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The memory of Cats

COMPOSER Andrew Llyod Webber’s first memory of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was of his mother reading the poems to him at bedtime when he was six-years-old.

“It was in 1978 that I first thought about setting the poems to music, partly because I wanted to discover if I could write melodies to existing work,” Mr. Webber wrote in the playbill of Cats the Musical. “I began playing around with a more theatrical order of the poems but at no time did I think of turning them into a full blown musical, although I vaguely toyed with the idea of a companion piece to my Variations album, my first solo hit that I wrote for my cellist brother Julian and his rock band.”

When Mr. Webber met T.S. Eliot’s widow, Valerie at the Sydmonton Festival in 1980, she brought with her an unpublished poem “Grizabella The Glamour Cat” and told the composer that Mr. Eliot “thought it was too sad to publish in a children’s book.”

“I remember reading the short poem in front of her,” wrote Mr. Webber. “My heart raced. Something in me was already seeing that I wasn’t dealing with a concert piece anymore.”

Cats the Musical premiered at the New London Theater in 1981 where it played for 21 years. The musical has been presented in 30 countries and translated into 15 languages.

The story is set in a junkyard where the Jellicle cats meet for the annual Jellicle Ball where their benevolent leader Old Deuteronomy chooses which cat goes up to The Heaviside Layer to be reborn to a new Jellicle life.

The award-winning musical has returned for its second staging in Metro Manila and runs until Dec. 1 at the Theater at Solaire.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN
During a media call on Nov. 7, Cats the Musical’s stage manager Jordan Goff led members of the press on a backstage tour.

Mr. Goff explained that the stage — the components of which fill eight shipping containers — takes two days to set up. The stage is also structured on a slope and is “difficult to dance in.” He noted that the stage design “helps with the perspective” to suggest that the humans are cat sized.

Behind the right wing of the stage are vanity tables and racks of hand-painted costumes made from lycra of which each character has three sets. Fun fact: Old Dueteronmy’s wool coat weighs 14 kilograms. Lastly, Mr. Goff showed one of his favorite props — a “cockroach” headpiece made with tea strainers for the eyes, black bin liners, and bottle brushes for the antenna.

“Everything onstage or part of the set is designed to look like it was part of the junkyard or made by the cats,” he said.

FOR ALL AGES
The current tour features the staging of the version of Cats which played at the London Palladium in 2015.

According to producer David Ian, Mr. Webber reunited with the original creative partners, set designer John Napier and choreographer Gillian Lynne, for this staging.

“He (Mr. Webber) introduced a couple of new members, he changed some of the music, [Lynne] changed some of the choreography. John [Napier] did a few bits and pieces and changes to the set. And that’s very much the production that we’re bringing here,” Mr. Ian said.

Directed by Dane Quixall, the musical features Filipino singer Joanna Ampil as Grizabella, the former glamour cat. Mr. Ian noted that having have Ms. Ampil perform for the Manila run was intentional. Ms. Ampil first played the role at the UK and European tour from 2013 to 2014.

“Joanna has played Grizabella for several years. And I’ve always wanted to bring the show to Manila. And I’ve always said [to Joanna], I only want to do Manila if you’re available to play Grizabella,” he said.

Ms. Ampil did not hesitate to do the show for this year’s Manila staging. “I just love the fact that it’s a different challenge for me because I get to dance in the start, and having to sing “Memory” every night is a privilege,” she said.

Ms. Ampil will also join the production in Singapore after the Manila leg.

One of the longest-running shows on the West End and on Broadway, Cats the Musical is a show for all ages. “[Y]ou can either be eight-years-old or 80-years-old and you can enjoy it,” Mr. Ian said.

Cats the Musical runs until Dec. 1 at the Theater at Solaire. For more information, visit www.catsthemusical.com. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph). — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Shang Properties earnings up 14% in July-Sept

SHANG Properties, Inc. increased its earnings by 14% during the third quarter on higher revenues.

In a regulatory filing, the listed property developer said its net income during the July to September period stood at P1.35 billion.

Total revenues during the period grew 8% to P5.7 billion, as total costs inched up 3% to P2.92 billion.

Year to date, the company’s net income climbed 8% to P2 billion as revenues saw a 3% uptick to P8.47 billion. A 1% slip in expenses to P3.97 billion helped keep the company’s bottomline higher.

Shang Properties said its “turnover sales,” or revenues from sales of condominium units, rental and cinema, hotel operations and other income increased 2.5% to P8.7 billion during the three quarters

Broken down, sales from residential condominium units went down 7% to P3.47 billion, making up 40% of the company’s total revenues.

Revenues from leasing operations amounted to P2.36 billion, 6% higher than in the same nine-month period last year, which accounted for 27% of the pie.

Hotel operations generated P2.64 billion in the three quarters, up 16% from last year. The company specifically said its Shangri-La at the Fort brand in Taguig City contributed P2.6 billion in revenues during the period.

Shang Properties’ core businesses involve office and retail leasing and residential development. It is the listed operator of the Shangri-La Plaza mall and has a stake in the owner of The Enterprise Center.

Among its other projects are The Shang Grand Tower, The St. Francis Shangri-La Place, One Shangri-La Place, Shang Salcedo Place and Horizon Homes.

Shares in Shang Properties slipped 0.06 points or 1.82% to P3.24 apiece on Tuesday. — Denise A. Valdez

Dreams and travels on canvas

IMAGES OF butterflies in acrylic paint and figures of love and humanity made with laser-cut steel are the highlights in Ross Capili’s Tales and Trails, the 11th installment of Conrad Manila’s “Of Art and Wine” series.

The painter, photographer, and digital artist held his first solo exhibition in 1981 and has since mounted over 30 exhibits in Manila, Paris, and the United States. Mr. Capili has also participated in more than 35 group exhibitions across Asia.

“Tales & Trails presents different collectible art pieces painted on canvas and shaped in steel that highlights my love for nature, music and all things that represent celebration and happy memories of traveling,” Mr. Capili said of his latest works. He said that he is inspired by the places in his travels where he feels emotion.

“Sa Singapore, everywhere you go, puro perfect. Ayaw ko ng ganoon. Gusto ko ’yung may nararamdaman ako (In Singapore, everywhere you go, it’s all perfect. I do not like that. I want to feel something),” Mr. Capili said of his experience when traveling the country.

In contrast to that experience, he cited his work Moon of Bandung, an abstract painting of the valleys in the capital city of West Java province in Indonesia. “Once you are there, common ’yung valley pero meron ako nakita sa color ng valley na kakaiba (Once you are there, the valley is common but I see something different in its color).”

The 60-year-old artist is also inspired by elements in nature.

Among the works that reflect these are Palette of Melodies 1 and 2, acrylic on a butterfly wing-shaped canvas enclosed in plexiglass, and Sunset Jazz, a five-foot sculpture made of raw alloy steel on a boulder.

Mr. Capili noted his fascination for nature as fleeting moments.

“Hindi mo na siya mababalikan (You cannot go back to it),” he said. “It’s a reminder for us that soon, it may be gone. Makikita mo nalang siguro sa painting ko (You might only see it in my paintings).”

Tales & Trails by Ross Capili is on view at Gallery C at the Conrad Hotel until January 2020. For details call the hotel at 8833-9999 or e-mail conradmanila@conradhotels.com, or e-mail the artist at studiorosscapili@yahoo.com. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Gov’t fully awards 10-year T-bonds

THE GOVERNMENT made a full award of the reissued 10-year Treasury bonds (T-bond) it auctioned off yesterday as rates settled within expectation as the market expects the central bank to halt its easing cycle as it reviews policy settings this week.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P20 billion as planned from its T-bond offer on Tuesday as the 10-year securities attracted total bids of P29.3 billion.

The 10-year debt papers fetched an average rate of 4.617%, higher by 42.1 basis points (bps) than the 4.196% fetched during the auction last Aug. 13.

At the secondary market on Tuesday, the ten-year notes were quoted at 4.698%, based on the PHP Bloomberg Valuation (BVAL) Service Reference Rates published on the Philippine Dealing System’s website.

Following the auction, Deputy Treasurer Erwin D. Sta Ana said the 10-year bond’s rate fell within the acceptable range and still lower than the benchmark yields based on the BVAL rates, so they decided to make a full award.

“We saw that the 10-year rate is actually at its lowest sometime in August this year, but after August it picked up. So now we’re just a little bit stable at 10-year. So we saw that it is really the rate that is the acceptable rate for the 10-year auction,” Mr. Sta Ana told reporters.

Sought for comment, a bond trader said rates seen yesterday were at the “higher end” of market expectations as the market expects the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to pause its monetary easing cycle.

“It’s on the higher end of market expectation given that we expect the BSP will hold its policy rates on the upcoming policy meeting,” the trader said over the phone.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said in separate television interviews this month that the central bank is likely done cutting rates for the year.

The BSP’s Monetary Board will hold a policy meeting on Thursday, Nov. 14.

The trader added that higher yields on US Treasuries might have also caused local bond rates to go up.

PRIZE BONDS
Meanwhile, Mr. Sta. Ana said the Treasury has yet to give an official announcement on the official mechanics for the raffle of its planned prize bonds as they are still finalizing “technical details.”

He added that availing the prize bonds will be more convenient for investors since they will now use the online platform through the server of Land Bank of the Philippines.

However, he assured that over-the-counter processes will still be available in other banks.

Citing preliminary mechanics, Mr. Sta. Ana said investors can only avail a maximum of P10 million worth of entries for the raffle, translating to 20,000 entries in denominations of P500 each.

However, there will be no cap on the amount that an individual can invest in the prize bonds.

“We’re still in (holiday season) period anyway, we’re just almost in the middle of November. So if ever things are finalized in the next couple of days — what do we know, maybe next week or end of the month — there’s still likelihood that we would be able to launch this November,” he added.

The government is planning to borrow P220 billion from the domestic market this quarter broken down into P100 billion in Treasury bills and P120 billion via T-bonds.

It is looking to raise P1.189 trillion this year from local and foreign sources to fund its budget deficit, which is expected to widen to as much as 3.2% of gross domestic product. — Beatrice M. Laforga

Cebu Air narrows loss in third quarter

CEBU AIR, Inc. trimmed its losses to P384.3 million in the third quarter from P518.4 million a year ago, as the budget carrier added flights and raised average fares.

In a regulatory filing, the listed operator of Cebu Pacific said its nine-month profit surged 142% to P6.75 billion, from P2.78 billion a year ago.

Third-quarter revenues went up by 17% to P18.9 billion, bringing the nine-month figure to P63.625 billion, higher by 18% from a year ago.

In the July to September period, passenger revenues increased by 18% to P13.24 billion, while ancillary revenues rose 19% to P4.19 billion. Cargo revenues grew by 2.3% to P1.47 billion.

For the first nine months of the year, Cebu Air said passenger revenues jumped 18% to P46.59 billion.

“This was mainly attributable to the 10.4% growth in passenger volume to 16.7 million from 15.1 million last year as the Group added bigger A321 aircraft to its fleet. The increase in average fares by 6.7% to P2,794 for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 from P2,617 for the same period last year also contributed to the increase in revenues,” the company said.

Ancillary revenues rose by 22% during the January to September period to P12.71 billion. Cebu Air said the average ancillary revenue per passenger increased by 10.7% from “pricing adjustments and increased volume of certain ancillary products and services.”

Cargo revenues for the nine-month period grew by 5.3% to P4.31 billion, on higher volume and yield of cargo.

Meanwhile, operating expenses grew by 7% to P18 billion in the third quarter, and by 8% to P53.8 billion during the first nine months, due to “its expanded operations, growth in seat capacity from the acquisition of new aircraft partially offset by the strengthening of the Philippine peso against the U.S. dollar.”

The Philippine peso averaged P52.06 per US dollar for the nine months ended Sept. 30, from an average of P52.51 per US dollar last year.

Yayoi Kusama at 90 plans Macy’s Parade balloon, New York City installation

JAPANESE multimedia artist Yayoi Kusama is keeping up a torrid pace at 90 — backing up sold-out exhibits at museums around the world with fresh works, more shows, and even a balloon designed for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City.

Kusama’s balloon, “Love Flies Up to the Sky,” is a round character that looks like a cross between a sun and a starfish. Featuring 300 of the artist’s signature hand-painted dots, it will soar 34 feet tall and stretch about 30 feet wide, according to Macy’s.

Forty handlers will help guide the massive balloon along the 2.7-mile route as it takes its place alongside Snoopy, Pikachu and other parade regulars on Nov. 28. It’s being built by Macy’s balloon specialists to specifications provided by the artist’s studio in Japan.

Some 3 million people typically flood the streets of New York to watch the parade, and more than 20 million tune in from home. It’ll be the biggest audience yet for Kusama, whose retrospectives have caused mad scrambles for tickets at museums from Washington to London to Tokyo in recent years.

The artist has been active since the 1950s and became a global sensation in her 80s. Kusama: Cosmic Nature, a mix of old and new works displayed both inside and out, will take over the 250-acre New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx for six months from May 2.

The exhibit will include a display of sketchbooks that show Kusama’s long fascination with nature, a participatory greenhouse installation, and a “monumental site-specific pumpkin sculpture.” Pumpkins, often on a giant scale, have recurred in Kusama’s art for decades.

“In a lifetime of finding inspiration in nature and pushing against boundaries and biases, she developed a unique lexicon for artistic expression,” Carrie Rebora Barratt, president and chief executive officer of the botanical garden, said in a statement.

Tickets go on sale in January. Her work will also be displayed this month at the David Zwirner Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, in a show entitled Every Day I Pray for Love.

The exhibition will include new paintings in Kusama’s My Eternal Soul series and Dancing Lights That Flew Up to the Universe, the latest of the artist’s signature Infinity Mirror Rooms.

The free exhibit will run for five weeks starting Saturday. The gallery anticipates “wait times of more than two hours to enter,” it says on its website. Kusama’s 2017-2018 show at the same venue attracted some 75,000 people over 80 days, according to artnet.com.

Meanwhile just five blocks away, Mucciaccia Gallery will exhibit 28 works by the artist from Nov. 10 to Jan. 30. Kusama’s signature Infinity polka-dot paintings will be on view, along with sculpture pieces from her series Hi, Konnichiwa (Hello)! which were first presented in the solo exhibition KUSAMATRIX held in 2004 at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art is currently showing Kusama’s Love is Calling exhibit, and is sold out through November. Tickets for December and January went on sale Nov. 5 to museum members and will be available from Nov. 12 to the general public.

Kusama’s bright pop-art pieces are fun for all ages — she’s loved by kids, and has been the subject of a children’s book — and also highly bankable. Her 1960 piece White No. 28 sold for $7.1 million at a 2014 Christie’s auction, one of the highest prices paid for a work by a living woman artist. — Bloomberg

HSBC and RBS set to launch new digital banking platforms

LONDON — British banking heavyweights HSBC and RBS are launching new digital banking platforms, as competition for digitally savvy customers steps up in the face of a wave of online startups.

HSBC rolled out a new app-based business banking service — previously known internally as ‘Project Iceberg’ and now named ‘HSBC Kinetic’ — in beta testing mode on Monday, while RBS is putting the finishing touches to its new digital bank Bo ahead of a public roll-out later this month.

Britain’s high street lenders are investing billions of pounds in new or refreshed digital services to meet growing customer demand. But they are playing catch-up when it comes to matching the technology of fast-growing startups like Monzo, Starling and Tandem.

HSBC Kinetic will offer small businesses mobile-managed current accounts, overdrafts and spending and cashflow insights generated by the app crunching data on a company’s spending habits.

Peter McIntyre, head of UK small business banking for HSBC, said the bank hoped to sign up hundreds of thousands of customers to Kinetic and to roll it out to other countries where HSBC operates.

McIntyre said he was undeterred by launching Kinetic in choppy economic conditions in Britain, with recent official data showing company insolvencies hit a five and a half-year high in the third quarter this year.

A full launch of the service, which links into HSBC’s existing back-end banking system, is expected in the first half of next year.

RBS’s standalone bank Bo is preparing for a public launch this month from offices in London’s West End.

The Bo app is designed to encourage customers to budget and save better, alerting them if they overspend. It is targeted at the 16.8 million Britons with less than 100 pounds ($128)of savings. — Reuters

Coca-Cola installs solar panels in 2 PHL facilities

THE Buskowitz group said on Tuesday that Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc. has partnered with the solar rooftop system provider to install solar panels on two of the bottling company’s facilities with a total capacity of 3.9 megawatts (MW).

“The larger of the two installations, located in Misamis Oriental, will be made up of approximately 7,000 solar panels with a capacity of 2.8 megawatts. The second facility, located in Bacolod, will be made up of nearly 3,000 panels totaling 1.1 megawatts. The project has set a December 2019 completion date,” Buskowitz Energy said in a statement.

The installation of solar panels in the two sites marks the nine sites of the bottling company using green and clean energy by year-end, Buskowitz said. To date, Coca-Cola sources over 60% of its total energy requirements from renewable energy.

“Seven out of its 19 manufacturing sites use renewable energy — particularly, geothermal energy — in the following areas: Laguna (Sta. Rosa and Canlubang), Ilocos, Pangasinan (Calasiao), Cebu, Pampanga (San Fernando), and Bulacan (Meycauayan). Moreover, since 2010 in its Calasiao, Pangasinan Plant, Coca-Cola has been using a biomass boiler which utilizes rice hulls instead of petroleum for fuel, in order to address a significant portion of its power requirements,” it said. — Victor V. Saulon

UBS fined $51 million by Hong Kong regulator for overcharging clients

HONG KONG — Swiss bank UBS was fined HK$400 million ($51.09 million) by Hong Kong’s securities regulator for overcharging up to 5,000 clients for nearly a decade, the watchdog said on Monday.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said in a statement that an investigation found UBS had overcharged clients on ‘post-trade spread increases’ and charges in excess of standard disclosures and rates between 2008 and 2017.

The fine is the equal to the largest ever levied on a bank in Hong Kong. In 2017, HSBC’s private banking unit was also fined HK$400 million over the sale of Lehman Brothers structured products to customers for five years from 2003.

The SFC said the investigation exposed ‘serious systemic internal control failures’ at the bank. UBS had failed to disclose conflicts of interests and had overcharged some clients in ‘opaque’ trades, it said.

The overcharging affected 5000 Hong Kong managed client accounts in about 28,700 transactions, it said.

UBS has also agreed to repay the clients HK$200 million, the SFC said.

The regulator said the over-charging occurred in the bank’s wealth management division on bond and structured notes transactions.

UBS was found to have increased the spread charged after the execution of a trade without the clients’ knowledge, it said.

In the statement, the SFC said UBS was also found to have falsified some account statements which were issued to financial intermediaries who were authorized to trade for the clients to “conceal the overcharges.”

UBS said the issues were ‘self-reported’ to the SFC and the results found were against the bank’s standard practice.

“The relevant conduct predominantly relates to limit orders of certain debt securities and structured note transactions, which account for a very small percentage of the bank’s order processing system,” the bank said in a statement.

SFC chief executive Ashley Alder said while each “overcharge represented a fraction of each trade” the bank’s “misconduct involved decisions and a pervasive abuse of trust resulting in significant additional revenue for UBS to which it was not entitled.”

In March, the SFC banned UBS from leading initial public offerings in Hong Kong for a year after it found the bank, and some of its rivals, had failed to carry out sufficient due diligence on a number of deals.

UBS was fined HK$375 million while Morgan Stanley was fined HK$224 million, Merrill Lynch HK$128 million and Standard Chartered HK$59.7 million, all for failures when sponsoring, or leading, public market floats. — Reuters

SunPower to spin off solar panel manufacturing

U.S. solar company SunPower said on Monday it will split into two publicly traded companies, separating most of its solar panel manufacturing operations from storage and energy services, sending its shares up as much as 15%.

The move was intended to boost value in SunPower shares, which are trading at the same level they were at two years ago. Monday’s news was welcomed by investors, with shares up nearly 3.7% at $8.68 in afternoon trade.

The new solar panel company, named Maxeon Solar Technologies, will be headquartered in Singapore, with manufacturing operations in France, Malaysia, Mexico and the Philippines.

The remaining company will still be based in California and will retain the SunPower name. It will focus on catering to the growing residential and commercial rooftop solar installation markets in the United States through the company’s network of hundreds of dealers. That company will also keep SunPower’s new solar panel factory in Oregon.

“This transaction will also simplify both organizational structures, lowering costs, while improving efficiency and creating (two) more nimble companies,” Chief Executive Officer Thomas Werner said on a conference call with analysts.

Werner will retain the CEO role at the company, while Jeff Waters, CEO of SunPower’s Technologies business unit will head of Maxeon.

The separation will be through a tax-free spin off of all Maxeon Solar shares held by SunPower to the company’s shareholders.

SunPower is majority owned by France’s Total.

As part of the deal, SunPower’s long-time partner Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co. will invest $298 million in Maxeon Solar and hold a 29% stake in the company, while SunPower shareholders will hold the rest.

At the time of separation, expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020, the two businesses will enter into a multi-year exclusive supply agreement covering sales within the United States and Canada of products manufactured by Maxeon Solar.

Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov said the brokerage had a mixed perspective to the news.

“We have long looked at SunPower’s vertical integration and broad geographic diversification as differentiating strengths rather than weaknesses: put another way, ‘a feature, not a bug.’” — Reuters

Léon Gallery holds the Ang Kiukok video and essay tilt

FOUR WINNERS will be chosen by Léon Gallery for its Many-Faced Ang Kiukok and His Role in Filipino Art Video & Written Essay Competition, held in collaboration with The Philippine Star. The winners will be announced during the Kingly Treasures Auction 2019 Cocktails on Nov. 27. The first dual media competition of its kind in the Philippines, it was established in honor of National Artist for the Visual Arts, Ang Kiukok (1931– 2005). Meant to promote not only the writing of criticism on, and the production of commemorative videos about, the late National Artist, the competition encourages further appreciation of the master Cubist known for his highly expressionist depictions of violence, conflict, madness, and struggle. The competition is open to all professional and amateur artists and writers as well as to students, art aficionados, and bloggers who are encouraged to prepare a five-minute video or a 250 word essay on one of the Ang Kiukok paintings featured in the Kingly Treasures Auction 2019 — Seated Figure, Screaming Figures, Mother and Child, and Table with Fruit. Prizes will be given for the Best Creative Video Essay Award and the Best Essay Award. The Audience Choice Award for Best Video Essay and Audience Choice Award for Best Written Essay Award will be awarded to the posts garnering the most number of aggregated likes on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Winners of the Best Creative Video and Essays will each get P20,000 while the Audience Choice awardees will each receive P10,000. Participants are encouraged to post as many entries on their social media accounts with the hasthtags #KinglyTresuresAuction2019 and #ManyFacedKiukokLeonGallery until Nov. 21. The Kingly Treasures Auction 2019 will be held at 2 p.m. on Nov. 30 at Eurovilla 1, Legazpi St., Legazpi Village, Makati.

Which segments contributed to Philippine economic growth last quarter?

Which segments contributed to Philippine economic growth last quarter?

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