BIZ BUZZ: Gag order
When companies raise money from the capital market, it may be difficult to extract estimates from underwriters of how the offering had been received by investors, usually expressed as a multiple (i.e. 2x, 3x) of the base offer.
Following the Dito CME stock rights offering brouhaha, corporate regulators have advised underwriters and bookrunners that these investment bankers could no longer give any number, unless they are willing to immediately provide detailed reports.
And such reports are “a hassle to produce,” one banker said.
This gag order—albeit communicated only verbally— will apply to all equity raising activities: initial public offerings (IPO), stock rights offerings and follow-on offerings. (We’re reminded of a time long ago when bank treasurers were barred from speaking to media about their peso-dollar forecasts).
While the level of oversubscription offers a preview of investor support for a particular issuance, it doesn’t always guarantee an issuer’s strong performance post-listing.
Also, there are ways for underwriters to describe investor appetite on a particular issuance without stating the numbers.
In the case of the IPO of Citicore Energy REIT Corp. (CREIT), the first renewable energy-themed real estate investment trust, market demand was noted to be “very strong.”
As such, it looks like this gag order is something that the market can live with.
—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
Polaris rising
Not so long ago, taipan Ramon Ang promised that San Miguel Corp.’s P735-billion airport project in Bulacan would improve the economy of the province immediately north of Metro Manila and surrounding environs, thanks to the thousands of jobs it would generate and all the associated industries that would develop around the mega project.
Well, it looks like his promise is starting to come true even at this early stage of the development.
Biz Buzz learned that a new industrial estate is set to rise just a stone’s throw away from the site of the airport in Baliuag, Bulacan, across the North Luzon Expressway.
Dubbed Polaris Industrial Estates, the project is a 30-hectare state-of-the-art development strategically located along the highway that connects to NLEx and onto nearby Metro Manila.
The project is being developed by Ceasar Wongchuking as an offshoot of the Wongchuking family’s earlier success in setting up a logistics hub in nearby Guiguinto, Bulacan.
If that name sounds familiar, that’s because the family divested from the tobacco business just a few years ago, and has since been aggressively expanding in other areas of business including property development, logistics and farming, among others, while maintaining their patronage of sports teams.
The businessman’s idea is to offer modular warehousing services to tenants who may need logistical facilities that can be rapidly adjusted in size and configuration depending on their ever-changing business needs.
And of course, the main draw is that the facility will rise in a central location that is easily accessible to the planned Malolos-Clark Railway, Clark International Airport, Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the nearby New Manila International Airport of San Miguel Corp.
Leveraging off another San Miguel project—the Skyway Stage 3 tollway—Polaris is also readily accessible to and from Cavite and Laguna, while provinces to its north like Pampanga are just a few minutes away via NLEx.
The best part of the deal is that the property is in a site that is over 11 meters above sea level, which means that the annual flooding that plagues Bulacan will not affect the warehouses on the estate.
We’re told the developer also intends to allocate a small portion of the property for a commercial section fronting the highway, making it an interesting mixed use project.
The project is set to be launched before the end of the month and may be ready for initial operations before the year is out. That’s definitely good news for Bulacan and the surrounding areas.
—Daxim L. Lucas
Smart adjusting to Globe
It wasn’t just the financial analysts and stock market investors anticipating Globe Telecom’s recent release of earnings results.
Marketing teams at its rival Smart Communications were on alert, hoping to gain insights on whether their series of high-powered campaigns dented their competitor’s lead.
It barely did.
Globe’s mobile revenues were higher, data usage was up and the company even added more than 10 million subscribers for the year.
This was surely displeasing news to executives at PLDT-Smart, which assembled the biggest and most expensive cast of brand ambassadors over the past year.
From Korean superstars BTS, Crash Landing on You sweethearts Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin to Marvel’s Captain America aka Chris Evans to trumpet Smart’s goal to reclaim the No. 1 spot.
Their presence also advertised an even larger goal, that of Smart wanting to become a world-class brand.
Accounts differ on what could have been done better. The simple answer was Smart’s marketing teams were unsuccessful in harnessing and converting the full potential of their powerful brand endorsers into sales.
It seems even PLDT’s top brass has noticed and is changing tack. Recent advertising campaigns this year were more modest and humorous with the use of local influencers.
From big and global, Smart is going niche and targeted. Let’s see if this new strategy pays off.
