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BPI boosts digital services as more clients go online

BANK of the Philippine Islands is ramping up its digital services.

BANK OF THE Philippine Islands (BPI) has boosted its digital ecosystem by sealing partnerships for open banking and allowing more services to be accessible through its mobile app and online banking, as well as its pilot of a conversational banking app.

The said initiatives came amid the growing number of their bank clients that have been going mobile, with 42% of them or 3.2 million out of 8.5 million account users doing online banking, BPI officials said Tuesday in a media briefing held in Makati.

With the added features to their online banking service, the lender targets to see 50% of their customer base to go online, BPI Chief Operating Officer Ramon L. Jocson told members of the media.

“It has taken us three to four years to do this journey,” Mr. Jocson added.

Among BPI’s partners are GCash, Lazada and PayMaya, beep Card, AutoSweep, and EasyTrip RFID. With the tie-ups, BPI online banking users will be able to load their e-wallets through their BPI app.

Meanwhile, bank users can also download the BPI Express Assist (BEA) app to access the lender’s conversational bank app, which processes requests such as cash transfers and balance inquiry, among others, through voice or in-text commands.

Amid the bank’s digital transformation, Mr. Jocson said that their customers can be assured that their cybersecurity is taken cared of.

“We track around 22,000 events per second [in our cybersecurity center]. [This includes] when you access your app, when you access the ATM and so forth…,” he said.

Mr. Jocson however said 50% of BPI’s clients still prefer to do traditional banking, so the bank’s approach is to do both high-tech and high touch.

“There will always be people who won’t go online. We need to make sure that there are people in the branches equipped to have high value discussions with you.” Mr. Jocson said.

BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Cezar P. Consing told reporters last week that the bank utilizes seven to eight percent of their revenues per year on technology.

“Two-thirds is spent on running the bank and one third of the technology spending is on building [technology],” Mr. Consing said.

BPI’s net income in the third quarter climbed 38.6% year-on-year to P8.29 billion. This brought its bottom line for the January to September period to P22.03 billion, climbing 29.5% from the P17.01 billion seen the previous year.

The Ayala-led lender’s shares rose 0.05% to close at P99.05 on Tuesday. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Long-lost Italian Renaissance painting sells for €24 million

SENLIS, France — A long-lost painting by 13th century Italian master Cimabue that was found in the kitchen of an elderly French woman was sold for €24 million ($26.6 million), more than four times the pre-auction estimate, auction Acteon house said on Sunday.

The Christ Mocked painting by early Renaissance artist Cimabue discovered earlier this year had been valued at €4 million to €6 million.

“When a unique work of a painter as rare as Cimabue comes to market, you have to be ready for surprises. This is the only Cimabue that has ever come on the market,” said Dominique Le Coent, head of auction house Acteon in Senlis, north of Paris.

Acteon did not reveal the identity of the bidder but said a foreign museum had been among the bidders.

Costs excluded, the painting sold for €19.5 million.

The tiny painting, measuring just 20 by 26 cm (10 inches), is believed to be part of a diptych consisting of eight small panels.

Born in Florence, Cimabue, also known as Cenni di Pepo, was a pioneering Italian primitive painter, of whom only about 10 known works have survived. He was one of the first to use perspective and paint in a more natural style that broke with medieval and Byzantine traditions. — Reuters

The artist who tried to sink his own market — and almost succeeded

CLYFFORD STILL was not an easy man.

He called the paintings of fellow abstract expressionist Barnett Newman “pathetic” and referred to influential art critic Clement Greenberg as “a small and lecherous man.” He destroyed one of his own canvases by cutting a chunk out of it after a collector dared to disobey his wishes. He turned down sales, rejected exhibitions, and forbade reproductions.

The artist’s uncompromising life and the toll it’s taken on his reputation and market is the subject of Lifeline, a new documentary premiering in New York on Nov. 12.

“It’s about what you give up in your life to make art the way you chose to,” says Dennis Scholl, the film’s director and an art collector. “He gave up acclaim and attention. He would not let the art world commodify him.”

Yet the art world might have had the last laugh. Sotheby’s will offer PH-399, painted in 1946, by Still at its marquee evening auction of contemporary art on Nov. 14, two days after Lifeline’s premiere. It’s estimated to sell for $12 million to $18 million.

Widely considered one of the greatest postwar American artists, Still has remained an enigma since he died in 1980.

The film tells his story through archival material, interviews with contemporary art stars such as Julian Schnabel and Mark Bradford, and insights from the artist’s two daughters. We see Still, always impeccably dressed in a white shirt and a tie, get into his Jaguar or approach a canvas that fills the entire field of vision.

His grave pronouncements, preserved in reel-to-reel audio, augment the narrative.

“When I hang a painting, I would have it say: ‘Here am I,’” Still says in one recording. “This is my presence. My feeling. My self. Here I stand. Implacable. Proud. Alive. Naked. Unafraid. If one doesn’t like it, he should turn away because I am looking at him.”

Still was just as dogmatic in death. His will stipulated that his estate be given to an American city willing to establish a permanent museum housing only his work. For the next three decades, hundreds of canvases remained rolled up, sealed away from the public and researchers, until the city of Denver finally won his widow’s approval.

To raise endowment funds, the city put several paintings from Still’s estate on the block, going against the artist’s wish that none should ever be sold. Legal battles ensued, but the auction was allowed to proceed; one painting sold for $61.7 million. The sale brought in more than $100 million.

The artist’s market has since been erratic, in part because so few significant works are in circulation. Those that do circulate are not always in line with contemporary tastes. PH-916, a six-foot-tall painting that carried a high estimate of $20 million, failed to sell at Christie’s last year.

The tension between Still’s art and the art world is one of the main themes of Lifeline. A pioneer of abstract expressionism, along with Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Newman, Still split from most of his peers, his gallery, and then New York altogether. He spent the last two decades of his life in rural Maryland.

“He had to get away from what he called ‘the corruption of the art world,’” says his daughter, Sandra Still Campbell.

The title of the film refers to the word Still used to describe the bands of color that snaked up and down his monumental canvases. Still’s backstory for the term, though, is less poetic.

“I asked him one time, ‘What is this thing about a lifeline?’” says Henry Hopkins, the former director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The artist told Hopkins that when he was a young boy, his father farmed “on very bad land up in Canada.” One day, Still’s father dropped him down a new 30-foot-deep well, head first, to check if the water was reached. Still was held by a rope tied around his ankle.

“And he said, ‘It was such a traumatic experience, it remained with me all of my life,’” recalls Hopkins (who died in 2009), in archival footage.

Still wanted to exercise total control over his works inside and outside of the studio. Museum directors recount how he drove them crazy installing exhibitions, including a sprawling solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art shortly before his death.

He could also be ruthless. On a rainy day in 1958, Still walked into a home of Alfonso Ossorio, a wealthy artist and collector, who was planning to send a Still painting overseas against the artist’s wishes. Still found the painting, pulled out a knife, and cut out a piece in the middle of the canvas.

“He did refer to it as ‘I cut the heart of the painting out,’” says his daughter.

The cutout now resides at the Clyfford Still museum in Denver, along with the artist’s archive, about 830 paintings, and more than 2,300 works on paper and sculpture. The museum holds approximately 95% of Still’s total output. “He knew that at some point the world would come to him,” says Scholl, the film’s director. “And, of course, it did.” — Bloomberg

PHL nickel miners seen to get a boost from Indonesia export ban

By Vincent Mariel P. Galang, Reporter

NICKEL ore producers in the Philippines are expected to get a boost, after Indonesia announced that it will suspend nickel ore exports for the rest of the year.

Mining stocks got a lift at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), where the mining and oil subsector was up 143.91 points or 1.57% to close at 9,285.91 on Tuesday. The PSE index closed 44.66 points or 0.56% higher at 7,991.19 on Tuesday, while the broader all shares index added 12.92 points or 0.27% to 4,787.17.

Nickel Asia Corp., the Philippines’ top nickel ore producer, rose 5.15% or 20 centavos to close at P4.08 each. Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc., another nickel ore miner, also jumped 3.57% or 6 centavos to close at P1.74 each.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that Indonesia suspended nickel ore exports immediately, as the country aims to become a processor of its mineral resources.

Indonesia was the top nickel-producer in 2018 with 560,000 tons, followed by the Philippines, with 340,000 tons. Both Indonesia and the Philippines’ top export market for the mineral is China.

Timson Securities, Inc. Equity Trader Jervin S. de Celis said Indonesia’s nickel ore export ban will benefit Philippine nickel ore miners.

“The move of Indonesian government in the ban of nickel exports will cause the price of the metal rise in the world market and that may translate to higher revenues for Nickel Asia, Global Ferronickel and other nickel-exporting firms from the Philippines,” he said in a text message.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) has lined up proposed amendments for the Philippine Mineral Reporting Code (PMRC) 2007.

“‘Yung process namin na ‘to [This process] is really to benchmark and see where appropriate… revisions or upgrades in our reporting framework for mining companies would have to be introduced,” PSE Chief Operating Officer Roel A. Refran told BusinessWorld via phone.

“It’s been a long time. It’s been more than ten years… and the world is changing,” he added.

The code was adopted by the PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August 2008, which sets minimum standards, recommendations, and guidelines for public reporting of listed mining companies.

At that time it was compatible with the Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code 2004 and the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards International Reporting Template 2006. The implementing rules and regulations of PMRC 2007 was issued by the SEC and the PSE in October 2010.

The PSE said that a Philippine Mineral Reporting Code Committee (PMRCC) was formed November 2018 to lead the process of revising the PMRC 2007 which started February this year.

The PMRCC members include the Philippine Society of Mining Engineers, Geology Society of the Philippines, and the Society of the Metallurgical Engineers of the Philippines, along with the PSE and other minerals-industry stakeholders.

A public hearing on the amendments to the PMRC will be held the Mines and Geosciences Bureau Central Office in Quezon City on November 9.

BSP invests $150 million in BIS green bonds

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) has invested $150 million in the open-ended green bonds launched by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

In a statement released Tuesday, the central bank said its investment in the green bonds launched by the Switzerland-based lender will help diversify the BSP’s reserves.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno told reporters in a text message that BSP invested $150 million to the said green bonds.

“The BSP is proud to be a member of the advisory committee created by the BIS to give guidance on the objectives of the initiative and the features of the fund, which is designed to help central banks incorporate environmental sustainability objectives in reserve management,” the central bank said in the statement.

“The BSP is one with the BIS in its broader commitment to support environmentally responsible finance and investment practices,” the central bank added.

The BIS launched the open-ended fund in September and is structured according to Swiss law. It is part of the BIS Investment Pool family, a format used by BIS for its fixed income investment products.

The BIS acts as a bank for central banks. It is owned by 60 central banks around the world.

In a forum by The Asian Banker held earlier this month, Mr. Diokno said the central bank has acknowledged the repercussions of climate change as well as the banks’ role to drive initiatives related to sustainable financing.

“In particular, a number of banks have put up Sustainable Energy Finance Desks, which serve as a point of contact in evaluating and monitoring sustainable energy projects. These encourage enterprises to engage in renewable energy projects,” Mr. Diokno said in his speech at the event held in Taguig, also noting lenders that have issued green bonds such as BDO Unibank, Inc.’s $150 million green bonds and Bank of the Philippine Islands’ $300 million ASEAN green bonds.

Mr. Diokno also said the BSP will conduct a study on the role of central banks in addressing climate and environment-related risk to monetary, financial, and broader macroeconomic stability. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Experiencing Van Gogh on-screen

“I CAN’T change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.” Artist Vincent Willem van Gogh — whose painting The Red Vineyard (1888) is the only work known to have been sold in his lifetime — wrote those prophetic lines in a letter to his brother, Theo in 1888. Today, his works are sold for millions in auctions and private sales worldwide.

But one does not have to have millions, or visit a museum far from our shores to enjoy the Dutch post-impressionist painter’s works thanks to Van Gogh Alive, multi-sensory exhibition of selected masterpieces which is running until Dec. 8 at the fourth level of One Bonifacio High Street in BGC.

The exhibition is created and promoted by Grande Exhibitions, an Australian company specializing in the installation of large-scale exhibitions; and presented by the Bonifacio Art Foundation Inc. (BAFI), the non-profit organization behind The Mind Museum, the BGC Arts Center, and the BGC Public Art Program.

“It was a natural partnership with BAFI in redefining what can be creatively done inside indoor spaces. It was a coming together of how BGC can be a game-changer in its creative approach to community life and how to punctuate our collective experiences of a place,” Myra Ocampo, Head of Commercial Operations of Bonifacio Global City, was quoted as saying in a press release.

BAFI previously worked with Grande Exhibitions on the Da Vinci The Genius exhibit at the Mind Museum in 2013.

“We belong to the same organization of science museums and exhibition related organizations. We always know what each other is up to so we always know what they are offering,” Bonifacio Art Foundation managing director and curator Maria Isabel Garcia, told BusinessWorld on the sidelines at last week’s press launch.

“They wanted to present Van Gogh in a different light. They bring in that added value of digital prowess in order to present classical content in a contemporary way,” she added.

LIFE STAGES
The exhibition takes up a 500-square-meter space in One Bonifacio High Street, which can accommodate 270 visitors at a time. A life-size replica of Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles, France welcomes visitors at the venue’s entrance, followed by a display and descriptions of his famous paintings.

Guests then enter the main exhibit space, a 45-minute presentation of over 3,000 paintings, portraits, photographs, and letters projected on a scattering of walls in the space, set to 23 pieces of music from composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, Franz Schubert, and George Frederick Handel.

Show is presented through SENSORY4, a system developed by Grande Exhibitions which “combines multi-channel motion graphics, cinema quality surround sound and up to 40 high-definition projectors.”

The stages of the artist’s life are told through a selection of his paintings done in the Netherlands, Paris, Arles, Saint-Remy, and Auvers-sur-Oise, including The Potato Eaters (1885), Flowering Plum Tree (1887), The Yellow House (1888), Starry Night (1889), and Wheat Fields with Crows (1890).

“We would really like viewers to pay attention [to the presentation] before taking selfies,” Ms. Garcia said.

Van Gogh Alive is on view at the 4th floor of One Bonifacio High Street, 28th St. cor. 5th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. For information, visit the official website www.vangoghalive.ph. Tickets are priced at P750 (adult) and P450 (student) and are available on a first come, first served basis at the Van Gogh Alive ticket booth, Mondays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and The Mind Museum ticket booth on Tuesdays to Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Senior citizen and PWD discounts are not available on online purchases. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Property developer SLI shelves follow-on offering

STA. LUCIA Land, Inc. (SLI) is postponing its planned P8.4-billion follow-on offering (FOO), which was scheduled next month, as it assesses the current market conditions.

In a letter dated Oct. 28, the listed property developer informed the Securities and Exchange Commission of its decision to defer the follow-on offering.

“Upon further consideration and extensive discussions between the company and China Bank Capital Corp…, the parties agreed that it would be in the best interest of the issuer and its stakeholders to defer the FOO,” SLI said.

“The decision to defer the (follow-on offering) is primarily due to the current market conditions which has been recently volatile,” the company added.

China Bank Capital is the issue manager, underwriter and bookrunner for SLI’s planned offering.

SLI filed the registration statement for its FOO with the SEC in August. It was looking to issue up to 3 billion common shares to the public, composed of 2.7 billion primary offer shares with an over-allotment option of 300 million shares.

Price per share would range between P2.26 and P2.80, which will generate about P6.78 billion to P8.4 billion for the company.

Based on its earlier timetable, SLI would set the issue price by Nov. 12, conduct the offer from Nov. 18 to 29 and list on Dec. 9.

At that time, SLI said it was expecting to net P8.12 billion from the follow-on offering, provided it maximizes the over-allotment option and sells at the high end of the share price range.

From the proceeds, it said P6.78 billion will be allotted to beef up the company’s capital expenditures, P820 million for acquisition of land and P517.79 million for general corporate purposes.

SLI is allocating P20 billion in the next three years for capital expenditures. It is expecting to generate P20 billion in reservation sales from its pipeline of 28 residential and commercial projects and five condominium and hotel projects.

The company booked an attributable net income of P883.74 million in the 1st semester, 104% up from a year ago, as gross revenues grew 70% to P3.5 billion. — Denise A. Valdez

Metrobank’s Orix raises P4.16 billion from bond offer

ORIX METRO Leasing and Finance Corp., a unit of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), said its P2-billion maiden bond offering was oversubscribed 2.2 times when it was launched last week to raise more than double its initial offer size.

A statement by Metrobank’s First Metro Investment Corp. yesterday said Orix Metro was able to raise P4.16 billion from its offer of two-year fixed-rate peso bonds due to high market demand.

The offer period opened on Oct. 24 and was supposed to last until Nov. 6 but was cut short due to the oversubscription as early as day one.

“We are very happy with the overwhelming reception on this landmark transaction, Orix Metro’s debut in the public debt capital markets. This is a testament to the investing public’s trust and confidence in Orix Metro’s financial strength and ability to meet financial obligations,” First Metro Executive Vice-President Daniel D. Camacho was quoted as saying.

Metrobank said in a regulatory filing last week the bond offering of Orix Metro initially had an offer size of P2 billion with an interest rate of 4.55% per annum. It is scheduled to be listed at the Philippine Dealing and Exchange on Nov. 15.

The offer is the first tranche of the company’s P10-billion peso-denominated debt securities program, which its board of directors approved on Sept. 6. It will have one or more tranches with a tenor of two years.

First Metro was the financial adviser of the company for the offering. It was joined by Metrobank in acting as selling agents for the bond issuance.

The company attributed the success of Orix Metro’s bond market debut to Metrobank’s wide network, saying in the statement: “Metrobank and First Metro worked hand-in-hand in identifying the right market/investors-a key component in a maiden public offering such as this.”

Local debt watcher Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings) gave Orix Metro a “PRS Aa plus (corp.)” credit rating for the bond offer, which means it has a strong capacity to meet its financial obligations.

“We at First Metro have always been an advocate of capital markets development and having introduced a new name like Orix Metro in the capital markets is another reason we are very proud of this deal,” Mr. Camacho said.

Orix Metro is the joint venture of Metrobank, First Metro and Japan’s Orix Corp., which is primarily engaged in providing leasing and financing services across different sectors. It has more than 100 branches nationwide. — Denise A. Valdez

Art & Culture (10/30/19)

 

Polish jazz pianist at the CCP

THE Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, presents leading Polish jazz pianist and composer Artur Dutkiewicz in a solo concert on Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. and a Piano Improvisation Workshop on Nov. 13 from 10 a.m. to noon. Both events will be held at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater). Called the “Ambassador of Polish jazz” by the Jazz Forum Magazine in 2012, Dutkiewicz has appeared in more than 60 countries around the world from the USA through Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Besides playing in solo recitals, he is leader of the Artur Dutkiewicz Trio which plays modern jazz. His last albums Mazurki/solo, Prana, Traveller/trio, have been well received by audiences and critics alike. His CCP program, entitled ImproMazurka, includes: Antonin Dvorak’s Theme from the 2nd part of the New World Symphony; Dutkiewicz’s Africa Mazurka, Polish Mazurka, Chased Mazurka, Morning Mazurka, Mazurka Oberka; the Polish Christian song “The Lord is my Shepherd”; Ignacy Paderewski’s Nocturne in C Major, Op. 16 No. 4 and Minuet in G Major, Op. 14 No.1; and Alexander Tansman’s Les Iles Philippines. Ticket prices for the concert are P1,000 and P800 with a 50% discount for students and a 20% discount for senior citizens. For details contact the CCP Box Office at 8832-3704. For information regarding the Piano Improvisation Workshop call 8832-1125 loc. 1604/1605 or e-mail ccp.artist.training@gmail.com.

Jessica Zafra’s latest book out

FROM THE author of the Twisted series comes a collection of 27 stories from the last 27 years. The Collected Stories of Jessica Zafra contains award-winning fiction from Manananggal Terrorizes Manila (1992) and The Stories So Far (2014), plus new stories and an introduction by Don Jaucian. There will be a book launch on Nov. 2, 4-6 p.m., at the Lobby of the Nexus Center, 1010 Metropolitan Ave., Makati (near the Makati Post Office and fire sttion). Zafra will be giving a talk, do a Q&A, and sign books at the event. The Collected Stories of Jessica Zafra is published by Ateneo University Press and is now available at Fully Booked stores, Solidaridad, Popular Bookstores, the Ateneo University Press bookshop, Loyola Bookshop, and on Shopee. It wil soon be available at Mt. Cloud Bookshop in Baguio and other outlets.

Origami workshop with a master origami artist

DR. JUN MITANI, who is a professor in the Department of Computer Science, Graduate School of System Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, and holds a PhD in Engineering from The University of Tokyo, is a master origami artist. His research focuses on computer graphics, and includes computer-aided origami design techniques. He is the author of the books Spherical Origami, 3D Magic Origami, and 3D Origami Art. Mr. Mitani will be conducting an origami workshop on Nov. 4, 2 p.m., at the Multi- Purpose Hall of the Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan, 2627 Roxas Blvd., Pasay City. He will also be holding a workshop on Nov. 7, 1-3:30 p.m., at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Banko Sentral Complex, Roxas Blvd., Malate, Manila. This event is free and open to the public. Materials will be provided for all participants. Since there are limited slots only, RSVP is required. call 88708-7828 or e-mail info@metmuseum.ph for details.

International expressive arts symposium

DUYAN: Cradling Diversity in the Expressive Arts will be held on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at MAGIS (Make Art that Gives Inspires and Shapes the World) Creative Spaces, located at 111 Cordillera Street, in Ayala Alabang Village, Muntinlupa City. Duyan brings together national and international thought leaders in the arts and healing practices. The symposium opens on Nov. 30 with panel discussion on the topic “How does art contribute to well-being,” to be followed by plenary workshops and discussions. On Dec. 1, there are talks on the practice of the expressive arts, as well as plenary workshops to be led by expressive arts therapy pioneer Dr. Paolo J. Knill and poet/writer/author Dr. Margo Fuchs Knill. Among the speakers are art therapist and mental health clinician Dr. Gina Alfonso, dance and movement therapist Joey Atayde of the American Dance Therapy Association, psychiatric nurse and psychological care specialist Thelma Singson Barrera, Fr. Loreto Jaque who is trained in therapeutic play, psychologist Marisa Marin, art therapist Krupa Jhaveri, special education professor Amos Manlangit, and artist and community organizer Sarah Queblatin. To register, log on to magiscreative.net. For more information, visit MAGIS Creative Spaces on Facebook, or call 850-4852 local 220, 0927-950-5745, or e-mail hello@magiscreative.net.

Two exhibits at Silverlens

TWO EXHIBITS have opened at Silverlens Manila and are on view until Nov. 23. The Garden, Maya Muñoz’ third solo show with the gallery, presents new paintings with neon garden and volcanic landscapes. Meanwhile, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo and Pinky Ibarra Urmaza have a two-man exhibit called Dead Horse Bay which highlights the artists’ similarities — they both lived in New York City for two decades and their work are involved with the assembly of found objects and discarded fragments imbued with history. An Artist Talk with Ms. Ramilo and Ms. Urmaza, moderated by Stephanie Frondoso, will be held today from 4-6 p.m. They will be discussing how they came about with Dead Horse Bay and details about their work. Admission is free but slots are limited. RSVP at deadhorsebay.rsvpify.com to secure a seat. For inquiries, contact info@silverlensgalleries.com. Silverlens, 2263 Don Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Makati.

From Nakanojo Biennale to the CCP

ON Nov. 14, 6 p.m., the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) unveils the work of visual artists Mervy Pueblo and Atsuko Yamagata from the recently concluded 7th Nakanojo Biennale in Japan. Pueblo and Yamagata, visual artists based in Manila, met, created and exhibited their works at the biennale last September. Working both individually during their residencies in the biennale, Pueblo and Yamagata created projects that respond to the physical and nonphysical realm. Pueblo’s installation is filled with coded references, creating socially charged mysterious draperies that function as a portrait of our contemporary reality. Yamagata playfully explores animist processes and presents materialistic definitions of the immaterial. The exhibit, Transcendental, will be at the CCP’s Bulwagang Carlos V. Francisco (Little Theater Lobby) and will run until Feb. 9. For details contact the Visual Arts and Museum Division, Production and Exhibition Department at 8832-1125 loc. 1504/1505 and 8832-3702, 0917-603-3809, e-mail ccp.exhibits@gmail.com or visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph.

ACR’s commercial papers get PRS A plus rating

THE ALCANTARA-led Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc. (ACR) has obtained an above-average credit rating for its P1.5-billion commercial papers, it told the stock exchange on Tuesday.

Publicly listed ACR said it was assigned a rating of “PRS A plus” with a stable outlook in relation to the first tranche of its commercial paper program of up to P2.5 billion that it registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The rating given by Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings) means the company has an above-average capacity to meet its financial commitments relative to other Philippine corporations.

Among the factors cited by the rating firm as basis were “the positive growth prospects for Mindanao which will bring about an increasing demand for power.” It also pointed to ACR’s “ability to establish joint ventures with strong partners for particular projects.”

The “stable outlook” given to ACR is assigned when a rating is likely to be maintained or to remain unchanged in the next 12 months.

ACR has started commercial operations of the second 105-megawatt (MW) section of its 210-MW Sarangani Energy Corp. baseload coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani province. The $570-million power plant is said to be the single largest power investment in the province and the entire Region 12.

Also in Sarangani province, a P4.5 billion, 14-5 MW run-of-river hydroelectric power plant at the Siguil River basis in Maasim is on its preliminary work. The plant is scheduled to begin commercial operations in 2022 and will provide power to Sarangani, General Santos City and municipalities of South Cotabato.

The hydro power plant is ACR’s first venture in renewable energy. It is the first of eight run-of-river hydro power projects that the company plans to build in Zamboanga del Norte, other parts of Mindanao, and Negros Oriental in Western Visayas.

At present, the company run four power facilities in Mindanao that generate a combined 468 MW. The plants serve more than 8 million people in 13 cities and eight provinces including urban centers Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Iligan, and Zamboanga City.

On Tuesday, shares in ACR slipped by 0.77% to P1.29 each. — Victor V. Saulon

Fed copies 1990s playbook in bid to avert downturn

THE US FEDERAL Reserve looks set to nudge the economy with a third consecutive rate cut at its policy review this week. — REUTERS

WASHINGTON — In the midst of what became a golden decade for the US Federal Reserve, central bankers twice in the 1990s cut interest rates in short bursts that managed to help the US economy continue growing despite slowing investment and weak growth overseas.

Today’s Fed hopes a third time proves just as charmed.

In their latest two-day policy meeting this week, Fed officials look set to nudge the economy along in similar fashion with their third consecutive rate cut. That would match the moves made by then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1995 and 1998 during an era known as “the Great Moderation” for its steady growth, falling unemployment and tempered inflation.

There’s been no clear commitment to another reduction in borrowing costs from Fed policy makers, though a failure to lower rates on Wednesday could risk upending financial markets that are confident another cut is coming. With billions of dollars in bets on futures markets tied to anticipated Fed actions, any deviation by the US central bank from the expected course typically leads to sharp swings in bond and stock markets.

A rate cut on Wednesday, which would be the Fed’s third this year, would lower the overnight benchmark lending rate to a new range of between 1.5% and 1.75%. Policy makers may emphasize that “the three cuts cumulatively have served to balance the risks to the outlook,” and will likely keep the economy on track, JP Morgan economist Michael Feroli wrote last week.

The Fed is scheduled to announce its latest policy decision at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (1800 GMT). Fed Chair Jerome Powell will hold a news conference half an hour later.

Policy makers likely won’t shut the door to further action, but may “communicate patience in deciding future policy moves,” TD Securities analysts wrote last week.

GAINING LEEWAY
Investors have no firm opinion on when the Fed will move again after Wednesday, a signal to Powell and his colleagues that if they deliver the expected cut this week they will have room to shape market expectations moving forward.

According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool here the probability of a rate reduction on Wednesday stands at 94%. After that, however, it’s a coin toss whether there will be any further change for at least a year.

That in itself is a success for Powell. Beginning last fall, the Fed confronted a widening gap between what policy makers at that point thought would be continued rate hikes, and the expectations of investors who began factoring rate cuts into their outlook as a global economic slowdown took hold around the intensifying US-China trade war.

The Fed, under pressure to lower rates from President Donald Trump but also watching US investment and manufacturing data weaken, reversed course early this year.

Financial markets have responded with largely easier borrowing conditions, and lower rates on important benchmarks like 30-year home mortgages. Key aspects of the bond market, watched by some Fed officials as evidence of faith or lack of it in near-term economic growth, have been looking steadily healthier.

Some of the ongoing problems like the trade war with China and the prospect of a disorderly British exit from the European Union also have lightened, at least a bit.

That has helped narrow the gap between the Fed and global market expectations.

It may have helped narrow gaps within the US central bank as well. Even those Fed officials who have been most eager to cut rates now feel that one more quarter-percentage-point reduction should be adequate for the year.

THEN AND NOW
Today’s circumstances share a number of similarities with those confronting the Fed roughly a quarter of a century ago.

In July 1995, Fed officials, as now, debated whether slower-than-expected growth would impair business investment, spilling over into hiring plans and, ultimately, household spending.

Just as weak growth in Europe is seen as a risk for US companies today, a weak outlook for Canada and Japan was a concern then, according to minutes of the meeting at which the Fed adopted the first of three rate cuts in six months.

“During the last six weeks my optimism has diminished,” said former Fed Chair Janet Yellen, who was president of the San Francisco Fed at the time. Without action by the Fed “we could easily end up, I think, in an extended growth recession.”

Fast-forward to the present, and again the economic data has not been great.

The most recent jobs and retail sales reports were both weak. Economists polled by Reuters expect economic growth slowed in the third quarter to an annual rate of 1.7%, from a 2% pace in the second quarter. The advance estimate of gross domestic product is due to be released on Wednesday, before the Fed concludes its policy meeting.

As the 1990s proceeded, it took two such rounds of “mid-cycle adjustment,” about two years apart and each involving three rate cuts of a quarter of a percentage point each, to keep that recovery on track. It was derailed by the bursting of the dot-com stock market bubble, with a recession starting in March, 2001.

The expansion since the 2007-2009 financial crisis and recession has already eclipsed the 1990s to become the most prolonged period of sustained growth in US history.

While the pace has sometimes been tepid, Powell and his colleagues argue there is no reason it can’t keep going, and have pledged to act “as appropriate” to try to make it so.

At a speech in Denver earlier this month, Powell nodded to both the risks facing the US economy, but also to its ongoing growth.

On balance, “this feels very sustainable,” he said. — Reuters

How PSEi member stocks performed — October 29, 2019

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Tuesday, October 29, 2019.

 

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