doris C. Dumlao

The Chinese are coming

Remember the big fat contract that Globe Telecom had dangled to bidders for its network expansion a few months ago?

Well, the race has been decided. And the winner is … Huawei.

Yes, you heard it right. The giant telecommunications equipment manufacturer now holds the contract that Globe is banking its future on.

(The Ayala-controlled telco service provider recently announced that it would spend $790 million to boost its network over the next few years, and we understand Huawei will get a big slice of this pie.)

In fact, when this contract is completed, Globe’s network will run almost exclusively on Huawei equipment, which is known to be of equal quality to their Western counterparts, and also more “cost effective.”

But the other aspect of this story is what happened to the losing bidders.

It is widely known that multinational telco equipment suppliers operating in the Philippines maintain two sets of officers and staff—two country managers, two marketing teams, two operations teams—one for each rival telcos PLDT and Globe.

Globe’s decision to shift to “all Huawei” in the coming years means a significant number of officers and staff of these mainly European equipment makers will have to be “pink slipped.”

Despite this necessary pain, the development bodes well for the revitalized Globe, which is back in fighting form after languishing as a “strong second” in the industry for the last few years.

And before anyone goes knocking Huawei, remember that they’re now the biggest manufacturer of telco equipment in the world.—Daxim L. Lucas

Hazardous to one’s health

After being threatened by Senator Serge Osmeña with jail time if she doesn’t appear before the Senate’s hearing on the DBP loan controversy, Roberto Ongpin’s longtime secretary Josephine Manalo suffered a “heart condition” and was rushed to the Makati Medical Center on Monday.

Manalo, who is in her 60s, has served with Ongpin for over three decades and became a person of interest for Senator Osmeña after her name was found on the incorporation papers of some Ongpin companies involved in several DBP transactions (because Ongpin trusts her with corporate secrets, he said).

In the previous Senate hearing, both sides had agreed that Manalo would be quizzed away from the glare of the cameras and the public eye on account of her “frail health.”

Well, now she’s confined in Makati Med. Nice going, guys.—Daxim L. Lucas

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