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Young artists’ perspectives


THE FIGURE of a suffocated god of harvest; a self-portrait of an artist; the picture of a blindfolded man; and an upside down reflection of a woman all triumphed at the 51st Shell National Student Art Competition (NSAC).
“Appreciation for the visual arts in the country has grown over the years, with more people being drawn into art collection. This landscape is promising for budding Filipino visual artists who now have a thriving market for their artworks. As a platform for launching the careers of local artists, the Shell National Student Art Competition (NSAC) promotes the cultivation of the Filipino youth’s creativity and skill to world-class standards,” Cesar G. Romero, country chairman of Shell companies in the Philippines, wrote in the competition catalogue.
Pilipinas Shell launched the Shell National Student Art Competition (NSAC) in 1951 as a search for art for a calendar. It grew to become one of the most anticipated art competitions as through the years it launched the careers of some of the country’s top artists including those of National Artists Jose Joya, Ang Kiukok, and Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera.
THE WINNING PIECES
On its 51st year, the art competition — with the theme “Perspective” — received 987 entries from 46 participating schools. The young artists expressed their visions and aspirations for the future in their works. The competition has four categories: digital fine arts, sculpture, oil/acrylic painting, and watercolor.
Patricia M. Mangahas from Far Eastern University, the first place winner in the digital fine arts category, drew a self-portrait titled I.C.U. in which her face was partially covered by shards. Ms. Mangahas said that it is reflective of her self-perception. “I only see the perspective of others,” she told BusinessWorld of her work shortly after the awarding ceremonies on Nov. 12 at the Ayala Museum. She said that it was a challenge for her to create a perspective of herself and her surroundings.
Lorebert M. Comision’s LODI, a figure of a bulul (an Ifugao granary god) wearing an oxygen mask and carrying the burden of a city at the back of its head, won first place in the sculpture category. “Many people have the idea of a city as a sign of progress. But while the city progresses, many suffer of the effects it has on nature,” the Adventist University of the Philippines student explained in a mixture of English and Filipino.
Almario D. Tangalin’s Upside Down won first place in the oil/acrylic painting category. The piece by the Navotas Polytechnic College student depicts an upside reflection of a woman. “Sometimes our society depends on the physical aspect of the person only,” he said of his work, adding that it also reflects how he tries to look at things fairly.
Michael Jay D. Ramos of Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology, took first place in watercolor for Retrospective, an image of a young man’s head blindfolded by a ribbon with foliage growing out of the side of his neck.
The second and third place winning pieces are: Coming by Charles Bryan A. Alba and The Barkada Never Goes Away by Azriel T. Domingo in the digital fine arts category; Building One Nation by Harlem C. Sunga and Infinity by Joegan G. Espina in the sculpture category; Magkakaiba Pero Magkakapareha by Joshua D. Villena and Hopscotch for Life by Bernice Michaella M. Cruz in the watercolor category; and The Grid of Progress by Gyles Maverick O. Abac and Tomorrow’s Fool by John Michael E. Pujante in the oil/acrylic category.
“It has been an honor and privilege for Shell in the Philippines to provide these great talents a channel to harness their creative excellence and contribute in establishing a rewarding career in arts. Inspired by these achievements, Shell continues to look forward to fueling the development of student artists from all over the country by enabling them to express their insights and viewpoints through brilliant masterpieces,” Mr. Romero wrote. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

DICT, China Telecom sign deal for submarine cable

By Denise A. Valdez, Reporter
THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Tuesday signed a letter of intent with China Telecommunications Corp. that will allow it to use the government’s cable landing facilities to roll out its submarine cable, which is expected to help improve internet speeds in the country.
DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. said in a phone call after the signing ceremony that the project is expected to benefit the government’s national broadband plan and free Wi-Fi project.
“The letter of intent is on how China Telecom can come up with its submarine cable. There’ll be cable landing facilities in the Philippines. Initially we’re thinking of using the cable landing station that we have an agreement with Facebook, so they can start (testing) the feasibility of using that, or whether they will make their own cable landing station. This will help our national broadband plan and of course our free Wi-Fi,” he said.
Mr. Rio noted the signing of the letter of intent is just one of the phases it will have to go through before they sign a memorandum of agreement.
China Telecom is part of the Mislatel Consortium which was named new major telco player on Monday, joined by Dennis A. Uy’s Udenna Corp. and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., and their franchise holder Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. (Mislatel).
The group said in a statement China Telecom’s international submarine cable facility will use optical fiber technology capable of handling signal, digital data, telephone and internet traffic. This underwater cable will directly connect the Philippines to Hong Kong and United States.
“With this submarine broadband infrastructure, DICT in cooperation with China Telecommunications hopes to ease up traffic and speed up internet connectivity, making it more accessible, reliable and affordable for more Filipinos,” it said.
Aside from the letter of intent the DICT signed with China Telecom, the Philippine government is also signing a memorandum of agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) — DICT’s counterpart agency in China. Mr. Rio said the deal will be for the cooperation and exchange in the fields of ICT and telecommunications in general.
FOURTH TELCO?
Meanwhile, DICT Undersecretary Monchito B. Ibrahim said on Tuesday that bidding for another major telco to compete with PLDT, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc. is still “a possibility.”
“We’re not limiting it to the third telco. The only thing that’s limiting us is actually the amount of frequencies that we have available… We have learned our lessons from how we did it before, where we ended up with just two players. We don’t want a repeat of that,” he said during a luncheon meeting with the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.
The DICT, through its attached agency National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has allotted radio frequency bands of 700 megahertz (MHz), 2100 MHz, 2000 MHz, 2.5 gigahertz (GHz), 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz for the new major telco player.
Mr. Ibrahim said the DICT expects to take back more frequencies soon as it currently mulls the acquisition of unused and underused frequencies owned by small telco players.
“If we have enough frequencies, we’ll allow a fourth telco, a fifth telco. We will do that. We intend to also come up with a policy that will tell the existing frequency holders who are hoarding these frequencies… that if they’re not able to use it in the next five years, government will take it back,” he said.
Mr. Rio had told reporters before that they are studying increasing the spectrum user fee to push telco operators that do not maximize their frequency bands to turn it over to the government.

Imelda will be invited to the CCP’s 50th anniversary

IF IMELDA MARCOS is still not behind bars next year, she will probably be attending the 50th anniversary celebration of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), a project she initiated.
During a press conference on Nov. 16, CCP chairperson Margie Moran-Floirendo answered “yes” when asked if she’d invited Mrs. Marcos to the celebration, adding that the institution would invite her and the other founding members as well.
The CCP has a jam-packed calendar of activities lined up for the anniversary in 2019. Among these is the opening of the Blackbox Theater — its official name is Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez — which supposed to open last year but whose opening was postponed. The theater — the first edifice to be built in the CCP Complex in years — will have a soft opening some time in February or March and will finally officially open on Oct. 4.
CCP artistic director Chris Millado explained that the postponement was caused by permit security issues and the realization that one needs the right connections to expedite the project.
The Blackbox Theater will show experimental and contemporary shows for “adventurous ideas, adventurous collaboration, and adventurous audiences,” said Mr. Millado during the press conference at the CCP Lobby.
The Blackbox will also boost the CCP’s numbers for audience attendance and shows. For 2017-2018, CCP presented 980 shows onsite, off-site, and on online/live stream media.
Although the data is still incomplete, Mr. Millado said that 480,000 people attended events which is only 60% of the potential target audience. Ms. Floreindo said the CCP is “expanding its reach to embrace a larger part of the metropolis” and with hope reach one million attendees.
Through Ms. Floreindo’s initiative and connections, the CCP has been talking to the Department of Tourism and Tourism Promotions Board to include the CCP and its cultural activities as part of the country’s tourism itineraries, both for local and international visitors.
The annual Cinemalaya and Virgin Labfest, meanwhile, will also expand their scope to reach audiences in the provinces. Virgin Labfest will be staged in Cagayan de Oro in 2019 and in Siliman, Dumaguete in 2020. Cinemalaya hopes to follow suit.
For the 50th anniversary, the institution will also have “CCP Libre: 50 free shows at the CCP” to encourage people to come and see the arts. There has been no announcement yet on what the shows are.
As a reaction to the times, the CCP will hold for the first time an “Arts and Social Media Festival” in October where bloggers, traditional media, influencers, and public relation specialists will converge to talk and exchange thoughts about the arts. Two anniversary shows will bookend the 50th anniversary celebrations, with gala fund-raising shows in September 2019 and 2020. There was no announcement on what the shows will be.
The CCP will also publish anniversary publications including a photographic almanac about the history and contributions of the CCP in the Philippine history.
With many activities in the pipeline, the CCP was given a “milestone budget” to fund its events next year, but in the long run, the CCP will engage in more private partnerships to sustain the plans, said Mr. Millado. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

DMWAI reports brisk sales of MidPark Towers

D.M. WENCESLAO & Associates, Inc. (DMWAI) sold P1.2 billion worth of residential units from MidPark Towers on Tuesday, driven by the demand for more residential spaces in the Bay Area.
The listed property and construction firm unveiled its second residential project, which is being undertaken by wholly-owned subsidiary Aseana Residential Holdings Corp.
“The successful reception of the MidPark Towers is a demonstration of our customers’ growing confidence in our ability to deliver quality residential products,” DMWAI Chief Executive Officer Delfin Angelo C. Wenceslao said in a statement.
MidPark Towers consists of four 15-storey buildings with units ranging from 36-square meter (sq.m.) studio to 108-sq.m. three-bedroom units. The residential complex is located within Aseana City, DMWAI’s mixed-use estate in Parañaque City.
“MidPark homeowners want to live in a walkable and well-connected progressive community. They look for a combination of public spaces, innovative entertainment and retail concepts and an environment that is both pedestrian-friendly and transit- oriented,” DMWAI said.
The company noted that it will have the benefit of standing close to Ayala Malls Bay Area, set to be completed in the next couple of years. It is also about two to five kilometers from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the recently inaugurated Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange.
DMWAI earlier said it plans to spend P12 billion over the next five years for Aseana City, part of which will finance three residential projects with a total saleable area of 88,000 sq.m.
Aside from residential projects, the company will also build six commercial developments spanning 280,000 sq.m. of leasable space.
DMWAI recorded a 31% drop to P524.73 million in attributable profit during the third quarter of 2018, following a 41% decline in revenues to P583 million. On a nine-month basis, the company’s attributable profit managed to rise 4% to P1.49 billion, despite revenues falling by a third to P1.78 billion.
Shares in DMWAI ended flat at P7.60 each at the stock exchange on Tuesday. — Arra B. Francia

On being a Filipino-Chinese artist

VISUAL ARTIST Hau Chiok delivered his opening speech for his exhibition Coalescences: 60 years of Hau Chiok in Fukienese.
For the approximately five minutes that the artist was talking, this writer was puzzling over what he could be saying, which brought several questions to mind: Was National Artist F. Sionil Jose right when he said that Filipino-Chinese would still pledge allegiance to China if a revolution would happen? Is Filipino-ness measured by one’s skills in speaking Filipino? Or is it measured by how much one loves the country? How do we measure something intangible?
Mr. Chiok, a second generation Filipino-Chinese, grew up in Binondo and lived there for 50 years. He was a Filipino citizen, but after he and his family moved to Canada 10 years ago, he became a Canadian citizen.
The artist can understand Tagalog but can barely speak it. “Well, if you lived in Binondo, you’ll know that you don’t need to learn Tagalog,” Sy Chiu Hua, the artist’s wife who acts as his interpreter, told BusinessWorld.
Mr. Chiok butted into our conversation, “Mahina ’yung ano ko [Tagalog].” (“My Tagalog is not good.”)
Still, he talked in Filipino about some of his paintings on view at the exhibition.
Some of his ink on paper works showed the Chinatown neighborhood he had grown up in. For example, he depicts Binondo church with a line of jeepneys, tricycles, pedicabs, and kalesas (horse-drawn carriages) waiting outside. In others he ventures outside Binondo — one painting focuses on a Carabao Festival in Bulacan; and one painting of bayanihan (neighborly cooperation) in the province shows all the past Philippine presidents, from Emilio Aguinaldo to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, carrying a nipa hut to a new location.
The exhibition features over 100 ink on paper paintings, more than half of them showing traditional Chinese themes, compositions, and style philosophy. Mr. Chiok, after all, is a trained artist from the Lingnam School of Painting, which is a modern approach to Chinese painting that marries Japanese and Western themes, techniques, and ideas. This technique that uses ink and brush showed the artist’s control of pressure and speed of his brush.
Many paintings feature flowers, fruits, and insects, and sometimes incorporate Chinese calligraphy.
The title of the exhibition, Coalescences, perfectly captures the artist’s combination of sensibilities, skills, and backgrounds.
“We stayed for a long time and we developed a love for the country. It’s immaterial to say that I grew up here for more than 50 years, I won’t love it. He painted a lot of Filipino sceneries and culture. He wanted to stress it in his speech that the three countries developed him,” said Mrs. Chiok, adding that anyone who says Filipino-Chinese are not Filipino at heart were “oversimplifying” their remarks.
“You cannot put one hat and apply it for all people,” she said. “We can only say that the places that you stay in will make you what you are. In his speech, he tried to say that ‘all the three countries nurtured me, and I derived inspiration from all the three countries’,” said Mrs. Chiok.
The husband and wife were both students of the Lingnam School of Painting where they learned brush painting and finger painting together. Four of the couple’s collaborative paintings are part of the exhibition.
“I started the painting, and he finished the composition or vice versa. We compromise. We’ve been together for so long, it’s almost unconscious na. It will come in harmony, parang work of one person,” said Mrs. Chiok.
The exhibit is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila until Jan. 15. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

PHL bond market’s growth slows in Q3

By Karl Angelo N. Vidal, Reporter
THE LOCAL bond market grew at a slower pace in the third quarter as yields spiked due to concerns over elevated inflation and expectations of further monetary policy tightening here and in the United States, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.
In its latest Asia Bond Monitor report, the multilateral lender said the peso-denominated bond market grew 0.9% quarter-on-quarter in September, slower than the 2.6% increase in the April to June period.
Outstanding local currency debt papers amounted to P5.792 trillion ($107 billion) as of end-September, 11.2% higher from the P5.21 trillion ($102 billion) logged in the same quarter a year ago.
Broken down, the bulk or nearly 80% of the amount were borrowed by the government totalling P4.593 trillion, while corporate bonds stood at P1.198 trillion.
State borrowings grew marginally by 0.04% from the previous quarter, supported by the 15.3% quarter-on-quarter growth in Treasury bills (T-bill) issuances as the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) awarded most of the short-dated papers in its weekly auctions.
However, this was partially offset by the 1.2% decline in Treasury bonds (T-bond) due to maturing seven-year papers and very few successful bond offerings.
During the period, the government has issued P215.8 billion, down 42.6% from P376.2 billion tallied in the second quarter due to a high base from the issuance of retail Treasury bonds in June, as well as a number of unsuccessful government security auctions last quarter.
Meanwhile, peso-denominated corporate papers grew 4.3% in the third quarter from the April-June period, led by the banking sector with P342.5 billion, accounting for 28.6% of the total.
This was followed by property companies with P340.1 billion or 28.4%, and holding firms with P257.6 billion or 21.5% of the total.
According to the report, yields on Philippine local currency bonds of all tenors jumped an average of 189 basis points (bp) between Aug. 31 and Oct. 15.
The jump in interest rates, ADB said, was spurred by “concerns over high inflation and expectations of additional policy rate hikes before the end of the year from both the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the US Federal Reserve.”
“Given these expectations, investors preferred short-term tenors over long-term tenors,” the lender said, adding that this led to frequent rejections made by the BTr during bond auctions as market players sought for rates higher than expected.
Inflation continued to soar in the third quarter, prompting the BSP to revise its full-year inflation forecast during its September meeting to 4.9% from the previous 4.5%.
During the same meeting, the central bank increased its benchmark rates by another 50 bps to arrest inflation expectations.
The monetary authority has tightened its policy rates by a cumulative 175 bps since May following its 25-bp hike last week.
The Philippines remained as the second-smallest bond market across emerging East Asia only next to Vietnam’s $53-billion debt burden. In contrast, the biggest issuers as of September were China ($9.195 trillion), South Korea ($2.005 trillion), and Thailand ($377 billion).
Meanwhile, the peso bond market took a modest 34.6% share of gross domestic product, compared with South Korea’s 127%, Malaysia’s 96.7% and Singapore’s 86.7%.

Christie’s tops Sotheby’s in monster auction week

CHRISTIE’S beat out rival Sotheby’s in a billion-dollar week for both auction houses, thanks in part to eight-figure sales by bold-faced artists.
Christie’s sold $1.1 billion in art this past week, while Sotheby’s moved $835 million of art, plus more in jewelry and watches, according to press releases from both companies.
The Christie’s haul was padded by the $90.3 million sale of David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) — who eclipsed Jeff Koons as the most expensive living artist to sell at auction. A new record for American art was also set by the company with the $92 million sale of Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey.
Billionaire currency trader Joe Lewis was the seller of the Hockney. The Hopper came from the collection of deceased businessman Barney A. Ebsworth. The buyers weren’t disclosed.
The highlight at Sotheby’s was the sale of a pearl and diamond necklace once owned by Marie Antoinette. The jewels sold for $36.2 million. The auction house said it’s had a 15% increase over last year in sales of impressionist, modern and contemporary works.
Phillips, a smaller auction house, announced $88.5 million of sales, with works from Joan Miro, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat bringing in the largest sums. — Bloomberg

IRC’s name change gets SEC go signal

IRC Properties, Inc. has secured approval to change its core interests to infrastructure and real estate, alongside changing its corporate name to Philippine Infradev Holdings, Inc.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Tuesday, IRC said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the amendments to its Articles of Incorporation.
The listed firm’s primary purpose now states in part that it will invest in securities or firms that primarily engage in “acquisition, reclamation, development or exploitation of lands for the purpose of converting and developing said lands to integrated residential, industrial, or commercial neighborhoods, economic zones, subdivision or establishments.”
It has also extended its investments to companies that are generally “engaged in real estate and infrastructure development business in all its forms…”
The firm led by businessman Antonio L. Tiu said the amendments will allow it to expand its business operations to include infrastructure and real estate projects. Incorporated in 1975, IRC originally engaged in exploration activities in Southern Mindanao and the Sulu Sea areas before switching to real estate.
The change in name and primary purpose comes ahead of the company’s construction of its proposed $3.7-billion Makati Mass Transport System.
IRC’s consortium with Chinese partners Greenland Holdings Group, Jiangsu Provincial Construction Group Co. Ltd., Holdings Ltd., and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd., received the go signal from Makati City’s Public-Private Partnership Committee to proceed with the 11-kilometer subway last month.
The project will consist of eight to 10 underground stations in key areas such as Ayala Avenue, Makati City Hall, Poblacion Heritage Site, University of Makati, and Ospital ng Makati. It is expected to have a capacity of 700,000 passengers per day.
The subway can also be interlinked with other mass transport systems such as the Metro Rail Transit Line 3, the Pasig River ferry, and the proposed Metro Manila Mega Subway.
The IRC-led consortium looks to break ground for the project in December, with target completion on 2025.
IRC has incorporated a wholly owned unit named Alternative Metro Transport System, Inc. to handle its mass transportation projects.
At the same time, the company is also changing the name of its wholly owned subsidiary Interport Development Corp. to Greater East Metro Development Corp., alongside a change in directors and officers, and an increase in capitalization.
IRC’s attributable profit dropped by 95% to P4.3 million in the first nine months of 2018, after it recorded an attributable loss of P21.45 million in the third quarter alone. Revenues for the nine-month period reached P143.04 million.
Shares in IRC climbed 1.65% or four centavos to close at P2.46 each at the stock exchange on Tuesday. — Arra B. Francia

BSP plans to sanction lenders that fail to join digital clearing houses

By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Senior Reporter
THE CENTRAL BANK is looking to sanction lenders that will fail to join the industry’s digital clearing houses by end-November, possibly via a ban on offering new products.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said the regulator is currently studying the set of sanctions they will impose on any banks that will not sign up for the industry’s two automated clearing houses (ACHs) for digital payments, which is mandatory by Nov. 30.
Launched in April, InstaPay is a digital clearing house which processes real-time transfers worth P50,000 or lower across accounts or e-wallets from different banks or service providers. Money is sent and credited to a destination account in a matter of seconds or minutes.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Electronic Fund Transfer System and Operations Network (PESONet) — which compiles all interbank fund transfer instructions, runs a batch process, and credits the amount to the receiver by the end of the banking day — has been seeing steady usage since its launch in November last year.
The BSP has required all banks and other financial firms offering electronic and mobile banking services to get onboard the two ACHs which process online payments.
The central bank is eyeing to raise the share of e-payments to 20% of all transactions in the Philippines by 2020, coming from a measly 1% share back in 2013.
Already, central bank officials have noted rapid growth in the use of online payments, with InstaPay volumes seeing “exponential” increase over the past few months.
Although the penalties are yet to be finalized, Ms. Fonacier said “there will definitely be” sanctions imposed on banks unable to join the PESONet and InstaPay platforms by month’s end.
“It’s not monetary, it’s probably more of constricting some activities — kapag wala kang ganun (if you don’t have that), you can’t afford to provide other products or even some services,” the BSP official said.
This, in turn, is expected to force lenders to already get aboard the ACHs as being prohibited to offer new products would hurt their businesses more and “restrict growth.” However, Ms. Fonacier noted this track is not yet definite.
Weeks ahead of the deadline, Ms. Fonacier noted that most banks are ramping up their efforts to go digital, largely for them to keep up with competition.
Under the National Retail Payment System framework, the BSP targets to shift cash-heavy transactions to digital avenues, which is expected to broaden access to financial services and spur increased economic activity.
There are 46 lenders using PESONet as of end-September, according to BSP data.
InstaPay participants are fewer with only 18 firms able to send and receive across accounts as of that month, while 15 banks and e-money issuers are capable of receiving funds only.

BPI raises P25B via bonds

BANK OF THE Philippine Islands (BPI) has priced its peso-denominated bond offer worth P25 billion, which will support its expansion plans and diversify funding sources.
In a regulatory filing Tuesday, the Ayala-led BPI said it raised P25 billion from the peso-denominated bond offer, higher than the initial guidance of P5 billion and the P15 billion announced last Oct. 17.
The fixed-rate notes carry a coupon of 6.797% per annum to be paid quarterly until March 2020, as they will mature in 1.25 years.
“The coupon represents a spread of 20 bps (basis points) over the interpolated 1.25 year [PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service] government benchmark rate, and is at the tight end of the spread range of 20 to 40 bps communicated to institutional investors during the institutional bookbuilding period,” the bank said in a statement.
The bonds will be issued and listed on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. on Dec. 6.
The offering marks the first tranche of the bank’s P50-billion bond and commercial paper program.
BPI said it decided to close the offer period on Nov. 19 — a day ahead of schedule — as the order book reached P38 billion while achieving at the tightest end on the pricing range.
Proceeds from the fund-raising activity will be used to support the bank’s growth objectives and expansion plans while diversifying its funding sources, it said.
This will also “address clients’ need for new investments with shorter tenors compared with the long-term negotiable certificates of deposits,” BPI said in the statement.
“We are very pleased by the strong response to our peso bond offering,” BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Cezar P. Consing was quoted as saying in the statement. “We are grateful that investors recognize our strong credit metrics and we are happy to meet their needs for innovative fixed income products.”
Lenders can now raise fresh funds through corporate bonds with greater ease as new rules do away with having to secure approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. recently raised P10 billion via fixed-rate bonds, part of its P100-billion bond and commercial paper program announced last month. This was the first ever bond issue by a bank since the central bank liberalized rules on lenders’ fund-raising activities.
In May, BPI completed a P50-billion rights offer, with the proceeds funding its business operations and expansion.
The bank also raised $600 million in August through a drawdown from its $2-billion medium-term note program, which it said was the largest issuance by a local lender in the offshore debt market.
The Ayala-led bank reported a P5.98-billion net profit in the third quarter on the back of the double-digit expansion of its net interest income.
BPI shares gained P1.80 or 2.03% to close at P90.50 apiece on Tuesday. — K.A.N. Vidal

PCC slaps fine on 2 steel firms

THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) approved Macsteel Global SARL B.V.’s (MacGlobal) acquisition of MSSA Investments’s stake in Macsteel International Holdings B.V., but slapped the companies with a more than P500,000 fine for its failure to notify the competition watchdog within the required period.
In a statement on Tuesday, the antitrust body said the merger of the steel firms was cleared because it was not seen as substantially lessening competition in the market.
In July, MacGlobal bought 50% of MSSA Investments B.V.’s shares in Macsteel International. MacGlobal is a subsidiary of Macsteel Holdings Luxembourg, while MSSA is an indirect subsidiary of Dutch steel and mining company ArcelorMittal S.A.
The PCC found in its review in October that “there are no substantial changes to the management and operations of Macsteel International and its subsidiaries after the buyout. Enough competitors were also present post-transaction.”
However, MacGlobal and MSSA could not escape the fine for violating the notification requirement.
“Under the PCC Rules of Merger Procedure, firms that notify beyond the 30-day period but before consummating the transaction are subjected to a fine of 1/2 of 1% of 1% of the value of transaction… [T]he fine imposed on MacGlobal-ArcelorMittal transaction amounted to P526,219.50,” the PCC said, without disclosing the transaction value.
MacGlobal and MSSA, the two companies behind the Macsteel International joint venture, have 45 days from Nov. 14 to settle its fine with the PCC. — Denise A. Valdez

Michelangelo buy sends waste manager’s shares soaring

A CHINESE former construction products company wants to offer anyone with a brokerage account a piece of a Michelangelo.
Shares in Yulong Eco-Materials Ltd. jumped as much as 47% after the company said it agreed to buy a Crucifixion painting for $75 million. The added market value that resulted, as much as $65 million from Friday’s close, came after the company said it plans to pay for the acquisition by issuing 7.5 million restricted shares valued at $10 per share — if the deal gets shareholder approval, and the painting passes an appraisal and has authentication documents.
That’s a big shift from Yulong’s prior business model, as a “vertically integrated manufacturer of eco-friendly building products and a construction waste management company located in the city of Pingdingshan in Henan Province, China.”
Now the company wants to issue stock to buy art, display its purchases, and “open the opportunity of shared ownership of its acquired masterpieces to anyone with a brokerage account.”
The Michelangelo deal follows the company’s 900% gain when it pivoted from bricks to a 61,500-carat gem: in October, Yulong bought the “Millennium Sapphire” for $50 million and said it would take the jewel on a world tour, as well as develop games and films. — Bloomberg

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