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Pacific Online extends PCSO lease agreement

PACIFIC ONLINE Systems Corp. (LOTO) has extended its lease agreement with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) by another year.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Wednesday, LOTO said PCSO has agreed to extend its equipment lease agreement in the period covering Aug. 1 to July 31, 2019.
The listed gaming firm provides technical and market expertise for the distribution of lottery products with the state-run lottery office. It has been providing online lottery systems in Visayas and Mindanao to PCSO since 1995.
LOTO’s subsidiary Total Gaming Technologies, Inc. leases Keno lottery system and equipment to PCSO over the country, while its other unit Lucky Circle Corp. operates PCSO lotto retail outlets in major malls nationwide.
The company reported a 50% drop in net income attributable to equity holders of the parent to P53.1 million in the second quarter of 2018. This came amid a 5% increase in revenues to P538.1 million during the period.
On a six-month basis, LOTO’s attributable profit fell by 17% to P216 million, while revenues rose by. 3.8% to P1.1 billion.
LOTO attributed the revenue growth to higher distribution revenues, following the acquisition of nine entities engaged in retail distribution of PCSO products last year. This however was hampered by a 4% decrease in lottery equipment rental revenues due to a dip in Lotto sales in the country.
The 19% increase in costs and expenses to P863.7 million also outpaced that of revenues for the first half, leading to the profit drop for the period. The company observed a 116% increase in rent and utilities, 44% uptick in personnel costs, and 7% increase in software and license fees.
Incorporated in 1993, the company’s core business is in the development and management of online computer systems, terminals, and software for the Philippine lottery industry.
Shares in LOTO slipped by 0.36% or four centavos to close at P11 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

You can now buy shares in one of the world’s top cocktail bars

AS OF July 27, cocktail fans can pick up some equity along with their gin martini.
After 12 years as a single, award-winning establishment, Death & Co., the famed bar in New York’s East Village, is in the midst of a serious expansion. To facilitate this, co-owner David Kaplan and his team are fund-raising in a way that’s unconventional for a drinking establishment.
The bar, which was founded on the last night of 2006, and which opened a second location in Denver earlier this year, initiated its first equity crowdfunding round on Friday via the investing platform SeedInvest. It’s the first bar or restaurant to fund-raise on the platform.
Investors will be able to purchase ownership stakes in an umbrella company, Gin & Luck LLC, which owns the Death & Co. bars as well as the book deals, intellectual properties, and the hospitality consulting firm Proprietors LLC.
The company is valued at $13 million.
The company’s East Village bar, named best in America in 2010 at Tales of the Cocktail, recorded $1.8 million in net revenue in 2017, up 71% from 2008. The newest Death & Co. location, at the Ramble Hotel in Denver, notched $313,000 in revenue in its first month of operation. Gin & Luck has sold more than 120,000 copies of its book Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails, which added up to more than $379,000 in royalties. Consulting firm Proprietors billed $539,000 in revenue in 2017, with clients such as Hilton, Pernod Ricard, and Bacardi USA. A third location, a standalone Death & Co. bar in Los Angeles, is slated to open next year.
Unlike a Kickstarter campaign — now omnipresent for small restaurants and coffee shops — in which people contribute money toward a project but don’t have stakes in the business, an equity crowdfunding campaign allows investors to buy ownership shares in private companies. Investors make their money back in a range of ways, including if the company is sold or goes public. Gin & Luck is offering a preferred equity note; it’s essentially a mini-IPO, but the company remains private and the original founders retain control.
Gin & Luck is aiming to raise $1.5 million, with a minimum stake of $1,000 per investor. The company is headed by Kaplan (chief executive officer) along with Alexander Day (chief operating officer) and Ravi DeRossi (chief administrative officer).
The money it raises on SeedInvest will go toward new-store growth and new hires. According to its investor decks, Gin & Luck projects $385,000 in annual profits at the East Village bar in 2019 and $697,000 at the Denver location. Five revenue streams, including three bars, consulting fees, and a retail arm, are projected to add up to $1.89 million in total annual profits in 2019, and $2.68 million in 2020 via seven projects. The company hopes to open multiple additional locations, starting with LA in 2019; anticipated future projects include bars in Chicago, Atlanta, and Nashville, as well as new Ramble Hotel partnerships in Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Boston.
Whereas restaurants are generally regarded as bad investments with rising rents and labor costs, bars are considered a safer bet with high profit margins, thanks in part to alcohol, which is nonperishable and easy to mark up. But whether this style of fund-raising will take off with other bars remains to be seen.
“The best part about a crowdfunded project is that you have people who have a vested interest in the success of the company,” says Jim Meehan, co-founder of New York’s legendary PDT. “The worst is when you have people you don’t know walking into the bar saying they know the owner or that they own the place. Will they see themselves as owners in a respectful way? Or does it give them a sense of entitlement?”
Crowdfunded investing in small companies is a relatively new development; prior to the JOBS Act, signed into law in 2016 by President Obama, only accredited investors (who had to prove a net worth of $1 million or have an income of $200,000 for at least two years) could buy stakes in promising new ventures. Following the JOBS Act, nonaccredited investors can now buy into emerging businesses. Other companies raising money on SeedInvest include Jason Calacanis’s mobile news app Inside.com and Dash, a connected car platform. This spring, buzzy luxury denim line DSTLD raised more than $2.9 million on SeedInvest.
Death & Co. was key to the exploding speakeasy trend in high-end drinking. It’s known for ambitious, design-focused takes on cocktails, such as the Dawn Patrol, which is made with Absentroux (an absinthe herbal wine), Bowmore 12-year-old single malt, Granny Smith apple, egg white, and seltzer.
The bar has also been a launching pad for bartending talent. Notable alums include Thomas Waugh (now head bartender at the Pool Lounge at the Four Seasons); Jim Kearns (co-founder of New York’s Happiest Hour bar); Jillian Vose (beverage director at the Dead Rabbit, named World’s Best Bar); and Brian Miller (head bartender at the Polynesian, recently opened in Manhattan). — Bloomberg

Fitbit Ionic

FITBIT’S first flagship smartwatch, Ionic, got the bad raps when it hit markets globally in late 2017. Early adopters complained about its lack of aesthetic appeal and its laggy performance. For Fitbit fans, the Ionic was supposed to be their ideal smartwatch: it has GPS, it’s water resistant, and it can last almost a week without charging. The Ionic seemed to have failed to meet their expectations.
To rectify whatever Fitbit got wrong about the Ionic, the company launched its second smartwatch seven months later, the Fitbit Versa. The Versa sported rounded edges, was thinner and more lightweight, and it was loaded with a better operating system. It was also priced lower than the Ionic by about P2,000.
While the Versa has undeniably outrun the Ionic in terms of popularity, the latter is not about to bonk any time soon. After all, the Ionic and the Versa are two separate product lines, and rumor has it that Fitbit will announce an Ionic 2 within the year.
The good news is, the Ionic is getting better and smarter thanks to a series of firmware updates that Fitbit started rolling out in March this year. This review is meant to highlight the changes made since the Ionic received these updates.
NEW FEATURES
When the Ionic was first released, there was not much about the display to write home about. With its operating system updated, the Ionic now has a more intuitive user interface, giving users more ways to interact with the watch.
Swiping up from the clockface will bring up an on-device dashboard called Fitbit Today, which displays a summary of one’s daily or weekly health and fitness stats, such as the number of steps, distance covered, and calories burned. Before the update, the fitness summary could only be viewed on the Fitbit mobile or desktop app. The Today feature also displays some useful health and fitness reminders as well as tips on how to use the platform.
Swiping down from the clock will display notifications from one’s e-mail, text messages and other notifications from apps like Instagram and Facebook Messenger. To keep the watch from vibrating every minute, notifications for all the apps synced with the Ionic can be deactivated through the Fitbit mobile or PC app.
In the course of this review, syncing the Ionic to the Fitbit app had been challenging. At times, the Fitbit app couldn’t locate the Ionic even if the watch was sitting right next to my mobile phone or laptop. Transferring music from the desktop app to the watch has not been smooth either. It turns out the last one is a common problem among Ionic users, which is why Fitbit posted on its support site ways to solve the issue. At times, the solutions worked but then there were days when the watch was just unwieldy. After a series of firmware updates, syncing the Ionic to the app somehow improved, although there are still hiccups every now and then.
As part of the update, Fitbit also added music streaming Deezer onboard the Ionic. However, only paying Deezer subscribers can use the app on Fitbit. Deezer offers a free three-month trial for users signing up on the music service through Fitbit for the first time. After that, Deezer will start charging your enrolled credit card.
Last May, Fitbit rolled out a second firmware update, which introduced a feature that made the Ionic more likeable. There’s now a quick reply option to e-mails, text messages and chat applications. Tapping the Reply button at the end of an app notification will show five pre-written responses. Users may choose to override the default responses and write personalized short messages. The quick reply feature, Fitbit notes, is only available on watches paired with an Android smartphone.
In an effort to broaden the Ionic’s appeal for female users, Fitbit also introduced a female health tracking feature, which allows users to track their menstrual cycle. For those trying to get pregnant, this feature also provides information about their estimated fertile window. Fitbit says it uses the data the users provide to estimate its predictions. Initially, it takes into account the average cycle and period lengths the user provides during setup. For more accurate predictions, Fitbit recommends to log your period consistently.
PERFORMANCE
One of the best features of the Ionic is its battery life. This has consistently been Fitbit’s main selling point across all its fitness trackers. For most of the review period, the Ionic lasted for up to five days on a single charge. For days that didn’t include playing music on the watch and with e-mail notifications switched off, the Ionic was fully awake for about a week. It’s fast charging, too. Plugging it at empty-battery level only took about an hour to reach full battery level.
The Ionic also tracked most workouts and activities accurately. With GPS onboard, the Ionic showed me my running stats without taking my smartphone out. I took the Ionic for a jog around the University of the Philippines’ 2.2-kilometer Academic Oval on Sundays and, while I didn’t care much about my running stats at first, seeing my progress in terms of pace, the distance covered, and my heart rate during the run somehow motivated me to beat my stats in the succeeding sessions.
I also took the Ionic to swimming and it recorded laps accurately with additional insights such as calories burned and distance covered. The Ionic can also track other workout modes such as cycling, treadmill, weights, and interval training.
Besides measuring fitness activities, another great thing about the Ionic is that it’s also a sleep monitoring tool. It’s amazing to learn (and slightly creepy at the same time) that the Ionic gets to work the moment you doze off. Using a combination of body movement and heart rate patterns, the watch can record the number of hours your body enters into different stages of sleep: light, deep, and REM (rapid eye movement) stage. For someone who has an irregular sleep pattern, I learned a lot from looking at my sleep data.
VERDICT
While software updates can never change the Ionic’s unwieldy form, vast improvements in performance and onboard features still make this wearable hybrid a desirable choice for Fitbit followers. It’s still far from perfect but if Fitbit could bring more features into the device through software updates, the Ionic could get better and smarter through time. Fitbit Ionic now retails for P14,999 on Lazada.com.ph — Mira B. Gloria

PCC extends review period for Grab’s ‘voluntary commitments’

By Denise A. Valdez
GRAB PHILIPPINES (MyTaxi.PH, Inc.) said it is inching closer to settling its voluntary commitments to the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to address anti-competition issues flagged by the government regarding its acquisition of Uber Philippines in March.
“Negotiations with PCC are still ongoing. We met with PCC last Monday, July 30, and we are close to finalizing the Voluntary Commitments (VC),” Grab public affairs head Leo Emmanuel K. Gonzales said in a statement on Wednesday.
He added that the PCC has extended the period to review the commitments to Aug. 10 upon Grab’s request. Results were originally scheduled to be released end-July.
In a message to BusinessWorld, the PCC confirmed it has granted Grab’s request to extend the validity period of its voluntary commitments.
But it also noted, “In the event that PCC finds the proposed commitments unacceptable or insufficient in addressing our Statement of Concerns (SOC), the Commission will revert back to the Review Track. To this end, PCC is mindful of its mandate and hopes the outcome will benefit the riding public.”
Grab country head Brian P. Cu told reporters in mid July the company could not reveal its exact commitments, but noted “it has something to do with driver behavior, it has something to do with driver incentives, it has something to do with pricing, it has something to do with exclusivity of drivers.”
He added that the PCC’s initial feedback on the commitments was constructive. “They’re welcoming our remedies. They’re just clarifying some of them,” he said.
The ride-hailing company said in June it submitted the proposed commitments to PCC on May 30, which were set to be reviewed by the antitrust body for not longer than 60 days. This is the same process followed for other deals that went through questioning by the government for their supposed anti-competition effects, such as when SM Retail, Inc. proposed to acquire Goldilocks Bakeshop, Inc.
The submission of the voluntary commitments has put on hold PCC’s review of the Grab-Uber merger. After its assessment, the PCC will decide how to move forward with its verdict on the deal.

Cebu’s Rico’s Lechon makes its way to Metro Manila

WE’RE GOING to be the bearer of good news for your stomach and your soul, and bad news for your arteries and heart: Rico’s Lechon is now open in Manila.
The Cebu favorite was founded in 1995, and shot to cult fame when former president and now Manila mayor Joseph Estrada ordered a roasted pig from Rico’s. Rico’s was acquired earlier this year by Meat Concepts Corp., the company behind brands Ogawa Traditional Japanese Restaurant, KPub BBQ, Thai BBQ, Oppa Chicken, Modern China, and Tony Roma’s. The first branch in Manila is located in the BGC’s The Fort Strip, close to these outlets by Meat Concepts Corp. Other branches will open soon in Tiendesitas, Glorietta, Ayala Malls Cloverleaf, and UP Town Center.
BusinessWorld attended a preview at the restaurant earlier this week. Friends from Cebu and the Visayas took bites from the sinigang (sour soup) and bam-i (stir-fried noodles) and pronounced it “pwede na” (good enough), while the regular lechon, which of course was the reason why we were there, got the same rating.
The Spicy lechon variant, however, was a revelation. This is the stuff that lechon legends are made of. Shining with fat, covered in chili and spices, it teases and tantalizes the tongue ever so gently, massaging it to get a response, but will slide easily down the throat and land blissfully in your stomach. BusinessWorld found strands of leaves in it, first thought to be lemongrass, but Meat Concepts’ CEO George Pua corrected us and said it was onion leeks. Pressed further to reveal the secret of Rico’s Lechon, he laughed and said, “That’s why it’s called a secret!”
Be forewarned though: bringing in pigs and ingredients from Cebu was quite a hassle, so most of the ingredients are sourced from Luzon. Mr. Pua reiterates that no change would be noticeable in the taste (though Cebu-bred palates might say otherwise). “As long as it’s native, it doesn’t matter,” he said about the pigs, roasted on-site in BGC. “Basically, it’s the marination that will [make] a big difference.”
While Cebu is known for many things, getting Cebu lechon is treated like a quest for many tourists. Mr. Pua talks about the oft-repeated saying that Luzon lechon needs a sauce to give it a boost, while Cebu’s can stand up by itself. “It’s as natural as you can get,” he said. This apparently, says a lot about Cebuanos too. “They’re very proud of Cebu,” he says, which is probably why they wouldn’t need a sauce to cover up the taste of their pigs.
This is the first Filipino concept under the umbrella of Meat Concepts, and Mr. Pua says that the acquisition was natural as they don’t have a Filipino restaurant yet. But the scent of lechon wakes up something inside of Mr. Pua.
“When I was a teenager, we lived in Baclaran. Everytime I opened my window, I saw lechon. I craved for lechon.” — JLG

Yields on term deposits drop as demand shifts to shorter tenors

By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Senior Reporter
DEMAND for term deposits shifted towards shorter tenors yesterday, driving yields slightly lower ahead of monetary policy decisions in the United States and in the Philippines.
Banks wanted to place P120.679 billion in term deposits this week, lower than the P124.499 billion in bids received a week ago.
Still, the amount settled above the P100 billion which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) wanted to auction off.
Nearly half of the tenders went into the week-long papers, marking a shift in preference ahead of the release of key economic data and central bank decisions due early August.
Offers for the seven-day deposits surged to P51.935 billion on Wednesday, rising from last week’s P47.436 billion to surpass the central bank’s P40-billion offering. This pushed the average yield to 3.7405% compared to 3.7494% fetched during the July 25 exercise.
On the other hand, bids for the 14-day tenor slipped to P49.801 billion from the P54.352 billion received a week ago. Still, demand was overwhelming as banks wanted to park more funds beyond the P40-billion auction amount.
This brought margins lower to average 3.9016% this week versus a 3.9084% rate seen previously. Banks wanted returns within the 3.8-3.925% range, well below the four percent ceiling.
In contrast, banks veered away from the 28-day deposits and betted only P18.943 billion, down from P22.711 billion a week ago and below the P20 billion which the BSP wanted to sell. This gave them scope to demand for bigger returns, with the average yield rising to 3.9605% from 3.9471% a week ago.
The term deposit facility (TDF) is currently the central bank’s main tool to capture excess money supply in the financial system. The BSP holds the weekly auctions to bring market and interbank rates within its desired spread, which currently ranges from 3-4%.
The BSP has been offering P100 billion for its weekly TDF auctions since June.
The US Federal Reserve is broadly expected to keep interest rates steady this week, while the BSP is seen to announce another rate hike during their Aug. 9 meeting. BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. has said the central bank is eyeing a “strong follow-through” to successive rate hikes in May and June in an attempt to rein in inflation expectations.
The central bank is studying further “refinements” to the TDF auctions, which include the chance to reallocate volume offerings across tenors, conduct the auctions more than once a week, and shorten the lead time in announcing offer volumes.
“The continuous efforts of the BSP to refine its monetary operations are meant to enhance its capacity to guide short-term market interest rates to move closely with the BSP policy rate, and in the process, strengthen the transmission of changes in the monetary policy stance to the rest of the economy,” the BSP said in its quarterly report on inflation published last month.
The International Monetary Fund earlier said that the central bank’s use of the TDF has proven to be successful in shoring up excess liquidity following the reduction in the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) imposed on big banks.
The BSP has trimmed the reserve standard to 18% as of June, in keeping with Mr. Espenilla’s goal to bring the level to single-digit over the next six years and make it at par with neighboring economies. However, he said last week that the central bank will resume the “gradual” cuts next year as the regulator waits for inflation to return to the 2-4% target range.
Some market observers have quipped that the reserve cuts appeared to be sending mixed signals, as it the two cuts were followed by two rate hikes from the BSP. However, policy makers have said that the RRR adjustments are procedural and should not be taken as a change in policy stance.

Facebook uncovers ongoing evidence of US midterm elections interference

FACEBOOK, Inc. has uncovered an ongoing effort to influence US political opinions on its social networks, showing how attempts to meddle in civic life ahead of midterm elections are becoming more sophisticated even as the company takes steps to thwart them.
Facebook logo
Facebook said it notified the US government and deleted dozens of accounts and pages from people using false identities, who were coordinating events and stirring up political unrest. The campaign is similar to the one Russia-linked groups ran around the 2016 presidential elections, though the company doesn’t know who’s behind it this time. One thing is clear, Facebook said: the responsible parties were determined to not get caught.
“Whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency has in the past,” Facebook said Tuesday in a blog post.
Facebook has promised to protect the US — and other countries — from the influence of organizations seeking to interfere in fair elections, after failing to disclose the Russia-backed effort until long after the 2016 race was decided. Lawmakers have put pressure on the company to become something of a private intelligence agency to ferret out fake accounts and false or misleading content. In response, Facebook has been hiring security analysts, coordinating with the governments on thousands of leads, and spending billions on systems to support the effort.
The new disclosure underscores the increasing difficulty of staying ahead of the latest strategies by political operatives trying to take advantage of Facebook’s algorithm, which helps popular and incendiary ideas to go viral. The accounts Facebook discussed on Tuesday already coordinated about 30 real-world events over the past year. The longer it takes Facebook to determine the difference between a person’s real ideas and a fake identity’s influence strategy, the harder it will be to ensure an informed democracy ahead of elections. At stake in this year’s midterms are several contentious races that could flip the US Congress to Democratic control.
“Security is an arms race,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said in a briefing with reporters. “We are glad we were able to find this. We always know our adversaries are going to get better and we are going to have to get better.”
Facebook said that starting last week, it identified eight pages and 17 profiles on its main social network, and seven accounts on photo-sharing app Instagram, that violated its rules. It shared the findings with US law enforcement, Congress and other technology companies. The Menlo Park, California-based company said it was letting the public know ahead of a real protest the fake accounts had helped coordinate in the nation’s capital for next week.
“At this point in our investigation, we do not have enough technical evidence to state definitively who is behind this,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said on the call. “These accounts have engaged in some similar activity and in some cases have connected with known IRA accounts.” He said the full extent of this effort may not yet be known. “We’re following up on thousands of leads.”
The US intelligence community has occasionally suggested social-media sites are better positioned to catch evidence of meddling on their platforms, while the companies have pushed back that it’s law enforcement that has the requisite expertise. Still, Facebook has invested in thousands of employees, some with security clearance or law enforcement backgrounds, who can help the company spot unusual behavior from its user base.
Facebook has said that increased spending in safety and security would result in narrower profit margins in the coming years. That’s one reason Facebook’s shares tumbled 19% the day after its second-quarter earnings report last week. The company also posted slower-than-expected revenue gains and lackluster user growth. That report came against the backdrop of persistent questions about Facebook’s content and data-protection policies. — Bloomberg

CNPF books 9% increase in earnings

CENTURY PACIFIC Food, Inc. (CNPF) delivered a 9% increase in earnings for the second quarter of 2018, driven by the double-digit growth in branded revenues amid higher costs of raw materials.
In a regulatory filing, the listed canned goods manufacturer said its net profit reached P838.9 million in the April to June period of 2018, higher than the P767.5 million posted in the same period a year ago. Revenues for the quarter went up by 19% to P10.2 billion.
This pushed the company’s top-line performance 20% higher in the first six months of 2018 to P19.3 billion. Net income accordingly rose 7% to P1.57 billion.
The company noted a double-digit growth across branded marine, meat and milk products for an overall 25% in branded sales to P14.4 billion. Products under CNPF’s portfolio include Century Tuna, Argentina, Swift, 555, Angel, and Birch Tree, among others.
Meanwhile, its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) export business booked a 9% uptick to P4.9 billion in the first half. The company exports canned tuna products to North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.
“We saw branded sales surge during the first half, as we hit records in terms of volumes sold and distribution outlets reached. We believe local macroeconomic factors have favored demand for our products, which have wide appeal and reach a broad consumer base,” CNPF Chief Finance Officer Oscar A. Pobre said in a statement.
Despite the strong performance during the period, the company said it remains on watch for rising input costs that may weigh down full-year earnings results. Mr. Pobre said they continue to see rising prices of certain raw materials and items like packaging, freight, and other expenses.
For instance, cost of sales consisting of raw materials, packaging costs, manufacturing costs, and direct labor costs surged by 21% to P14.22 billion. The increase was mostly seen in the prices of tuna, meat and packaging.
“We are hopeful that the robust sales numbers will continue, but expect more muted year-on-year increases from here as we face higher revenue comparable periods moving forward. We are also watchful as competition intensifies, though remain positive that our market leadership and growth prospects in emerging categories will help mitigate the effects,” Mr. Pobre said.
CNPF earlier said it expects net income to grow in the mid-single digits and revenues to grow in the teens for 2018.
The firm is investing up to P1.8 billion this year to expand its capacity, which includes a new tuna facility in General Santos City expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2019.
Shares in CNPF dropped two centavos or 0.13% to close at P15.48 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

Britain’s storm in a tea cup settled: The milk goes in last!

LONDON — Although many cultural debates may be brewing in Britain, it appears that one age-old bone of contention has been settled: Should milk go in a cup of tea first or last?
Drinking tea is considered one of Britain’s favorite past-times, but its rituals have divided connoisseurs for centuries, and served as a social class marker.
The most contentious issue has been when to add milk, but a poll published Tuesday reveals that four times more Britons believe that it should be poured in at the end, rather than the beginning.
The YouGov Omnibus survey found that 79% favored adding milk last, with 20% disagreeing.
The split was even more marked across the generations, with 96% of 18-24 year-olds believing it should be added first, compared to 32% of over 65-year-olds.
The issue was tackled by author George Orwell in his 1946 essay “A Nice Cup of Tea,” where he wrote “indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject.”
It was believed to have class connotations, with the aristocracy showing off their expensive china cups by adding boiling water first — a practice that would reputedly shatter cheaper vessels.
But the latest poll indicates no preference according to class, with the middle and working classes both equally likely to add their milk in first. — AFP

BDO Leasing posts income decline on higher costs

BDO LEASING and Finance, Inc. saw a decline in its net income in the first half of the year due to higher costs.
In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, the listed leasing and financing arm of Sy-led BDO Unibank, Inc. said it booked a net profit of P178 million in the January-June period, 36.9% lower than the P282 million tallied in the same period last year.
BDO Leasing attributed its lower profit to “higher funding and operating costs.”
Despite logging lower net income in the first semester of the year, the firm’s gross revenues climbed 4% year-on-year.
This was mainly driven by a P34-billion interest income from its lease and finance portfolio, augmented by service fees and other income.
However, BDO Leasing said this was tempered by higher financing charges and lower interest margins.
Higher documentary stamp tax on its commercial paper issue also helped temper its revenue growth.
The government doubled the rate of the documentary stamp tax under the Tax Reform on Acceleration and Inclusion law which was enacted this year.
Moving ahead, BDO Leasing said it will continue to leverage on the broad market reach of its parent company. It will also continue to strengthen its marketing efforts in emerging provincial areas to extend leasing and financing services to the growth sectors of the economy.
“Additionally, the company intends to expand and optimize its funding sources to match its asset growth and manage its funding costs,” the company added.
According to latest central bank data, BDO Leasing’s parent BDO is the country’s biggest bank in terms of assets, capital, deposits and loans.
BDO Leasing shares closed unchanged at P2.76 apiece on Wednesday. — K.A.N. Vidal

Solar Philippines offers lower price for electricity to Meralco

SOLAR PHILIPPINES Tarlac Corp. has offered to sell electricity to Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) at P2.34 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), challenging a previous offer from a competitor at P2.98 per kWh in a move that could become the latest benchmark in pricing solar energy.
“The first year is P2.34 [per kWh], and there’s an escalation and the levelized cost is still significantly below the original offer of P2.98,” Solar Philippines President Leandro L. Leviste told reporters.
“We submitted our offer many months ago and it had taken Meralco a long time to evaluate it. But now we’re hopeful that the proceedings will end soon since they have accepted it as the lowest price in the CSP (competitive selection process),” he said.
CSP is the government scheme aimed at lowering power costs by subjecting a power supply agreement to a price challenge. The original proponent is allowed to exercise a right to match the price offered by the challenger.
“Now [it’s] just subject to the original proponent’s exercise or non-exercise of the right to match,” said Mr. Leviste.
Meralco said in February that it had received an offer for an additional capacity of 50-megawatts (MW) from Pilipinas Newton Energy Corp. at P2.98 per kWh, the lowest offer it had received at that time.
Meralco’s first solar power supply agreement is with Solar Philippines at P5.39 per kWh. It was followed by a deal with PowerSource First Bulacan Solar, Inc. at P4.69 per kWh, and another contract with Solar Philippines at P2.99 per kWh.
“It was supposed to pass already but I believe there was an extension for them to have more time to decide. So it depends on Meralco when they will end the period during which the original proponent can decide,” Mr. Leviste said.
He said the Solar Philippines unit that offered the price challenge is the same one that offered the P2.99 per kWh to Meralco. The energy will be sourced from the company’s Tarlac solar farm, which is to be expanded from the existing 150-MW capacity.
“We are still finalizing [the expansion] based on technical studies of NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) on the maximum allowable capacity for our Tarlac solar power plant eventually,” he said.
“Currently, our plan is to within the next few years expand it to a total 450 MW from the current 150 MW,” he said.
Mr. Leviste said the CSP was delayed because of a new regulation from the Department of Energy that called for new power supply agreements to be redone, this time with the distribution utility calling on power suppliers to submit their competitive bids.
He said Meralco had sought for clarification from the Energy department on whether the new rule covered the offer made to Meralco earlier this year.
“Overall, we just hope that this is yet another signal to the market that solar is the cheapest form of energy in the Philippines, and even with [battery] storage,” he said, adding that his offer could result in the country having one of Asia’s lowest cost of electricity. — Victor V. Saulon

Did Bezos just tease plan for home robot?

DID Jeff Bezos’s kids really use blue painters’ tape to attach an Amazon.com, Inc. Echo speaker to a robot vacuum cleaner? Or was his Instagram post on Monday just a teaser for his company’s next device?
The Amazon chief executive officer and world’s wealthiest man took to the photo-sharing app to post the image along with the caption: “What?!!!! Found this in the living room when I got home. I have no idea. #LifeWithFourKids”
Bloomberg News in April reported on Amazon’s plans to release a mobile Echo robot for the home.
Investors analyze Bezos’ comments for any insights into the secretive technology company’s next big project. In an earnings release on Thursday, he stirred speculation that the e-commerce giant is working on another smartphone by saying, “We want customers to be able to use Alexa wherever they are.”
Or maybe Bezos’s kids were just messing around with the family Roomba.
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon.com, Inc. reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter and forecast more of the same in the current period, igniting investor optimism about cloud computing, advertising and other businesses that are more profitable than its main online retail operation. — Bloomberg

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