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SM Prime leases out 97% of yet-to-open office building

SM PRIME Holdings, Inc. will be unveiling its newest office building in the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City this Friday, alongside the topping off of its other office project in the area.
The listed property developer and mall operator said in a statement on Wednesday that it would launch ThreeE-Com Center, opening with 97% of its 114,000-square meter floor area leased out.
At the same time, the Sy-led firm will hold the topping off ceremony for FourE-Com Center, which is slated to be its largest office building to date with a gross floor area (GFA) of 190,000 sq.m.
“The launching of ThreeE-Com Center and the topping off of FourE-Com Center mark another milestone for SM Prime as these uniquely designed business centers add to the already captivating architectural landscape in the Mall of Asia Complex, as well as offering ample office space suitable for the growing needs of the outsourcing industry and other businesses,” SM Prime President Jeffrey C. Lim said in a statement.
Located at the corner of Harbor Drive and Bay Shore in the MOA complex, ThreeE-Com Center is a 15-storey twin-tower development accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. Its office spaces are located from the fifth to 15th floors, with the second to fourth levels dedicated for podium parking.
The project will also house retail establishments like Alfa Mart, Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Mei Yu Restaurant, and a BDO bank on the ground level.
ThreeE-Com Center carries a Gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), indicating that its facilities are environmentally friendly.
The opening of ThreeE-Com Center will bring SM Prime’s total GFA to around 595,000 sq.m., as it currently operates 10 office buildings situated across Makati, Pasay, Quezon City, Taguig, Clark in Pampanga, Taytay in Rizal, and Sta. Rosa in Laguna.
Meanwhile, FourE-Com Center will feature three towers with 15 storeys each. It offers a 3,000 sq.m. floor plate which is the typical demand for various companies, primarily technology-based ones.
The project boasts of a crystal-like design, and is in the process of getting certification for LEED standards as well. SM Prime expects to open the building in 2019.
The E-Com Center projects form part of SM Prime’s Commercial Properties Group, which handles the development and leasing of office buildings in the country. The company’s core business is in the development of malls, 71 of which are located in the Philippines and seven more in China.
SM Prime grew its net income by 16% to P16.62 billion in the first half of 2018, driven by the provincial expansion of its mall business as well as higher demand for residential properties. Revenues also picked up 15% to P49.77 billion during the period.
Shares in SM Prime jumped 3.22% or P1.15 to close at P36.85 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

GBP forges retail power supply contract with Robinsons Land

GLOBAL Business Power Corp. (GBP) said its unit in retail electricity had signed a power supply agreement with Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) under the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) retail competition and open access (RCOA) scheme.
The agreement renews GBP and RLC’s retail supply contract last year and expands the supply agreement to 26 megawatts (MW) from the previous 22 MW. The contract covers Robinsons malls and Universal Robina Corp. factories located in Bacolod, Tacloban, Roxas, Iloilo and Cebu.
“This partnership harnesses various synergies and builds on our respective strengths to accelerate growth not just in the Visayas, but ultimately, the entire country,” said GBP President Jaime T. Azurin in a statement.
He said the renewal came as GBP realigned its vision to become a total sustainable energy solutions provider and offer more flexibility to its customers.
GBP said the Visayas region mirrored the country’s robust growth, which in terms of gross domestic product grew by 6.7% in 2017 amid brisk activities in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade.
Central and Western Visayas, where GBP and RLC have key operations, regional gross domestic product grew by 5.1% and 8.4%, respectively. It noted that Western Visayas is the fourth fastest-growing region in the country.
GBP quoted RLC President and Chief Executive Officer Frederick D. Go as saying, “We look forward to working with GBP to help meet our energy requirements.”
RCOA allows “contestable customers,” or those whose peak demand fall within a set threshold, to freely choose their electricity supplier.
GBP operates 11 power generation facilities in Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan and Mindoro. Last year, it acquired a 50% stake in Mindanao-based Alsons Thermal Energy Corp.

Kaspersky looks to Asia-Pacific to boost transparency initiative

EMBATTLED Kaspersky Lab is looking to increase its presence in the growing Asia-Pacific (APAC) region amid increasing protectionism in Europe and the US.
Kaspersky Lab Vice President for Public Affairs and Head of CEO office Anton Shingarev told BusinessWorld last week at the company’s annual cybersecurity weekend in Siem Reap, Cambodia that they continue to bear the brunt of geopolitical tensions.
The company said with the rising trend of balkanization — or the fragmentation of regions opting for independence — and protectionism, countries are more at risk of being victims to cyberattacks which continue to become more and more sophisticated.
Balkanization, which was seen as a way for governments to protect their critical infrastructure from cyber threats, has made it harder for cybersecurity firms to operate as their integrity is being questioned, Kaspersky said.
“[C]ybercriminals don’t care about politics. They don’t care about conventions, they don’t care about law. All they care is money. For example, Russia now has conflict with Ukraine. Governments do not talk to each other,” Mr. Shingarev said. “Cybercriminals cooperate. They share information, their roadmaps. [They have] no problem with cooperation… Cybercriminals are the only beneficiaries [here].”
The Russian-based cyber security firm last year announced its Global Transparency Initiative program in a bid to regain the trust lost after allegations their source codes have back doors and their data can be accessed unlawfully.
Through the GTI, Kaspersky wants to bare its source codes through the means of a third-party audit and setting up a reward system to those who can find a bug in their codes.
This also includes setting up three Transparency Centers, wherein the company’s source codes as well as software updates can be viewed by its stakeholders.
With the first center set in Switzerland, the two others are being planned to be located in North America and the Asia-Pacific.
However, Mr. Shingarev has doubts on the initiative’s success as tensions between Russia and the US remain high.
“But North America, it’s not just US. It’s also Canada. Maybe we’ll do it in Canada. We’ll see if there’s zero response and zero support, why should we do it?” he said.
“I would rather do it in the Philippines. Because [the] Philippine government is more open…for conversations. We have conversations which is good and they’re much more interested in cooperation than the US government,” he added.
This responsiveness increases chances that Kaspersky’s Asia-Pacific Transparency Hub may find its home in Southeast Asia.
“We will consider all the options but it’s a little too early to say if it’s going to be in the Philippines, or in Malaysia, or in Singapore but definitely it will be somewhere in that region,” Mr. Shingarev said.
Kaspersky Lab’s Managing Director for Asia-Pacific Stephan Neumeier said during the event that the region is fortunately going against the current trend of balkanization and protectionism now happening in Europe.
This is especially the case in the Southeast Asian region, as the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations continue to grapple with improving ties with each other.
“This definitely creates more jobs, more security between countries because the trade will increase and the trade between countries will be easier. It’s going to the right direction,” Mr. Neumeier said.
Mr. Shingarev said all that lacks in the Asia-Pacific region is better legislation to arm countries against cyber threats. However, he warned that governments should not hurry in passing their own cybersecurity laws despite the rapid development in technology.
“If the laws change very fast, it will not work. It should be well-weighted and discussed… The countries that introduced and adopted cybersecurity laws two, three, four years ago, they’re already old and they have to [renew it] so it’s harder than to do it from the scratch like in the Philippines, for example,” he added.
“You’re already drafting the law which is good because you can draft your own law based on the cybersecurity law of Singapore[’s] cybersecurity law, Chinese cybersecurity law, general data protection regulation in Europe…so you can take these laws and combine something and add something specific and introduce pretty a pretty robust legislation.”
Another point legislators should consider is that cybercrime is different from other offenses “because it’s purely international,” Mr. Shingarev noted.
“Purely no-border crime and this is the problem because legislators, the governments — they more or less understand what to do with the local laws but it doesn’t work with the cybersecurity law. The criminal may be in Malaysia, attacking the Philippines… So it’s not just a problem of local laws. It’s the problem of lack of international conventions,” he added. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato

S. African villagers tap into trend for ‘superfood’ baobab

MUTALE, South Africa — From before dawn, 54-year-old grandmother Annah Muvhali weaves between baobab trees that loom over her rural South African home, collecting fruit that enthusiasts worldwide hail as a “superfood.”
About 1,000 women in the village of Muswodi Dipeni, in the northern province of Limpopo, earn a living by harvesting the furry, hard-shelled baobab fruit pods.
The seeds and chalky powder inside the pods have become a global health craze celebrated for their vitamin-packed properties and now used in everything from flavored soda, ice cream, and chocolate to gin and cosmetics.
“Before, I never knew there was any value in baobab. My family and I would eat the fruit simply because it makes a delicious yoghurt-like porridge that is nutritious and filling,” Muvhali told AFP.
“I always use it for my grandchildren when their stomachs are troublesome.”
Known locally as “baobab guardians,” women like Muvhali also plant and nurture baobab saplings in their gardens and earn an income for each centimeter that the trees grow.
Having started in 2006, the grandmother of five has since been able to build a house for her two children and grandchildren from her earnings.
Elisa Phaswana, 59, has been nurturing a single one-meter-high sapling — protected from goats by a makeshift fence — for the past two years.
She said the baobab guardian program had alleviated poverty in the community.
“It helps the environment and it helps us especially because there is little to no work for us and our children in our village.”
“I get about R320 ($21) per centimeter.”
SOARING DEMAND
Sarah Venter, an ecologist who runs the Ecoproducts company behind the baobab cultivation, said the scheme rewarded women for their skills and care.
“They get paid a certain amount until the tree reaches three meters high and after that it will live for 1,000 years.”
“It has a value chain where everybody benefits, including a rural person picking up something that’s already in their environment and getting an income for it,” Venter said.
“If we are lucky enough as an industry to get to a point where demand exceeds supply, prices will go up and rural producers will get more for what they collect.”
Venter said demand for baobab powder has zoomed every year since 2013, with Europe, the United States, and Canada now the biggest consumer markets.
Estimates by the African Baobab Alliance show that baobab powder exports grew to 450 tons in 2017.
Baobab Foods, a leading distributor and supplier, has seen an exploding growth in demand for baobab products in recent years.
“In 2018 we have more than doubled our annual imports of baobab fruit powder into the United States alone,” it said in a statement.
The tree can take up to 200 years to bear fruit, but watering them every day can see that time reduced to 30 years. A tree then produces fruit annually for nearly 200 years.
TRADITIONAL HEALING
Historically credited with mythical and spiritual powers in African folklore, the baobab is known as the “upside down tree,” as its branches look like roots.
Fruit like goji and acai berries, pomegranate, cantaloupe and now baobab fruit are described as superfoods by some nutritionists because of their high levels of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins and minerals.
“Baobab is one of the highest vitamin C containing fruits. There’s natural antioxidants, some vitamin E and various plant compounds which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant uses,” Jean Francois Sobiecki, nutritionist and ethnobotanist at the University of Johannesburg, told AFP.
“It has got a really good combination of natural vitamins, antioxidants, protein and also healing substances which all together makes it an incredible superfood.” — AFP

Term deposit yields surge to all-time high

By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Senior Reporter
YIELDS under the term deposit facility (TDF) surged to all-time highs yesterday, with strong demand seen for the week-long papers as banks avoided long placements ahead of an expected rate hike from the central bank.
Bids for term deposits reached P65.855 billion on Wednesday, easing from the P87.249 billion tenders received a week ago but still higher than the P60 billion which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) wanted to sell.
However, nearly all the offers went into the week-long instruments, with players shying away from the longer tenors a day ahead of the BSP’s rate-setting meeting today.
Banks scrambled to get hold of seven-day papers, with demand reaching P51.627 billion versus the P40 billion on the auction block. The level dropped from the P60.324 billion offers received during the Sept. 19 exercise.
Bidders also asked for higher returns, with the average yield climbing to 4.4215% versus the 4.3884% fetched a week ago. This hovered close to the 4.5% ceiling rate set by the central bank.
Demand for the 14-day instruments also slumped to P9.643 billion, just half the P17.44 billion bids received last week and barely filling the reduced P10 billion offering this week. The BSP even had to reject P1 billion worth of tenders due to steep returns sought by banks.
As a result, the average rate awarded by the central bank stood at 4.4722%, rising from the 4.4339% rate last week as yield requests ranged from 4.4-4.5%.
Banks were also cool to the 28-day deposits as they only put forward P4.585 billion worth of tenders, just half the P9.485 billion placements during the previous auction.
Rates also settled higher to a 4.4877% average, inching up from last week’s 4.4754%.
The TDF is currently the central bank’s primary tool to arrest excess money supply 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 3.5-4.5%.
The central bank slashed the auction volume for the week coming from P70 billion a week ago as they see cooling demand for term deposits. BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said last week that there is “lower excess liquidity” in the system, as banks find other avenues to put their money in.
“More funds are going into loans, investments and dollar purchases. This is auspicious because the banks are doing a good job in financial intermediation especially in the face of government infra projects aimed at addressing our large infra gap and enhance our productive capacity,” Mr. Guinigundo said in a text message when asked to explain the lower auction amount.
The weak appetite also comes ahead of the BSP’s policy review today. Market economists are certain that the Monetary Board will raise rates, with 15 of 16 analysts tapped for a BusinessWorld poll saying the hike will be worth 50 basis points. Such a move is expected amid surging inflation and a sustained depreciation of the peso.
If realized, this would bring the key policy rate to 4.5%, the highest since March 2009.

PetroEnergy’s Gabon oil project secures longer exploitation rights

A CONSORTIUM in Gabon in which PetroEnergy Resources Corp. has participating interest has secured an extension to its exclusive oil exploitation rights in the African country for another 10 years, the Yuchengco-led company said on Wednesday.
PetroEnergy told the stock exchange the government of Gabon and the Etame Marin consortium had successfully executed the amendment to the production sharing contract to three oil fields — Etame, Avouma/Tchibala and Ebouri.
The 10-year extension has two additional five-year extension options.
“Having produced more than 100 million barrels of oil since production started in 2002, the extension of the concession offers opportunities for both the Government of Gabon and the Consortium Partners for additional investments, growth, and revenues,” PetroEnergy said.
PetroEnergy holds a 2.525% participating interest in the Etame Marin block. The other consortium members and their respective participating interests are: Addax Petroleum Etame, Inc. (33.90%); Sasol Gabon S.A. (30.00%); and Operator VAALCO Gabon S.A. (33.575%).
The amendment commits the consortium partners to undertake new drillings and technical studies to be completed within two years from its effectivity.
PetroEnergy said given past production from the block, the consortium was confident that the committed drilling program for two development wells and two appraisal wells would further enhance the field’s long-term commercial value. — Victor V. Saulon

Cosby sent to prison for 3-10 years

THIS Sept. 25 booking photo obtained from the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Eagleville, Pennsylvania, shows comedian Bill Cosby after his sentencing. — AFP

NORRISTOWN, UNITED STATES — Disgraced television icon Bill Cosby was handcuffed and taken into custody Tuesday to begin a minimum three-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a woman at his Philadelphia mansion 14 years ago.
The 81-year-old, once beloved by millions as “America’s Dad,” is the first celebrity convicted and sentenced for a sex crime since the fall of Harvey Weinstein ushered in the #MeToo movement and America’s reckoning with sexual harassment.
Found guilty on April 26 of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a former university basketball administrator, Cosby was impassive when Judge Steven O’Neill handed down the sentence in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
The judge rejected a defense request to release Cosby on bail pending an appeal. The now frail entertainer was slapped in handcuffs, and led out of court in his shirt and braces, his tie and jacket removed.
It makes him one of the famous Americans ever sent to prison in a country where fame, wealth, and expensive lawyers have tended to help celebrities avoid the full arm of the law in the past.
“You were convicted of a very serious crime,” O’Neill told Cosby. “No one is above the law.”
His sentence means that Cosby can apply for parole after three years. His requests will be reviewed by a special committee and can be rejected up to a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars.
O’Neill also branded Cosby a “sexually violent predator,” a humiliating designation that will force him to register with police for the rest of his life and to submit to mandatory counseling.
Prosecutors had demanded five to 10 years, after the three counts of aggravated indecent assault were merged into one, saving him from a theoretical maximum sentence of 30 years.
‘VICTORY IN MY HEART’
The actor was filmed being put in the back of a vehicle, to be taken first to Montgomery County Correctional Facility, before the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and then onto a state prison.
Around 60 women, many of them onetime aspiring actresses and models, have publicly branded Cosby as a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol to bed them over four decades.
Several of his accusers held a lengthy and tearful press conference hailing his prison term and saying they were finally able to turn the page on years of horrific memories.
“Today I feel a victory in my heart and my soul,” said Sarita Butterfield, a onetime Playboy Playmate who accuses Cosby of raping her in 1978 in a house in Massachusetts where he was staying with his family
“Today I’m free.”
Sunni Welles, 70, said Cosby drugged and raped her twice in 1965, destroying “very much a part of my life” and paid tribute to Constand, the only one whose claims were recent enough to be prosecuted.
“If she hadn’t been able to stand in court, we wouldn’t be standing here today,” Welles said.
Defense lawyers wanted Cosby confined to house arrest, as he has been since his conviction, arguing that he is too old and too frail — the actor says he is legally blind — to endure a correctional facility.
“It’s been a long time coming, but today, justice has been served,” chief prosecutor Kevin Steele told reporters.
“Finally, Bill Cosby has been unmasked and we have seen the real man as he is headed off to prison.”
‘CRUSHED MY SPIRIT’
But Cosby’s camp remained defiant, lashing out at the district attorney and denying that the star was given the right to a fair trial.
“These injustices must be corrected immediately,” spokesman Andrew Wyatt told reporters, hitting out against “lies.”
“We know what this country has done to black men for centuries. So Mr. Cosby is doing fine. He’s holding up well.”
Once a towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture and the first black actor to grace prime time US television, Cosby was a hero for decades, particularly among African Americans.
Across the television-watching world, he was revered for his signature role, affable obstetrician and father Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984-92. Yet even after being convicted, he expressed no public remorse.
He declined to testify in court or produce any witnesses to emphasize past years of philanthropic work as mitigating circumstances in his favor. His wife, Camille, did not attend the sentencing hearing.
“Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it. He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature and my trust in myself and others,” Constand wrote in a five-page impact statement.
“I’m a middle-aged woman who’s been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward.” — AFP

Departures at Instagram add to woes for Facebook

WASHINGTON — The departure of Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger adds to the woes of parent firm Facebook as it tries to repair its image hurt by privacy scandals and curb manipulation and misinformation.
Instagram, created as a photo-sharing app and purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, has been one of the fastest-growing segments of the California tech giant’s “family” of applications and services, and is especially popular with the younger consumers.
With more than a billion users as of June, Instagram has also been a growing source of revenue, likely to bring in more than $10 billion from advertising by 2019, according to the research firm eMarketer.
Systrom and Krieger gave no reason for their departure, but multiple reports suggested they were growing frictions between the founders and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg.
The news site TechCrunch said Systrom and Krieger believed Facebook was not living up to its pledge of allowing autonomy at Instagram when the app was acquired in 2012.
“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again,” Systrom said in a statement late Monday.
He later tweeted, “The @instagram journey is one I won’t forget. It started by building simple products that solved universal problems. Now eight years we look back and are proud and grateful to have been part of that journey.”
Zuckerberg said in his own statement: “Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents. I’ve learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it.”
QUESTIONS ON AUTONOMY
Analysts noted that Instagram has been increasingly operated as a unit of Facebook as the social network grows, with Instagram becoming more appealing to teens and young adults.
“Instagram is the new Facebook, much more than it’s the original Instagram,” said a tweet from Benedict Evans, a venture investor with Andreessen Horowitz who blogs on the tech sector.
Systrom, now 34, created the app in 2010 with Krieger, now the outgoing “chief technical officer,” when they were students at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Systrom’s fortune is valued at $1.4 billion by Forbes.
Instagram in June unveiled a new long-form video feature in a bid to attract “creators” like those on YouTube, the latest in a series of features aimed at boosting engagement and competing with rivals such as Snapchat.
It became the fourth Facebook platform to eclipse the billion-user mark, including the namesake social network with more than two billion users, and the messaging applications WhatsApp and Messenger.
Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for a combination of cash and stock worth some $1 billion at the time.
Instagram has been a key part of the Facebook empire as younger users shun the original social network and move into different applications.
According to a Pew Research Center survey this year, 51% of US teens ages 13 to 17 use Facebook, compared with 72 percent for Instagram and 69% who are on Snapchat.
And eMarketer has estimated that Facebook would lose some two million US users under age 24 this year.
The departures come as Facebook grapples with the worst crisis in its history, vilified for not more zealously guarding the information that users share.
Facebook and other tech firms have been facing criticism from President Donald Trump and his allies, accusing Silicon Valley of bias against conservatives and warning of regulatory action.
The Instagram founders are the latest high-profile executives to leave Facebook. WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum earlier this year left Facebook, which had bought the smartphone messaging service for $19 billion.
Also departing this year were chief security officer Alex Stamos and general counsel Colin Stretch. — AFP

Banks to remain stable amid rate hikes

PHILIPPINE BANKS are likely to maintain generally stable credit fundamentals amid rising interest rates and choppy market conditions, Fitch said, even as it flagged concerns over a modest deterioration in asset quality and softening loan growth.
In a report sent on Wednesday, the global debt watcher said the credit profiles of domestic lenders should remain steady even as interest rates are rising.
“Interest rates are rising as domestic liquidity tightens, pointing to a less favorable environment for Philippine borrowers overall. Against this, we expect bank credit profiles to remain broadly steady — supported by resilient asset quality, acceptable profitability, stable funding and adequate capitalization,” Fitch said.
The credit rater expects the net interest margins (NIM) of major local banks to continue to climb until the yearend as this mostly improved in the first half of the year on the back of rising interest rates.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has raised its key policy rates by a cumulative 100 basis points (bp) since May to tame the elevated inflation brought by higher food and oil prices.
The BSP’s policy-setting Monetary Board is widely expected to raise benchmark rates by another 50 bps at its review today.
“Such action should continue to raise asset yields for the full year, and would not have been fully reflected in [first half] results,” Fitch said.
However, higher interest rates may temper banks’ loan growth as elevated inflation may dampen consumer demand.
“Any moderation is likely to be modest, however, as ongoing infrastructure spend and broadening growth beyond Manila should continue to drive economic activity,” Fitch noted, adding that credit growth is expected to “settle in the mid-teens for the full year.”
The debt watcher also flagged asset quality deterioration caused by higher borrowing costs, albeit modest as economic growth remains fairly supportive and the rise in borrowing rates is still moderate.
Larger monetary policy tightening continues to be a risk, although it is unlikely that the BSP would excessively hike rates even as it seeks to rein in inflation, it said.
Banks’ profitability in the first semester was generally lower brought by the weak capital markets and high cost growth. However, Fitch said the recovery in trading revenues will depend on market conditions, while investment in branches and information technology continue to push cost-to-income ratios.
Fitch added that Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Security Bank Corp., China Banking Corp. as well as smaller banks are more susceptible to deposit competition due to higher loan-to-deposit ratios, lower current and savings account (CASA) ratios and generally weaker deposit franchise.
“Meanwhile, the three largest banks (BDO Unibank, Inc., Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. and Bank of the Philippine Islands) should be relatively insulated due to their healthy CASA ratios of between 61-75%, and strong transaction account relationships,” the credit rater noted. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

Google wants to answer questions you haven’t asked yet with new search page

FOR TWO DECADES, typing a line of text into a blank search bar was the way almost everyone interacted with Google. Now the company is taking an even more active role in leading users around the internet.
The search giant announced a raft of new features at an event Monday to celebrate its 20th anniversary. A Facebook-like newsfeed populated with videos and articles the company thinks an individual user would find interesting will now show up on the Google home page just below the search bar on all mobile web browsers.
“It helps you come across the things you haven’t even started looking for,” Karen Corby, a product manager on Google’s search team, said in a blog post. The company also unveiled a feature to let people save searches in a collection and pick them up again later, and said it would present more information directly in search results, ostensibly helping people find what they’re looking for without having to click through to a different website.
The Alphabet Inc. unit wants to expand its presence on the web and get people to spend more time directly on Google rather than on independent websites. In its drive to help people find information they’re looking for, the company is taking on tasks that were previously left to others. At the same time, politicians, activists and competitors are calling for greater scrutiny of Google’s ever-growing power over data.
On Friday, Bloomberg News reported that US President Donald Trump was considering signing an executive order that would instruct federal antitrust agencies to look into Google and other internet giants like Facebook Inc.
Expanding beyond a simple search bar isn’t a new development. Google has already pushed deep into some industries like travel, building its own flight and hotel search tools that have elbowed their way into a market traditionally dominated by Booking Holdings Inc. and Expedia Group Inc. The announcements on Monday show that trend isn’t stopping any time soon.
One of the features, collections, works similarly to online scrapbook Pinterest. The expanded feed, called Discover, increases Google’s role in suggesting content and information to people, rather than just being the portal they use to find things on their own.
“Providing greater access to information is fundamental to what we do,” Google’s head of search, Ben Gomes, said in a blog post. “There are always more ways we can help people access the information they need.”
Google’s come a long way since Sergey Brin and Larry Page created a search engine that ranked websites based on how many other sites linked to them back in 1998 in a Menlo Park, California, garage.
The company vanquished rivals like Excite, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves and built one of the world’s most-profitable businesses. Google was among the first to realize that a search service could become a giant digital funnel into which billions of people type their needs and desires. The money began flowing when it started showing relevant ads alongside search results, letting marketers reach customers at the right time and accurately measure the performance of their campaigns.
Brin and Page initially didn’t want to sell ads on search, arguing that would dilute the service with skewed information. Now, ads take up much of the screen when a user types something into the search bar on a mobile phone. Google has been adding new ad formats in recent years to keep revenue and profit growing. It made almost $25 billion last year, with the search business providing most of that profit.
The company has used this money machine to create other internet services, often for free, such as the Android mobile operating system, email and digital maps. The $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube in 2006 turned Google into major cultural player and gave it another huge audience to sell ads to.
The money also let the founders satisfy their curiosity and creativity, leading to dozens of riskier, long-term projects such as internet-beaming high-altitude balloons and glucose-measuring contact lenses. Many didn’t work out, but a few have turned into promising businesses, like the Waymo autonomous vehicle operation.
If that was Google’s exuberant youth, it entered the corporate equivalent of adulthood in 2015, when it reorganized as Alphabet, a holding company for all the appendages that sprouted.
Three years later, middle age is fast approaching, bringing new responsibilities, disappointment and judgment. Regulators in Europe are challenging its business model and fining the company heavily for breaking antitrust laws. Google is appealing. In the US, politicians have turned it into a punching bag. Conspiracy theorists find legions of followers on YouTube and its news service has struggled to filter out misinformation in the immediate wake of disasters and other major news events.
Still, Google’s main business of search has remained remarkably resilient, churning out a steadily growing stream of profit. Alphabet shares have gained 12 percent this year, making it the world’s fourth-most valuable public company, behind fellow tech giants Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. — Bloomberg

DoE evaluating 17 projects for perks under EO 30

THE Department of Energy (DoE) has listed 17 projects whose developers want included in the agency’s list of energy projects of national significance (EPNS) to add to the four that have been given an easier time during the permitting process.
Of the projects, more than half are hydroelectric power plants although the DoE’s enumeration was not complete on the information of some of those in its list. The department has so far issued four certificates for EPNS.
“The issuance of the CEPNS, as stipulated in Section 5 (a) of Executive Order No. 30 s. 2017 (EO 30), intends to establish a simplified approval process and harmonize the relevant rules and regulations of all government agencies involved in the permitting process,” the department said in a statement on Wednesday.
EO 30 was signed by the President in June 2017, while the Energy department issued its implementing rules and regulations in April 2018. The law created the Energy Investment Coordinating Council (EICC), which earlier this year issued an advisory on how energy-related projects can qualify.
The 17 projects are among the 306 applications received by the DoE, of which 289 had been notified of their non-compliance as to form or documentary requirements. Of the 23 accepted applications, two had been declined, leaving the current number for evaluation.
Of the hydropower projects for evaluation, the biggest in terms of capacity is the 500-megawatt (MW) Kibungan Badeo pumped-storage hydro power project, and the 500-MW Wawa pumped-storage hydropower project.
The smaller ones are the 20-MW Sablan 1 hydroelectric power project, 15.7-MW Maladugao River lower cascade hydroelectric power project, and the 10 MW Pulangi IV capacity addition hydropower project. The rest have a capacity of less than 10 MW.
The DoE is also evaluating three waste-to-energy projects — in Pangasinan, Pampanga and Batangas. It is also assessing a 70-MW wind farm in Camarines Sur. A lone solar farm is on the list — a 100.8-MW project in Sarangani.
The four projects that have been awarded a CEPNS are the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ Mindanao-Visayas interconnection project; Aragon Power and Energy Corp.’s Kalinga geothermal project; Island Wind Energy Corp.’s 151-2 MW Talim wind power project; and Atimonan One Energy, Inc.’s two-unit coal-fired power plant each with a capacity of 600 MW.
During the pre-development phase, the certificate entitles project proponents to all the rights privileges provided for under EO 30 series 2017, including action on the application within 30 working days.
For instance, the project in Kalinga, Cordillera Administrative Region in north Luzon, will enjoy presumption of prior approval, that is, it is presumed to have already complied with the requirements and permits from other government permitting agencies.
It will be deemed approved if no action is made five days after the lapse of the 30 working-day period for processing of the application.
“Please take note that the CEPNS is not an assurance or an automatic guarantee of favorable action by the permitting agencies, but a requirement from them to immediately act on the applications for permits/licenses within the prescribed periods under prevailing laws,” the DoE said, citing Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Delivery Service of Act of 2018. — Victor V. Saulon

Peso to weaken further next year on trade gap

THE PESO could decline further in 2019 as the country’s trade gap widens. — PHILSTAR/MIGUEL DE GUZMAN

By Karl Angelo N. Vidal, Reporter
THE PESO will likely weaken further against the dollar in 2019 as the country’s trade deficit is seen to widen brought by the Duterte administration’s infrastructure push, an economist from Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said.
In an interview, BPI lead economist Emilio S. Neri, Jr. said the local currency is expected to trade within a weaker range next year.
“For next year, because the trade deficit will continue to be wide, we continue to expect a higher trading range,” Mr. Neri told BusinessWorld last week.
“On the average, we see P54.50, but the range can be from P52 to as high as P55.50, maybe P56.”
He attributed this to expectations of a widening trade deficit — or the gap between the country’s imports and exports — bolstered by the Build, Build, Build infrastructure program.
“We are spending on a lot of fixed capital. We’re catching up with our neighbors, and that is expected to continue.”
According to latest data, the country’s trade deficit stood at $3.55 billion in July, 171% wider than the $1.31 billion booked in the same period last year.
In that month, the Philippine import print climbed 32%, outpacing the 0.3% export growth.
“We haven’t seen the best of Build, Build, Build. Just imagine if we start importing the trains [and other materials to build] railroads and airports,” he said.
The government is embarking on an P8-trillion infrastructure spending program until 2022 in an effort to boost economic growth to 7-8% until then.
BPI’s lead economist also noted that remittances from overseas Filipinos will be insufficient to cap the trade gap.
“Next year, that will continue. [The trade gap will be] huge that your remittances are not enough to fund it. So the pressure is for the peso to continue to soften against the US dollar,” Mr. Neri said. “More so if the US continues increasing rates.”
The US Federal Reserve is expected to raise its interest rates during its two-day meeting ending Thursday. Another round of tightening as well as another two next year are also being looked at due to a tightening job market and with inflation rising above the 2% target.
For the yearend, Mr. Neri projects the peso to close at around P53 versus the dollar on the back of seasonal remittance and portfolio flows.
“Yearend forecast is actually closer to P53 because remittances would come in an then we are hoping that some of the portfolio flows will be in favor of the Philippines so that even if the current account is in deficit, we have some [balance of payment] inflows to offset it.”
The peso breached the P54-per-dollar level on Sept. 12 and is lingering at its weakest level in nearly 13 years.
The local unit is currently averaging P52.437 year-to-date.

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