Goldilocks abandons the Three Bears

The classic tale of Goldilocks and three bears of varying sizes remains relevant to this day—and not only because it teaches the importance of boundaries.

In the Philippines, Goldilocks Bakeshop Inc. is already well-established in its own right, but it has also dabbled in a fairytale of its own kind, although with a different set of bears.

Goldilocks previously held a 35-percent equity stake in Three Bears Group Holdings, a local firm established in 2020 and whose portfolio includes Domino’s Pizza.

READ: BIZ BUZZ: Guess who’s coming to PH?

But by 2024, Goldilocks officially left Three Bears—much like how the classic story ended.

SM Investments Corp., which owns 64.1 percent of Goldilocks, confirmed to Biz Buzz on Monday that the bakeshop chain undertook the private transaction last year, although other details were not disclosed.

Based on the conglomerate’s 2024 annual report, its divestment from both Three Bears and the now private Premium Leisure Corp. resulted in an impairment reversal of P84 million.

Let’s hope that this brings good luck to Goldilocks and its nearly 1,000 stores—and not actual cranky bears grumbling about stolen porridge. —Meg J. Adonis

Beep welcomes 4th chief

The company behind the Beep cards you tap to pay for train rides has implemented a leadership transition.

AF Payments Inc., a consortium comprising Ayala and First Pacific group of companies, announced the appointment of Remigio “Jojo” Carpio Jr. as its fourth president and CEO.

He replaced Jonathan Juan Moreno, who steered the company “through a transformative period of growth, innovation and expanded partnerships in the mobility space.”

Carpio joined the company as a service delivery lead in 2017. He also worked as head of rail services and special projects, chief rail operations officers and chief operating officer.

“I envision that future to be continuously powered by smart mobility, inclusive innovation and a commitment to creating lasting impact for the communities we serve,” Carpio said. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Meralco hits back at DOE exec

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), armed with a fresh 25-year franchise extension, called out an energy official for claiming its delayed power supply deal has allegedly led to higher rates at the spot market.

In a lengthy statement, the power distributor backed by billionaire Manuel V. Pangilinan dismissed the points raised by Department of Energy (DOE) assistant secretary Mario Marasigan in a recent briefing as “utterly untrue.”

“It is lamentable that a high-ranking DOE official speaks out of turn and makes statements that are false and misleading,” the company said.

The energy giant said the “obvious and main cause” for spiking prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) was the insufficient supply to the grid, stressing that the scarcity won’t be fixed even if the commissioning of Excellent Energy Resources Inc. (Eeri) were implemented on time.

Although the grid has welcomed new capacities from solar projects, Meralco said Luzon “has not had any large new or greenfield baseload plant since 2002,” with many of the existing facilities now suffering from aging and forced outages.

It once again slammed Marasigan for being tone-deaf to “the magnitude of the problem caused by the lack of new power plants…”

Meralco said that instead of pinning the blame on its delayed supply pact with Eeri, the government should focus on enticing more investments in new power plants.

Eeri is supposed to start delivering energy to Meralco in December 2024, but due to fuel supply issues and the completion of its final unit, full commercial operations were pushed back to May.

Delays in regulatory approvals of needed power deals also “significantly contribute to supply deficiency and an increase in generation cost,” it added.

The group maintained that its competitive bidding process was in accordance to government rules.

Marasigan, meanwhile, did not respond to Bizz Buzz when asked for a reaction. —Lisbet Esmael