Biz Buzz: Braving the storm

Fearing for the safety of guests who will fly from Manila, San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang (a.k.a. RSA) was almost tempted to call off the launch of its Caticlan airport rehabilitation project last Saturday due to bad weather conditions. After all, the guest of honor was P-Noy (President Aquino) himself. But since Malacañang itself decided the event was a go, the event did push through. P-Noy’s entourage included Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and incoming Transportation and Communications chief Mar Roxas.

Staying in Caticlan only for the brief program, P-Noy noted that he had no time to try Boracay’s famous Choriburger and Jonas’ milkshake because—while all other guests could relax on the famous white beaches of the island (it was sunny albeit windy in contrast to stormy Metro Manila)—he needed to wade into flooded communities near Tumana River in Marikina and Tullahan River in Malabon.

Meanwhile, P-Noy noted during his speech that RSA was among the first businessmen to throw support to his administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) program. RSA, for his part, has been telling reporters that SMC would help the government get the most value for its privatization and PPP-funded infrastructure projects by participating in all public auctions.—Doris C. Dumlao

MB race enters homestretch

With less than a week left in the six-year term of the current Monetary Board officials at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, things are finally moving with regard to the appointment process for the people who will replace the three vacancies that will open up come Friday.

According to our sources, current Monetary Board member Alfredo Antonio will most likely be reappointed by the Palace to a fresh term, thanks to his good showing in his current term.

Another member set to get the nod of President Aquino is former economic planning chief Felipe Medalla, who will bring his valuable knowledge to the policymaking board, especially at a time when there is need to balance keeping interest rates low enough to promote growth and keeping them high enough to cap inflationary pressures.

MB members make, on the average, about P200,000 a month (relatively low, from a banking industry perspective, but high when compared with other appointive government positions). More importantly, MB members have a fixed term and are not required to go through a congressional confirmation process. The downside? A ton of harassment suits from banks that regulators close down every now and then.

The big question on everybody’s mind, of course, is who the third and final Monetary Board slot will go to, given the highly coveted nature of the job. Other names mentioned for the job are current Development Bank of the Philippines president Francisco del Rosario and former BSP deputy governor Andy Suratos.

But the smart money is on current MB member Nelly Favis-Villafuerte getting a fresh six-year mandate, despite her husband, Luis, being a diehard GMA loyalist.

Other aspirants who want another crack at the prestigious post will just have to wait until the next vacancy occurs in 2014.—Daxim L. Lucas

That winning PBCom bid

The group of businessman Roberto V. Ongpin has so far kept mum about just exactly how much it had to pay to win the bid for Philippine Bank of Communications.

That mystery ends here, today. According to our sources, RVO’s ISM Communications Corp. submitted a bid of about 10 percent over the P4.5-billion floor price for the bank set by the state-owned Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (or as much as P4.9 billion).

That amount gives the group—which includes Ongpin’s nephew and right-hand man Eric Recto—control of 97 percent of the bank’s voting stock, replacing its longtime owners, the Luy, Nubla and Chung families.

Both Ongpin and Recto have, of course, landed on Forbes Magazine’s latest list of Filipino billionaires given the rising values of their stockholdings.

Expect them to revamp the way things are done at the 64-branch PBCom and shake things up a bit to make the bank a more dynamic player in the industry, starting with the hiring of a new bank president.—Daxim L. Lucas

Mining@Play

Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development, led by businessman Alfredo Ramos, has climbed in the last few months and the spike was most extraordinary prior to its trading suspension last week ahead of its announcement of the full takeover of Carmen Copper and a fresh fund-raising activity.

For quite some time, pundits have bet on this mining stock as the next takeover target of the Manuel V. Pangilinan-led First Pacific group, which is very bullish on mining opportunities through local platform Philex. But it seems that it is not MVP that will seal the deal. If the grapevine is correct, the prospective new investor in Atlas (which announced a $390-million fund-raising through a mix of debt and equity last week) is another foreign group and global private equity firm Blackstone may have something to do with it.

Shares of Philex, on the other hand, have surged to an all-time high due to factors not related to Atlas. Instead, investors are awed by the $22-billion estimated amount of copper and gold reserves at its Silangan project in Surigao del Norte.

In any case, the mining sector is widely expected to remain as the outperformer in the stock market this year.—Doris C. Dumlao

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