Resigned or fired?

Interest among bankers in last weekend’s departure of banker Eugene Acevedo as president of Philippine National Bank remains high. And with that, talk about the “real” reason for his departure continues to grow (especially since no one ever believes the “official reason” that people put out in the public).

According to some of his critics, no less than taipan Lucio Tan (aka, “Kapitan”) was upset by the costs the bank had been incurring—many of which were allegedly made without “consultation” with higher authorities—under Acevedo as he tried to beef up its team of bankers, especially in the treasury department.

“He would make decisions to hire and promote people on his own, and this involved additional costs,” said one industry source, describing Acevedo’s maverick ways. “This, of course, did not sit well with the board.”

On the other hand, one “pro-Eugene” official hinted that the ex-Citibanker might have been asked by his then principals to sign off on a deal or transaction which he disagreed with for prudent purposes.

“He may have said ‘no’ to something they wanted to do,” the source said, adding that his perceived closeness to former Lucio Tan group director Gloria Tan-Climaco “did not help.”

Whatever the real reason is, Acevedo himself has vowed that he will be back on the scene soon enough. Abangan.  Daxim L. Lucas

You can take that to the bank

Members of the board of one of the Philippines’ biggest banks are reportedly going bananas—or in this case, coconuts—over a demand letter they received from a long-time client and her lawyer.

Banks receive demand letters all the time, and legal tussles are part of the territory, of course, but this particular one truly deserves attention.

Biz Buzz was recently shown a copy of the complaint and saw what appeared to be evidence that the bank honored a number of checks, amounting to more than a million pesos, that have long been stale.

In at least 17 instances, the bank debited more money from the client than the amount stated in the checks, ignoring glaring discrepancies in the amounts written in figures and words.

In nine instances, checks that had no payees indicated or had incomplete dates were also cleared.

And if these unsafe and unsound banking practices were not enough, more than P1 million in funds were allegedly debited from the account in question, without the knowledge and consent of the client.

What has gotten the board of directors in knots, of course, is that word of these transactions has begun to circulate.

If it can happen to one high profile client, can it happen to anyone?   Daxim L. Lucas

Easing incorporation

SETTING up a new business? Pretty soon, there will be 327 more offices around the country where entrepreneurs can file their incorporation papers, and many of them will be in the countryside.

But it doesn’t mean there will be an exponential growth in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s physical branches. Instead, the SEC will team up with Land Bank of the Philippines to launch a joint project where the state-owned bank will effectively be deputized to accept application papers for incorporation.

This will make it easier to set up new businesses since the SEC itself has only eight or so offices, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima yesterday said in a forum organized by The Asset.

Purisima said this was only a “stop gap” measure to ease doing business in the Philippines (currently ranked a pitiful 148th out of 183 economies in the latest global competitiveness survey of International Finance Corp.).

Purisima added that the ideal situation would be to do it anywhere using new technologies available in the market. More initiatives are underway to boost competitiveness.

After getting a series of sovereign credit upgrades, the Aquino administration, after all, aspires to jack up the country’s ranking in the annual IFC competitiveness survey to 50th by the end of P-Noy’s

term, according to Trade Secretary Greg

Domingo.  Doris C. Dumlao

Driving in the inside track

ACCORDING to sources close to the corridors of power, former Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. president Elizabeth Lee has the inside track in the race for the leadership of the Bureau of Customs.

To recall, Lee—who was also, until recently, head of Nissan distributor Universal Motors Corp.—resigned a few weeks ago from both high profile posts to consider other career options (as per her upbeat but cryptically worded resignation letter-cum-press statement).

Lee’s name as potential Customs head comes amid persistent talk that no less that President Aquino is dissatisfied with the performance of Customs Commissioner Lito Alvarez, the bureau’s better-than-average collection performance, notwithstanding.

Known for her prowess as a manager and businesswoman, Lee’s fans say she may have something else going for her: She is an eligible bachelorette, being one of the most attractive female faces in the local business community.

And the President is, of course, the nation’s number one eligible bachelor.  Daxim L. Lucas

Solving liquidity problems

LOCAL policymakers are faced with a liquidity conundrum.

They have to raise interest rates to fight off inflation. But doing so may result in large piles of cash accumulating in the central bank’s vaults—an unproductive use of resources when these may be used more productively to lend to borrowers or fund badly needed infrastructure projects.

As such, the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines—the umbrella organization of the country’s business journalists—will take a stab at solving the problem by hosting a gathering of experts who will try to put forward possible solutions to the puzzle.

Entitled “Awash in Cash: Making Liquidity Work for the Economy,” the forum will be held this morning at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City, and will bring together the collective expertise of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo, World Bank country director Bert Hofman, Citigroup country corporate officer Sanjiv Vohra, Standard Chartered Bank Asian research head Nick Kwan and BDO Capital president Ed Francisco.

With all this brainpower at work, a solution will surely be forthcoming.  Daxim L. Lucas

Back in the pipeline

RIDING the buoyant stock markets, Chinoy businessman Lucio Co’s Puregold Price Club Inc. will join the Philippine pipeline of initial public offerings by November, rekindling the plan to debut on the stock exchange originally targeted for March this year.

While the grocery chain has yet to file a revised prospectus, it has widened its army of underwriters, likely to ensure the success of this equity deal amid a still volatile external environment and stiff competition from other local equity issuers, some of which are scrambling to comply with the minimum public requirement of the Philippine Stock Exchange (with the deadline likewise set by November this year).

While it was earlier announced that HSBC Ltd. and BDO Capital & Investment Corp. will be its international and domestic lead managers, UBS and First Metro Investment Corp. have also been brought aboard.

The earlier plan was to raise P11.2 billion from the sale of primary and secondary shares for P16 a share, proceeds from which will be mostly used to expand its store network.

If the original framework is maintained, it will have around 36 percent of its stock held and traded by the public after the IPO.

Proceeds will be used to expand its store network in Luzon, which it plans to expand to 100 by yearend.  Doris C. Dumlao

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