Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 10260

Not just organic, but vegan too


A BOTTLE of wine holds within its confines time and space, for a wine maker has distilled into a liquid the soil, the sunshine, and the care that went into making it. An Australian wine maker is proud to say that he has done that, all while embracing nature and minimizing Man’s touch.
Mark Davidson sits as Managing Director and Chief Wine maker of Australia’s Tamburlaine Organic Wines, the biggest organic wine producer in Australia. He acquired the vineyard in 1985, but the vineyards have already been set up since the 1960s. Mr. Davidson credits his acquisition to an Australian wine boom in the late ’80s to the ’90s, when Australian wines first began getting recognition in the American market. “The whole excitement about wine hadn’t begun,” he recalled.
Since then, Tamburlaine (named after the literary representation of Emperor Timur by Christopher Marlowe) has won several awards, including a trophy for their Gewurztraminer, for Dry White Blends & Varietals — National Cool Climate Wine Show 2017. The company constantly places on many wine competitions within the region. This is all done without the interference of chemical -cides: pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides. No synthetic fertilizers are used either.
The Hunter Valley vineyards are carry the “Australian Certified Organic” logo on labels. To be able to do so “requires rigorous annual audits by the Biological Farmers of Australia to ensure the absence of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and synthetic fertilizers in the production of the wines,” says the website.
Not only are the wines organic, but the company now points out that they are vegan-friendly to boot. Its website explains how most wineries remove bitter tasting compounds released by grape seeds, stalks, and skins during crushing, fermentation, and pressing through a process called fining which uses animal proteins. Instead, Tamburlaine uses a vegetable-based fining agents.
BusinessWorld met Mr. Davidson during the World of Wine Fair by Marketplace by Rustan’s, which ran from Sept. 27 to 30. Talks by several wine makers were held during the weekend. For shoppers, several wines were available at a discount, and these discounts remain available until Oct. 7 — this reporter recalls acquiring a Bordeaux for only about P400 at the fair last year.
Mr. Davidson credits his success as Australia’s biggest organic wine producer by appealing to what he calls the “conscious consumer.” He likens them to the hippies of the 1960s, and they care about where they get their wine and their food. As for himself, he leads as healthy a lifestyle as possible, but he isn’t vegan: he does eat sustainably raised meat however. “We’re working with nature; we’re not killing off nature to do something else,” he said. “We think of the whole ecosystem.”
“I’ve decided that my life should be, for what I do in my normal consumption, I should be sustainable, and as organic as I possibly can,” he said.
BusinessWorld had a sip of a relatively young Cabernet Sauvignon from their winery, and noted a tanginess and a sharp oakiness, but otherwise had a well-rounded ending note. “If you grow grapes organically, you grow them with consistent flavor.”
As we’ve mentioned above, within every bottle of wine lies the conditions in which a grape had been raised, therefore a summary of the work of several years is in every bottle. “If you don’t interfere with that, you just work with nature… if you can do that, you are going to represent this time, that place, that terroir more accurately that any other way of producing wine.” — JLG

Mizuho seeks Google hopefuls in technology push

ONE OF Japan’s biggest banks is throwing away the cookie cutter when it comes to hiring fresh graduates.
Realizing it was recruiting “exactly the same” types of people each year, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. now wants to hire more creative thinkers who can help it meet challenges such as the technological upheaval facing banks, said Shinya Uda, a human resources manager at Japan’s third-biggest lender. That includes science majors, foreigners, and people who are looking to work for technology giants such as Google owner Alphabet Inc.
“I told my team to go out and find people who aren’t interested in finance,” Uda said in an interview. “It was kind of an impossible request, but I said‚ Find me someone who’s weighing up going to Google.”
Global banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. are also seeking to diversify away from finance graduates to adapt their workforce to a rapidly changing business environment. Japan’s biggest lenders are slashing branches and head count as customers go mobile and near-zero interest rates reduce profitability, forcing banks to find ways to do more than just lend.
“It’s a recruiting policy that’s in line with the times,” said Nana Otsuki, chief analyst at Monex Inc. in Tokyo. “Banks can’t make profits from traditional banking business as long as interest rates stay low, so if they’re going to grow earnings from other businesses, it makes sense to seek a new type of talent.
Mizuho plans to cut 19,000 positions over the next decade, and those who remain will need to build an organization that can survive in a world where technology is spawning new rivals and partners. The Tokyo-based bank recently appointed a digital innovation chief and has been working on initiatives ranging from electronic payments to AI-driven lending.
“We want the kinds of people who have the creativity to take us in a new direction,” Uda said.
Like most major companies in Japan, Mizuho courts university students in a lengthy ritual of tests, seminars and interviews during their final year of school. This year, it sent out 70,000 copies of a recruitment brochure bearing the slogan, “We want to meet people who aren’t Mizuho types.” It plans to hire about 400 graduates for the year starting April 2019, down from more than 600 two years earlier as the bank moves toward shrinking its workforce.
After three years of testing candidates’ competencies, Mizuho found that its recruits tended to be strong in areas such as teamwork and problem solving but weak in creativity. It tweaked its approach to marketing and interviewing to address the issue, resulting in more than a third of applicants it plans to give offers to for next year’s intake scoring highly on creative thinking, up from about a fifth in recent years, Uda said.
“It’s not that we don’t need the people we’ve been getting, it’s just that it would be a problem if we only got that type,” he said.
About 10% of those being offered jobs will be foreign or educated overseas, a figure that’s doubled in the past two years. So-called STEM students — who majored in science, technology, engineering or mathematics — are also expected to make up about 10%, and Mizuho wants to double the allocation in 2020, Uda said.
Fellow mega bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. has also adjusted its recruiting plans this year to target more science and technology graduates, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based lender said. Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., said it already hires the talent it needs and hasn’t made any significant changes to its policies.
Uda recognizes that it may be difficult to keep motivation high among employees who weren’t necessarily interested in finance at school. Another risk is that workers end up being molded into the existing culture.
“The challenge is retention,” he said. “We need to change by injecting new blood into the company, and the culture won’t change if they just end up taking on Mizuho colors.” — Bloomberg

San Miguel plans power plants’ transition to biomass technology

SAN MIGUEL Corp. (SMC) said on Wednesday that it was planning to replace coal with rice husks to fuel its circulating fluidized bed (CFB) power plants to boost the income of farmers while the conglomerate moves towards renewable and sustainable energy generation.
“Instead of burning or dumping rice husks, we want to fully utilize this agricultural waste product both as energy source for our power plants and income source for our rice farmers,” said Ramon S. Ang, SMC president and chief operating officer, in a statement.
“This way, we reduce our emission further, encourage more farmers to increase rice production, make their lives better and help address a perennial food security challenge,” he added.
SMC will convert its existing power plants using CFB “clean coal” technology into biomass power facilities. Its power unit SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. operates two new facilities in Limay, Bataan and Malita, Davao.
The plants use CFB combustion technology, which SMC said is among the world’s most advanced pollution-mitigating technologies for power plants, yielding lower emissions. But the listed company said emissions from rice husk-based fuel are expected be even lower.
Mr. Ang said SMC’s transition into biomass technology could also boost rice farming in the country.
“If we encourage more farmers to plant rice by providing them additional sources of income, our rice sufficiency and food security improves. At the same time, we use palay husks to generate more environment-friendly energy,” he said.
He said the company is willing to build the necessary infrastructure and facilities to support rice farmers to collect husks that will be bought from them.
Earlier this month, Mr. Ang said SMC could go into rice importation to help address the current rice shortage, but only if scheme that imposes import tariffs but lifts quantity limits is passed.
SMC operates grains terminals and silos nationwide, which can be used to stockpile rice to help ensure food supply and high-quality rice at low prices. The tariffs to be imposed on importing rice could be used to support local farmers and boost the farm sector.
Mr. Ang earlier this year said SMC is boosting its renewable energy capacity with a target capacity of 10,000 MW in the next 10 years. He said the company was looking at tidal energy, wind power, and more hydroelectric power plants. — Victor V. Saulon

Sharp makes long-awaited venture into OLED, wary of spending, rapid growth

TOKYO — Japan’s Sharp Corp. unveiled its long-awaited move into the Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) market on Wednesday as the Apple Inc. supplier looks to catch rival Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
Sharp will offer OLED panels in its new smartphones later this year and plans to sell the screens to other manufacturers, although it has signaled it is wary about a rapid expansion in OLED as momentum for the thinner but more expensive screens slows.
The move comes as the Osaka-based electronics maker, a major supplier of iPhone Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens, continues its recovery after being bought two years ago by Taiwan’s Foxconn.
Sharp’s OLED smartphones will initially go on sale in Japan, by far its major market after it slashed its overseas smartphone business. The company has not yet reached any deals for sales to other smartphone makers, a spokeswoman said at a launch function in Tokyo.
Sharp has so far invested 57.4 billion yen ($505 million) to produce OLED panels in western Japan, less than a third of the planned 200 billion yen investment that was announced by Foxconn at the time of its acquisition in 2016.
Sharp executives have said a shift from conventional LCD screens to more flexible OLED screens has been slower than expected due to high prices, making the firm cautious about aggressive OLED capacity expansion in the near term.
“The momentum for OLED panels is waning compared to a year ago and is unlikely to pick up immediately,” senior Sharp executive Katsuaki Nomura told reporters in July.
The slower acceptance of pricier OLED panels has also offered some relief to Japan Display Inc., another iPhone LCD screen supplier lagging behind Samsung and LG Display in OLED technology.
South Korea’s Electronic Times reported earlier this year that Apple has decided to use OLED screens in all three new iPhone models planned for next year, compared to two OLED models this year.
But industry sources have told Reuters that Apple would not entirely abandon low-cost LCD screens at least for next year. — Reuters

Wine Made Easy: Nine cheap Pinot Grigios actually worth drinking

By Elin McCoy, Bloomberg
HERE’S a sad truth. Most pinot grigio is so watery, bland, and just plain dull that wine snobs scorn it and sommeliers at top restaurants won’t list it. Asking for “just a glass of pinot grigio” has almost become an admission that you don’t pay attention to what you swallow.
But of course you do.
So forget all those tired clichés and have a rethink about why the grape had such mass appeal in the first place. Delicious, food-friendly examples can be had for $25 and less, and they’re not hard to find.
So what do you need to know? First, cool northern Italy produces scores of crisp, refreshing, citrusy, light whites proudly labeled pinot grigio that are ideal as aperitifs and with all kinds of food.
In Alsace, in northeastern France, the same grape is called pinot gris, and the flavors are slightly different. The wines are honeysuckle-scented, powerful, spicy, lushly textured, and sometimes sweet. (By the way, grigio and gris both mean “gray,” after the pinkish gray sheen of the grape’s skin when ripe).
Wine makers in the New World — Oregon, New Zealand, Australia, California — tend to label their examples with the name that fits the style and flavor profile they’re aiming for, but often their styles lie somewhere between the Italian and Alsace paradigms.
You could say the grape suffers from an identity crisis.
Italian pinot grigio burst on the US scene in the early 1980s, after a young importer brought in the Santa Margherita brand and made it into one of the country’s best-known wines. Eventually its popularity inspired a flood of indifferent Italian plonk from low-altitude areas, which scared off discerning drinkers. Later, some fans were further seduced away by prosecco and rosé.
A NEW DISTINCTION
Last year, in an effort to increase quality, Italy instituted a new, tightly controlled regional classification, Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, whose wines are certified by an independent commission. This wide area includes regions such as Alto Adige and Friuli (northwest and northeast of Venice, respectively) where some of the best wines come from vineyards on the slopes.
Alsace pinot gris has never been as fashionable as pinot grigio, but it has a great quality-to-price ratio. In fact, all the wines from the region have been underrated for years. It didn’t help that in the 1990s some producers there started making riper, sweeter, almost syrupy wines that didn’t go well with food. Some have solved the problem by putting a dry-to-sweet scale on the back label so you know what to expect. For others, the less expensive wines have always been bone dry.
The biggest news is that plantings of the grape are rising fast. It rules the white wine landscape in Oregon and is way less expensive than chardonnay (and much better with pad thai). It’s affordable because the grapes are easy to grow and harvested early, so the wines are ready to sell sooner, and they’re usually not aged in pricey new oak barrels. In Australia, experimental producers have begun planting the grape in cooler regions and experimenting with wildly unique styles.
And on a visit to New Zealand earlier this year, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover a pinot gris craze there, too. From 2002 to 2016, plantings have exploded, from 232 hectares to 2,440.
Expect more top examples to hit the shelves in the future. For now, here are nine top pinot grigio/pinot gris wines that will surprise you.
ITALY
• 2017 Kris Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT ($14)
This easygoing wine helped put pinot grigio on the map in the US and remains one of Italy’s great white values. I’ve seen it for as little as $10 a bottle. It still delivers bright, zesty freshness and aromas of citrus, pears, and almonds even though more than 3 million bottles are produced annually.
• 2017 Venica Jesera Pinot Grigio Collio ($23)
Bright and fresh, this wine has intensely perfumed aromas of ripe golden apples and lemons, and a bigger, richer character than most Italian pinot grigios.
• 2016 Alois Lageder Pinot Grigio Porer ($25)
This well-known organic and biodynamic producer in the Dolomite Mountains of Italy’s Alto Adige makes several pinot grigios at different price levels. This one is serious and complex, loaded with citrus and melon flavors and savory minerality.
• 2017 Elena Walch Castel Ringberg Pinot Grigio ($25)
This single-vineyard wine is a sophisticated step up from the noted winery’s fresh, easy lower-priced bottling. It boasts citrus and green apple aromas, ripe baked-apple flavors, and surprising complexity and personality.
OREGON
• 2017 Ponzi Pinot Gris ($19)
This crisp white from an Oregon pioneer in the Willamette Valley consistently overperforms for the price. Its style is midway between Alsace and Italy, with juicy, refreshing pear, citrus, and mineral flavors that slip down easy and the hints of fennel and attractive slight bitterness you find in examples from Alsace.
• 2015 Bethel Heights Pinot Gris ($24)
Another Oregon pioneer, noted for stellar pinot noirs, makes this refreshing white from 25-year-old vines and purchased grapes. It’s very dry, with great acidity, but also richly textured and has the flavor of baked pears.
NEW ZEALAND
• 2017 Jules Taylor Pinot Gris ($17)
Taylor’s stellar wines were a discovery on my trip to New Zealand this year. She calls this one “a snazzy little people pleaser,” and I definitely agree. Pale and elegant, it’s also lush and spicy, with floral aromas and juicy stone fruit flavors of nectarine.
• 2016 Greywacke Pinot Gris ($25)
Wine maker Kevin Judd gave the world Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc and helped change our idea of New Zealand wine. This winery in the Marlborough region is his personal venture, named after New Zealand’s bedrock. His pinot gris is opulent and fleshy, with succulent melon and pear flavors and great minerality.
ALSACE
• 2015 Hugel Pinot Gris Classic ($22)
This is the entry-level pinot gris from one of Alsace’s most esteemed family producers, known better for its superb rieslings and gewurztraminers. Like all Hugel wines, this one is pure, very dry, full of character, and super food-friendly. (For more depth and minerality, go for the more expensive new Estate label).

Demand for term deposits surges

BANKS SWAMPED the term deposits offered by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas yesterday.

By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Senior Reporter
BANKS scrambled to get hold of term deposits offered by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) yesterday, with the auction marked by overwhelming bids as the central bank accepted higher yields following a strong rate hike last week.
Demand for the term deposit facility (TDF) soared to P131.03 billion on Wednesday, double the P65.855 billion in offers put forward the previous week and well above the P60 billion on the auction block.
All tenors of the term deposits received offers above board as market players took advantage of a higher ceiling rate from the BSP, which pushed accepted margins to a record high since the weekly auctions started in June 2016.
The central bank has raised rates by a total of 150 basis points (bp) since May as policy makers fired off another 50-bp increase in policy settings last Thursday amid reports that inflation could breach a fresh high in September. As a result, TDF yields climbed by close to 30 bps across all maturities.
Tenders for the seven-day tenor rose to P77.305 billion from P51.627 billion a week ago, clocking well above the P40 billion which the central bank offered to sell. This came as banks sought for higher returns ranging from 4.42-4.75%. This placed the average yield at 4.7127%, 29 bps higher than the 4.4215% fetched during the Oct. 3 auction.
Appetite for the 14-day instruments also recovered this week, with the P10-billion offering met by P27.22 billion placements to recover from P9.643 billion previously. Yields also surged to average 4.7353%, adding 26.3 bps from 4.4722% a week ago.
The 28-day deposits also saw strong demand worth P26.505 billion, nearly five times the P4.585 billion offers during the previous exercise and more than double the P10 billion up for grabs. However, banks demanded for higher interest rates, with the average rising by 30 bps to 4.7884% from 4.4877%.
The TDF stands as the central bank’s primary tool to mop up excess cash in the financial system. The weekly auctions of short-term papers are meant to usher market and interbank rates within the current benchmark range of 4-5%.
Asked to comment, BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said the recovery in demand for TDF availments were largely the result of the central bank’s fresh tightening move, coupled with optimism due to upbeat state spending.
“One, government is spending and spending robustly on infrastructure and other public sector projects. Two, BSP’s policy rate hike which signals higher yields in the TDF,” Mr. Guinigundo said in a text message. “This is part of the recalibration of liquidity and the adjustment process towards greater macro stability.”
The key policy rate — which is used by banks as the benchmark for loan pricing — now stands at 4.5%, the highest level since March 2009.
For next week, the central bank has hiked its TDF offering to P80 billion — P50 billion for the seven-day term, P20 billion for the 14-day tenor and P10 billion for the 28-day papers.

DoubleDragon ‘unaffected’ by rising interest rates

DOUBLEDRAGON Properties Corp. on Wednesday said it is “generally unaffected” by rising interest rates and weakening peso, as the company’s borrowings are all peso-denominated and have fixed rates.
“Despite the rising interest rate environment, DoubleDragon remains generally unaffected as we were prudent early on in making sure all our corporate notes and retail bonds have fixed interest rates for 7-10 years. The company also has no US dollar exposure with all fund raises being peso denominated,” DoubleDragon Chief Investment Officer Hannah Yulo said in a statement.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has raised policy rates by 150 basis points over the last four months. This brought the overnight deposit rate to four percent, overnight repurchase rate to 4.5%, and the overnight lending rate to five percent.
Ms. Yulo noted that DoubleDragon has no key maturities for corporate notes until 2021. By that time, the company expects cash flows from its recurring portfolio to be able to cover the principal due.
The listed property developer has continuously been ramping up its portfolio of office spaces, hotel rooms, and industrial facilities that can generate recurring income.
In line with this expansion, DoubleDragon on Wednesday broke ground for the DD Meridian Tower, the ninth building in its flagship project DD Meridian Park in Pasay City.
Once completed by 2020, DD Meridian Park will have eight office towers and one luxury serviced apartment building to be operated by international serviced residences operator The Ascott.
At the same time, the company topped off its sixth office tower called DoubleDragon Center West. The tower will be completed alongside DoubleDragon Center East by the end of the year, adding 35,752 sq.m. of leasable space to the company’s existing 138,503 sq.m. in DD Meridian Park.
Last May, the company opened the first four office towers, which are now fully leased out. DoubleDragon expects more than 20,000 employees to occupy the offices by the end of the year.
DD Meridian Park forms part of DoubleDragon’s goal to have 300,000 sq.m. of leasable office spaces under its portfolio by 2020. The company is also building the Jollibee Tower in Ortigas Center to hit this target.
DoubleDragon is set to have 1.2 million sq.m. in overall leasable spaces during this period, with the completion of 100 CityMalls, 5,000 hotel rooms carrying the Hotel101 and JinJiang Inn Philippines brands, and eight industrial hubs in different sites in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
“As we complete more projects nationwide, our rental revenues will continue to grow exponentially quarter on quarter. DoubleDragon is now starting to harvest from the seeds that it has been planting around the country in the last four years,” DoubleDragon Chairman Edgar J. Sia II said in a statement.
DoubleDragon grew its net income by 234% to P1.26 billion in the first six months of 2018, as consolidated revenues also gained 123% to P3.63 billion.
Shares in DoubleDragon went up 3.01% or 58 centavos to close at P19.84 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

Ripple signs up payments firms for crypto-based platform xRapid

NEW YORK — Three companies that provide cross-border payment services plan to use technology developed by startup Ripple that employs cryptocurrency XRP to speed transactions, the firms said on Monday.
Ripple, a large holder and promoter of XRP, said its platform for cross border payments, called xRapid, is now commercially available and that it had signed up firms Cuallix, MercuryFX and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union as clients.
The xRapid uses XRP, a virtual currency powered by distributed database technology called blockchain, to make international payments faster, according to Ripple.
Mercury FX and Cuallix are money transfer companies, while Catalyst is a wholesale cooperative financial institution that provides a range of services to 1,400 credit unions throughout the United States.
The projects, assuming they go live, will mark one of the first uses of a virtual currency by financial institutions in a commercial product.
Ripple Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse, in an interview, declined to disclose the volume of payments Ripple expects to be processed by the three financial firms using xRapid.
The announcement comes as financial firms continue to experiment with blockchain, the technology that emerged to track and power cryptocurrency transactions. Large companies hope that blockchain can help them simplify some of their processes ranging from international payments to securities settlement. Despite the excitement surrounding blockchain, few large scale projects have gone live.
At the same time proponents of cryptocurrencies are striving to prove that the virtual tokens have a use aside from speculation.
“In pilot tests we saw the benefits of xRapid, and we’re excited to roll commercial payments out within the quarter,” Alastair Constance, MercuryFX CEO and founder, said in a statement. — Reuters

Rare $1.2-M bottle of Macallan to lead Bonham’s auction

A BOTTLE of rare 60-year-old Macallan could fetch a record price at a Bonhams Edinburgh auction on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) as buyers show an unslakable thirst for limited-edition scotch whiskies.
One of just 12 bottles released in 1986, it carries a pre-auction estimate of £900,000 ($1.17 million), which exceeds the current record of $1.1 million set by a bottle of the same 1926 vintage in May at Bonhams Hong Kong. The limited edition’s label was designed by Italian artist Valerio Adami.
Prices for whiskies have soared globally in recent years as more buyers seek rare bottles from Scotland including Dalmore and Port Ellen, as well as Japanese distilleries Karuizawa and Yamazaki. Whisky has appreciated 140% in the past five years, according to the Vintage 50 Index compiled by Rare Whisky 101, outpacing the 19% advance of the Liv-ex 100 Benchmark Fine Wine Index.
While a wine’s vintage is determined by the year in which the grapes were picked — bottling usually takes place within 16 to 24 months after the harvest — the age of a whisky refers to the time spent aging in a cask. For example, the Macallan 60 year old from 1926 wasn’t bottled until 1986. Because of continued loss due to evaporation, known as the “angel’s share,” older whiskies produce fewer bottles, adding to their rarity. — Bloomberg

Facebook’s foray into dating looks like no match for Match

MATCH INVESTORS appear to have gotten over their Facebook fears.
When the social media giant announced plans in May to launch an in-app dating feature, Match Group Inc. shares fell 22%. That, however, appears to have been just a blip. The stock is up more than 50% since May 1 and has gained 81% for the year.
Chief Executive Officer Mandy Ginsberg, who took over the top position in January, isn’t sitting still. She hears the footsteps loud and clear and is keeping a watchful eye on Facebook’s developments.
“We’ll have to see what happens and keep an eye on it,” she said in a phone interview, noting that history has shown the tech behemoth’s market power shouldn’t be underestimated.
Among Match’s not-so-secret weapons is Tinder. In the company’s latest quarterly report, key metrics like increases in subscriber growth and earnings before interest and other items were driven by the swiping app.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like Tinder, it’s in a bit of a league of its own,” Ginsberg said. “It started and in a couple years into its growth, it just went global really fast.”
Match was trading up 0.7% to $56.94 as of 10:03 a.m. in New York on Tuesday, above its average estimated price target of $53. Wall Street had already begun souring on the Dallas-based company even before Facebook’s announcement. JPMorgan, Guggenheim and Wells Fargo cut their ratings to neutral from buy in February and March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The stock has 8 buys, 8 holds and one sell.
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill is among those defending Match. He upgraded the stock to buy from hold in June. He doesn’t see Facebook as a threat, at least not in the short term.
“There is no question Facebook will have some impact,” he said. However, Thill said he believes “the market is big enough to support multiple vendors.”
Perhaps Match investors should be more worried about what’s going on with Bumble, another millennial-focused dating app, said Thill.
“Look, Bumble’s a great asset,” said Thill. “It’s the only major platform out there that they don’t own.”
Last year, Match made an offer to acquire Bumble. And then there’s a possible scenario of Bumble hooking up with Facebook. After Facebook’s May dating announcement, Bumble released a statement saying, “Our executive team has already reached out to Facebook to explore ways to collaborate.”
Match is expected to report fourth quarter earnings next month. — Bloomberg

Federal Reserve chief sees muted inflation risk in ‘extraordinary economy’

FEDERAL RESERVE Chairman Jerome Powell welcomed recent increases in Americans’ wages while expressing confidence that low unemployment won’t spur a takeoff in prices that would force him to hike interest rates aggressively.
“The rise in wages is broadly consistent with observed rates of price inflation and labor productivity growth and therefore does not point to an overheating labor market,” Mr. Powell said in a speech Tuesday in Boston. “Further, higher wage growth alone need not be inflationary.”
Mr. Powell said he expects to stick with the central bank’s current path of gradual interest-rate hikes while monitoring a set of risks presented by the current environment of very low unemployment and low inflation.
“This historically rare pairing of steady, low inflation and very low unemployment is testament to the fact that we remain in extraordinary times,” he said. “Our ongoing policy of gradual interest rate normalization reflects our efforts to balance the inevitable risks that come with extraordinary times, so as to extend the current expansion, while maintaining maximum employment and low and stable inflation.”
A government report on Friday may show average hourly earnings in September rose 2.8% from a year earlier after a 2.9% gain the previous month that was the biggest jump since 2009. Powell cited this figure among four main wage indicators he watches, all of which he noted are clustered near 3%.
PREVENT OVERHEATING
Mr. Powell is aiming to extend the second-longest US economic expansion on record by moving interest rates up just quickly enough to prevent overheating, but not so rapidly that it chokes off growth. He spoke less than a week after the US central bank lifted rates for a third time this year and officials affirmed projections for four more hikes by the end of 2019.
Repeating a point he made in an August speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Mr. Powell said he would take more seriously any sign that inflation expectations were becoming unanchored.
“Our course is clear: Resolutely conduct policy consistent with the FOMC’s symmetric 2% inflation objective, and stand ready to act with authority if expectations drift materially up or down,” he said, referring to the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee.
Responding to questions on stage after the speech, Mr. Powell said he didn’t yet see any sign that new trade barriers were causing inflation to rise.
“Tariffs could increase prices,” he said. “Then the question is, is it just a price-level increase or does it actually stoke higher inflation. We don’t see that in the data,” adding that it’s probably early to be seeing effects from trade policy.
Mr. Powell agreed that concerns over global growth had increased in the past year, but didn’t signal an alarm.
“As you look around the world you still see a reasonably positive picture, maybe slightly less positive this year,” he said in response to questions. “You see a slowdown in the advanced economies and you see really just a handful of emerging-market countries experiencing significant turmoil.”
“Growth is still healthy but it may be under a little pressure,” he said.
Mr. Powell didn’t address the ongoing debate inside and outside the Fed over how high rates should go in this hiking cycle. He did imply that even a more substantial rise in inflation wouldn’t necessarily be an issue.
“Our best estimates, however, suggest that so long as inflation expectations remain anchored, a modest steepening of the Phillips curve would be unlikely to cause a significant rise in inflation or demand a disruptive policy tightening,” he said, referring to the long-understood relationship between unemployment and inflation. — Bloomberg

Nordic countries tout initiatives toward sustainable energy, clean technology

EMBASSY officials from the Nordic region hosted a luncheon on Wednesday to highlight their nations’ initiatives toward sustainable energy through clean technology innovation while promoting their companies’ solutions for the Philippine setting.
“The Nordics can and should be the first carbon-negative region in the world,” said Jan Top Christensen, Denmark’s ambassador to the Philippines.
The Nordic region is generally considered to refer to Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.
Mr. Christensen extolled the initiatives from the Nordic region, such as the number of electric vehicles per capita in Norway, which he said is higher than anywhere in the world.
“Denmark gets around 40% of its electricity from wind; Finland and Sweden’s vast forests provide an abundant resource for biofuels; and the Nordic region’s inter-connected electricity network offers opportunities sharing clean energy across borders,” he said.
Mr. Christensen said Denmark is a natural pioneer in wind power and a world leader in wind power technology, saying seven of the world’s top 10 wind turbine manufacturers are present in the country.
“With some of the best wind conditions in the world, it is easy to understand how Denmark became a global hub for wind power technology,” he said.
Denmark was represented during the event by Vestas Wind Systems A/S, a wind turbine maker which also does business in the Philippines.
Jakob Larsen, Vestas senior vice-president, said changes had been adopted locally since another executive from the company said earlier this year that they wanted more clarity in government regulation.
“I think there is now a law which is saying that when you install new electricity generating capacity, at least 1% needs to be renewable going forward. And beyond that right now the government is working on some regulation so that different types of consumers can select what kind of electricity they want to buy,” Mr. Larsen said in an interview.
But as of now, Filipinos still cannot choose the type of renewable energy that they prefer because the regulatory framework has not yet been issued.
“If I compare that to my home country, Denmark, we have for many years even as a private person we have been able to choose exactly the energy source we wanted,” Mr. Larsen said.
“That’s what I would like to see happening here also. Then we as consumers, companies with a green climate profile, [we] can choose to make a difference. But it is happening and I hope the regulatory framework soon will be finished,” he added. — Victor V. Saulon

1...10,25910,26010,261...12,616Page 10,260 of 12,616
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube