BIZ BUZZ: Goal: A real PH unicorn

DoubleDragon Corp. of businessmen Egdar “Injap” Sia II and Tony Tan Caktiong will be ready to open the doors of its Hotel 101-Niseko in Hokkaido, Japan, in a little over two years, with the billionaire duo planning to break ground on the project by the first quarter of 2023.

To this end, Biz Buzz learned that the property firm has already tapped one of the top five contractors in the northern Japanese province to build the hotel.

At present, DoubleDragon is completing regulatory permits before it starts construction, during which it will also immediately commence preselling activities for the Hotel 101 units.

It will open by mid 2025, and is expected to achieve full occupancy by the winter season of that year—a very realistic prospect given the popularity with tourists of Niseko, reputed for having some of the best snow for skiing (or snowboarding, for the younger set) in the world.

Sia has long said that this project will serve as the jump off point for Hotel 101’s overseas expansion, and that Hotel 101 is one of the few Philippine business models and brands that is “exportable.”

In fact, we hear that the hush-hush internal goal is to eventually bring the planned international Hotel 101 to a market value that will be about a fourth of industry pioneer AirBnb. And how much is AirBnB worth? A staggering $59 billion. Whoa.

—Daxim L. Lucas

Changing of the guard

After five years at the helm of ING Bank N.V. Manila, banking and capital market veteran Hans Sicat is ready for a new adventure.

We heard that Jun Palanca—a former expat who had spent more than 20 years in Singapore and Hong Kong working at Merrill Lynch and then Sumitomo Mitsui—is taking Sicat’s place. It’s not expected to be a difficult transition; Palanca was appointed ING Manila’s head of wholesale banking last May.

Palanca is no stranger to ING as he is a returning executive. He had worked as director of syndication at ING from 1996 to 2006. His appointment as the new country chief has been announced internally but not yet to the general public.

As to where Sicat is off to, we heard at least two options on the table, one as president of Philippine National Bank, which has been actively looking for a new chief since Wick Veloso joined the Government Service Insurance System.

But the more likely option, we hear, is that Sicat will join the private equity space. He is being recruited to head the operations of Crescent Point in the Philippines.

The portfolio of Crescent Point includes local companies such as Del Monte Philippines, Axelum Resources, LBC and privately held Esquire Financing Inc.

As the former president of the Philippine Stock Exchange and a long-time investment banker at Citigroup before that, Sicat knows which local companies are ripe for external funding. He can definitely help Crescent Point pick up bargains in this part of the world.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Unscrupulous solicitations

The government advised the public over deceitful people using the Department of Energy (DOE) to solicit money for so-called projects or programs it is not aware of.

In an advisory, the DOE said they have received reports about “unscrupulous individuals” using their office to ask “for donations/solicitations for certain projects, events or programs to extort money or gain favors.”

Government agencies are, of course, mandated to comply with the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, which means they are prohibited from soliciting or accepting “any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of monetary value” in the course of their official duties.Besides that, the DOE’s hands are already full addressing all the pressing issues hounding the Philippine energy sector, particularly the availability of power supply to tide the country through 2023. It earlier flagged a “difficult” power supply situation next year.

— Jordeene B. Lagare

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