BIZ BUZZ: Maharlika is going for gold
As the country’s sovereign wealth fund continues to explore potential investments, gold and copper mining has caught the eye of Maharlika managers.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, who also chairs the Maharlika Investment Corp., told Biz Buzz that several investments are under scrutiny.
“They’re talking about other energy projects in Mindoro, [and also] mining—Makilala Mines,” Recto said.
“We’re talking about many other things …”
READ: BIZ BUZZ: How much is too much? Recto on Maharlika execs’ salary
Makilala Mining Co. Inc. is a subsidiary of Australian Securities Exchange-listed Celsius Resources Ltd. Its flagship project is the Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog Copper-Gold Project located in the Cordillera Administrative Region, which also contains other key prospects in the pipeline for permit renewal.
Article continues after this advertisementThe project site, popularly known as Batong Buhay, is located within the ancestral domain of the Balatoc Tribe. It is about 43 aerial kilometers west-southwest of Tabuk City, the capital of Kalinga.
Article continues after this advertisementGold, historically a storer of value and a “safe haven” asset, continues to enjoy skyrocketing prices in the global market amid geopolitical uncertainties and stockpiling by central banks. Demand for copper is likewise robust, being a metal essential to build electric vehicles and renewable energy systems like solar panels and wind turbines in a world that’s in a rush to make that energy transition.
Most of all, the local regulatory environment has turned favorable now that the mining-averse Duterte regime is no longer in power.
But as we reported here earlier, what’s top of mind for Recto is the country’s electricity superhighway operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, which he prefers to be the very first investee company of Maharlika. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
Track your credit score
You might have heard about the Filipino startup called Lista, one of the fastest growing financial management apps in the country.
Apart from helping people track their finances, another key feature of Lista—an idea inspired by the sari-sari store experience—is to give users insights into their creditworthiness.
A healthy credit score, after all, is a powerful financial tool that influences everything from the interest rates that lenders offer and the credit lines they extend, to the decision to approve or reject a loan application.
For that reason, Lista announced that it has partnered with global insights firm TransUnion to harness the latter’s consumer borrowing database, which was compiled using its own scoring models to assess risk profiles and present a credit score and credit report.
That means all adult consumers in the Philippines can now request for their TransUnion credit score and report through the Lista mobile app, which is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
With greater access to credit seen speeding up the Philippines’ transition to an upper middle-income economy, such a tie-up couldn’t have come at a better time. —Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral
