BIZ BUZZ: SBMA plot thickens
Yesterday, we talked about how the investor market is abuzz over the possible leadership changes at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
We also delved into how a rumored candidate to replace Jonathan Tan at the top post is short on credentials, to say the least.
A closer look, however, reveals more reasons to be concerned about how this supposed replacement will run SBMA if he does get tapped to replace Tan, who took over SBMA’s reins in April last year.
According to informed sources, this aspirant has a stake in a company that leases a big piece of property in Subic. But this lessor has supposedly been far behind on its payments, to the point that the arrears have accumulated to a jaw-dropping P1.3 billion.
And as if that were not enough, the errant company was said to have not fully implemented its promised development program, thus is now in the crosshairs of the current SBMA administration.
Given these, perhaps those in a position to decide on the fate of SBMA should spend more time studying their options, to make sure that they will do right by the majority and not favor the undeserving few. —Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Go steps down from CEB board
Tycoon Frederick Go has stepped down as a member of Cebu Pacific operator’s board of directors after being named the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs.
Prior to this, his resignation as CEO of Robinsons Land Corp., one of the country’s biggest property developers, was also announced.
The alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University received his appointment just last month.
Go became Cebu Air’s director on Aug. 1, 2007.
With his departure, David Gulliver Go will take over his seat at the board. The newly minted director is also the chief human resources officer of JG Summit Holdings Inc., the parent company of the budget carrier.
He completed his Masters in Business Administration from the Asian Institute of Management and has a doctorate from the Ritsumeikan University in Japan.
The changes in the CEB board are effective Jan. 8. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad
PSE trading halt fallout
A systems glitch that forced the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to halt trading for two hours recently might have cost a lot more than frustration for investors and market participants, if certain broker chatter is to be believed.
By much more, we’re referring to a potential P100 million market order from a foreign whale. The heavyweight investor apparently grew impatient waiting for the Philippines to open and decided to take their business to another country.
“The client just bought something in Thailand or Vietnam,” a broker told Biz Buzz.
After a few days, the PSE issued an explanation for the technical problem that occurred last Jan. 3.
It said stock market trading was halted from 9:32 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. after at least a third of brokers failed to connect to the Flextrade front-end order management system. This is the system that issues buy and sell orders to the PSE trading system.
The PSE further explained the main cause was due to the “iterative” account authentication steps related to the mobile trading app.
“The system is very security oriented so if a client doesn’t log in for so many days you have to go through this authentication process again. Maybe that’s why this usually happens after a long break,” a broker told Biz Buzz.
If it’s any consolation to the bourse’s management, the brokers we spoke to did not blame the PSE but felt that more fine tuning of the system was needed. Several of them have also reduced their use of Flextrade and partially switched to other vendors, but that was mainly after Flextrade significantly raised its fees last year.
In any case, the PSE said it was working on “further enhancements for deployment to prevent a recurrence of the issue”.
“PSE remains steadfast in its commitment to engage with all stakeholders and service providers towards continuously improving and future-proofing its products, systems, and services for the investing public,” the PSE said. — Miguel R. Camus
