Converge’s Uy embraces the Maroons

Tech tycoon Dennis Anthony Uy of Pampanga, one of the key supporters of the UP Fighting Maroons, could just be the newest lucky charm of the premier state university.

Uy has been supporting the UP Men’s Basketball Team (MBT) for several years, but last Sunday night was his first time to watch the Fighting Maroons in action—and just in time to see the team dislodge De La Salle University and regain the much-coveted UAAP championship.

The Converge founder said he would continue to support UP, and not just in basketball. The tycoon is also helping the UP baseball team and is now working on a new sponsorship package for the UP women’s volleyball team as well.

Beyond sports development, Uy is also hatching a technology partnership with UP Diliman College of Engineering.

Specifically, Uy wants to give UP a “slice” of the cloud computing infrastructure that his group has already built, to accelerate UP’s development of cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

“We want to develop the ecosystem,” he said.

“Because infrastructure is expensive, I’ll be the one to build,” he said.

Uy said he had already met with UP president Angelo Jimenez to discuss the forthcoming tech partnership and is looking forward to finalizing the deal soon. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

… Wait, there’s more on Uy

As far as Uy is concerned, his P29.82-billion unsolicited proposal to operate, maintain and upgrade the country’s air traffic control system is still on the table.

Uy, in an interview on Monday in Pasig, was puzzled as to why the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center of the Philippines earlier disclosed his project’s rejection. He said that the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap)—the concerned agency—should be the one telling them about the result of the evaluation.

But he said they have been talking with Caap about the deal, which means the project can still be realized.

In fact, Comclark Network and Technology Corp. is bringing in two Spanish firms with expertise in air navigation—Enaire and Indra Group—to prove their technical capability going into this project.

“We have the best technology partner,” Uy said.

So.. a simple case of miscommunication? Abangan.—Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Real estate next for Ferronoux?

Much is still left unsaid about Ferronoux Holdings Inc., which has been a shell company since 2015, and its partnership with so-called Themis Group Corp.

But investors learned on Monday that Cosiquien-led Ferronoux plans to venture into real estate after apparently not hitting the mark as a financing firm nearly a decade ago.

In a stock exchange filing, Ferronoux said Themis’ P80-million investment via private placement would be used to support its operations as well as fund other costs in “evaluating opportunities for the company.”

While we initially had no idea about Themis, Ferronoux finally gave us something to chew on.

According to Ferronoux, Themis was incorporated on Jan. 10, 2024, and is primarily engaged in property.

“[Ferronoux] is geared toward advancing its business into real property development by undertaking strategic initiatives aimed at establishing presence in the real estate sector,” the company said in its disclosure.

Let’s see if this deal yields good results and finally jolts Ferronoux back to life. —Meg J. Adonis