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AGI gets go signal for Skytrain

INFRACORP Development, Inc. is proposing to build a monorail from MRT Guadalupe station to Fort Bonifacio. — INFRACORP

THE infrastructure arm of tycoon Andrew L. Tan’s Alliance Global Group, Inc. (AGI) bagged the original proponent status (OPS) for its proposed P3-billion monorail project connecting Fort Bonifacio to the Guadalupe station of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3.
In a statement issued Monday, AGI said Infracorp Development, Inc. has secured the Department of Transportation (DoTr)’s approval for the project. It will now be submitted to the National Economic and Development Authority Board’s Investment Coordination Committee for review.
As an unsolicited proposal, the project will then be subjected to Swiss challenge, which requires an invitation for other companies to make competing offers, while giving the original proponent the right to match them.
Infacorp submitted the unsolicited proposal to DoTr last October 2017. Under the agreement, the company will build the two-kilometer Skytrain at no cost to the government. The ownership title will be transferred to the government, while Infracorp will be given the sole right to operate the project.
The Skytrain will make use of automated cable-propelled monorail technology, effectively reducing the travel time from the MRT Guadalupe station to Fort Bonifacio, where Infracorp’s sister company Megaworld Corp. is developing the Uptown Bonifacio township, to five minutes. It will have a capacity of 60,000 to 100,000 passengers daily.
Infracorp noted that its proposal also includes provisions to interconnect the Skytrain with other transport hubs that it will pass through.
“We envision to connect Makati to Taguig and vice versa. These two largest business districts in the country need an efficient and fast transport system that is at par with what the other business districts in cosmopolitan cities like Tokyo and Sydney have,” Infracorp President Kevin Andrew L. Tan was quoted as saying in a statement.
With the approval of the project, the company said it is ready to start building the Skytrain which it hopes to finish within two years.
“We can start the project before the year ends and this will take us two years to complete it. By early 2021, we can open the Skytrain to the public,” Mr. Tan said.
The Skytrain is Infracorp’s first project since its incorporation last year. The company is also part of the consortium that proposed to rehabilitate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for around P105-106 billion.
The consortium includes Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings, Corp., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
Infracorp said it is also looking at other infrastructure projects it could participate in, mostly to provide transport solutions in Metro Manila’s key business districts as well as growth areas around the country.
The company is part of AGI, which also has investments in property development through Megaworld, gaming through Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., liquor through Emperador, Inc., and quick service restaurants through Golden Arches Development Corp.
Shares in AGI went down eight centavos or 0.61% to close at P13.02 each at the stock exchange on Monday. — Arra B. Francia

Actor Morgan Freeman apologizes

ACTOR Morgan Freeman said on Friday any suggestion he assaulted women or created an unsafe workplace is false and apologized to anyone he may have upset after media reported that women have accused him of inappropriate behavior or harassment.
The accusations against the Oscar-winning actor are the latest in a torrent against male actors, filmmakers, and agents that have roiled Hollywood since October 2017, leading in some cases to resignations and the halting of projects.
On Friday, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was charged with rape and other sex crimes.
Similar accusations have also engulfed men in US politics and business, and inspired a #MeToo social media movement by victims sharing their stories of sexual harassment or abuse.
CNN reported on Thursday that it spoke with 16 people as part of its investigation into the 80-year-old actor, some of whom also alleged inappropriate behavior by Freeman at his production company, Revelations Entertainment.
“I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye, by Thursday’s media reports,” Freeman said in a statement on Friday, a day after he initially apologized.
“But I also want to be clear: I did not create unsafe work environments. I did not assault women. I did not offer employment or advancement in exchange for sex. Any suggestion that I did so is completely false,” he added.
CNN said eight people told the network they were victims of what some labeled harassment and others called inappropriate behavior by Freeman. It said eight others told the network they witnessed the actor’s alleged misconduct.
CNN also said other sources denied having seen any questionable behavior by the actor, and that those sources described him as being professional on set and in the office.
Freeman said he is someone who feels a need to try to make women and men feel appreciated and at ease around him. As part of that, he would often try to joke with and compliment women, in what he thought was a light-hearted and humorous way, he said.
“Clearly I was not always coming across the way I intended. And that is why I apologized Thursday and will continue to apologize to anyone I might have upset, however unintentionally,” he said.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.
Freeman, whose career has spanned 50 years and more than 100 movies, won a Oscar in 2005 as best supporting actor for his role as a former boxer in Million Dollar Baby. — Reuters

First Gen eyes San Miguel as partner for proposed LNG import facility

FIRST GEN Corp. is planning to invite diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. “within the year” to participate in its $1.2-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility, company officials said on Monday.
“We’re very open… especially because they’re also one of the big users of natural gas with Ilijan so their participation in an LNG import scheme would be very very welcome,” First Gen Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Federico R. Lopez told reporters.
“In fact, the LNG terminal is very subject to economies of scale, so the more that use it, the cheaper it becomes for everyone and the easier it is to bring power costs down,” he added.
Francis Giles B. Puno, First Gen president and chief operating officer, said an invitation to SMC should be firmed up soon because of the latter’s pressing need for natural gas.
“It has to be within the year… I think he (San Miguel President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang) mentioned that we have good relationship with First Gen. We also feel that we have good relationship with San Miguel,” he said.
Mr. Puno said First Gen had been in discussion with a number of parties for the LNG project.
“With respect to San Miguel obviously it’s a discussion that we would welcome as well principally because of the Ilijan asset,” he said, referring to the gas-fired plant
SMC looks after the 1,200-megawatt (MW) Ilijan power plant, which sits on a 60-acre site at Arenas Point, Barangay Ilijan, Batangas City. It was appointed in 2010 as the independent power producer administrator of the plant by state-led Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.
First Gen continues to prepare for a post-Malampaya gas era with the setting up the country’s first LNG regasification terminal to be located at its clean energy complex in Batangas City.
The listed company has a portfolio of gas-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 2,017 MW as of 2017. It wants to complete the LNG facility in time for the expected depletion of the Malampaya field starting in 2024.
“Ilijan will be running out of gas actually sooner than that of Santa Rita and San Lorenzo,” Mr. Puno said, comparing the company’s two gas-fired power plants to that of San Miguel’s.
He said he is aware of Mr. Ang’s flexibility either to be an owner or buyer of gas from the proposed LNG facility.
“It’s a big investment. It’s about $1.2 billion and because it is such, our view is that as long as we have a significant stake — and that could be as low as 50%, 40% — then we have the balance to give to other strategic investors,” Mr. Puno said.
The comments of the First Gen officials come after Mr. Ang said earlier this month that San Miguel was open to partnering with First Gen Corp. in any form of ownership sharing arrangement in the latter’s plan to build an LNG terminal.
He said his group and First Gen “are quite close, so there’s no problem” if either one of them takes the controlling stake.
He also said the Ilijan plant could easily be expanded by 1,800 MW to reach a capacity of 3,000, ensuring an offtaker for the imported LNG.
Imported natural gas is liquefied for ease of shipping, then regasified or reverted to its former state in the country of destination. — Victor V. Saulon

Golden age for Kylie as Australia’s pop princess turns 50

SYDNEY — From teenage soap sensation to pop royalty, over Kylie Minogue’s three-decade career she has sold 80 million records, survived breast cancer, and become a gay icon whose fanbase spans generations.
The pint-sized Aussie superstar celebrated her 50th birthday yesterday, another milestone for the singer who is one of the few celebrities known simply by their first name.
To mark the occasion Kylie had said she was planning “an extravaganza” with friends in London, where she is based — and if her litany of hits including “I Should Be So Lucky” and “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” is anything to go by, she will have no trouble getting the party started.
Born in Melbourne on May 28, 1968, Kylie has defied critics who once wrote her off as a “singing budgie” to establish herself as one of Australia’s biggest cultural exports and an international sex symbol.
“Kylie is a star that has become iconic outside of just singing,” Australian fashion expert Paula Joye told AFP of the country’s highest-selling artist of all time. “She’s become part of the fabric of Australian culture.”
Kylie was just 11 when she appeared in the television series Skyways, but is best known for her star turn as Charlene in long-running soap opera Neighbours from 1986 to 1988.
She and her co-star Jason Donovan won popularity as an on-screen couple and were secretly a real-life item at the same time, although their romance did not last.
Her first single — a cover of 1960s Little Eva hit “Locomotion” — reached number one in Australia in 1987 and became a global hit, launching the girl-next-door’s new career as a pop star and, later, dance diva.
She teamed up with Donovan for 1988 duet “Especially For You,” which sold more than a million copies in Britain alone and topped the charts across Europe and Australasia.
While Jason’s career since then has seen him star in musicals and speak frankly about his struggles with drug addiction, Kylie went on to record top-selling singles such as “Better the Devil You Know,” “Spinning Around” and “All The Lovers” — performing them around the world in glitzy showgirl outfits.
“On stage, she always looks like a giant sequin,” said Australian fan Troy Lester, who pursued a career in costume design and fashion after falling in love with Kylie’s costumes.
“It’s incredible that you can be this little ball of energy and sparkle so much… She’s a little pocket rocket that just keeps going and it’s great to have that kind of positivity in your life.”
GAY ICON
Kylie’s high-energy performances and feel-good pop tunes are still a winning formula, according to veteran music journalist Jenny Valentish.
“She’s dazzling, an all-rounder entertainer. In a previous time, she would have been a dancing girl probably going around Australia in the gold rush age (of the 1850s) entertaining the miners,” Valentish said.
The pop princess has long had a big LGBTI following and has often graced Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.
In 2016, Kylie and her then fiance British actor Joshua Sasse wore “Say ‘I Do’ Down Under” T-shirts in support of same-sex marriage at Australia’s top music awards.
Fan Owen Lambourn, who goes by the moniker Owen Minogue on Twitter, recalled how her career kicked off during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.
“A lot of high-profile people steered clear of the community because there was that stigma that you were endorsing death, but she looked at everybody as being human,” Lambourn told AFP.
“She’s a great icon and an ambassador for universal love.”
The singer was also outspoken about her battle with breast cancer in 2005, which forced her to cancel her headline slot at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival.
She was given the all-clear a year later and has helped to raise awareness of the need for women to undergo screening for the disease, even in their 30s.
Aside from these campaigns, Minogue has kept much of her personal life under wraps, although her numerous boyfriends — including late INXS rocker Michael Hutchence and French actor Olivier Martinez — have been tabloid fodder over the decades.
She’s showing no signs of slowing down and released new album Golden — her 14th — this year, making number one in both Australia and Britain.
“I am very aware and thankful that this is a good time in my life,” she recently told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I know I have worked for it and I have paid for it and so I am enjoying it, between my schedules and trying to take care of myself as well.” — AFP

More hotels, industrial spaces needed in Clark — Colliers report

By Arra B. Francia
Reporter
PROPERTY developers should take advantage of the government’s implementation of more infrastructure projects in Pampanga, as real estate consultancy services Colliers Philippines urged companies to build more hotels, convention halls, office towers, retail strips, and industrial spaces in preparation for the expected influx of residents and tourists in the area.
There are currently five infrastructure projects set to be completed in Clark, Pampanga in the next few years. This includes the Clark Airport Expansion, which is expected to bring capacity to 12 million annually by 2020, triple its current capacity.
Connecting Clark International Airport to Subic Port will be the Subic-Clark Cargo Railway, which seeks to maximize the underutilized Subic Port and effectively decongest Metro Manila. This railway is targeted to be completed by 2022.
The other projects are the 106-kilometer Manila to Clark Passenger Railway; the Skyway Stage 3 which will facilitate travel from San Fernando, Angeles City, and Clark through the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx); and the NLEx-South Luzon Expressway Connector Road.
“Colliers believes (these) should play a significant role in transforming Metro Clark into the country’s next major economic corridor. We see these infrastructure projects boosting office, residential, retail, hotel, and industrial demand in Metro Clark,” according to a report authored by Colliers Research Manager Joey Roi Bondoc.
To-date, dominant national players have already established their presence in Clark. The Filinvest group is building the New Clark City alongside the redevelopment of Mimosa Leisure Center. The Gotianun-led company is also poised to build a $200-million casino with an international partner in the future.
Businessman Dennis A. Uy’s Udenna Corp. will also be developing its own mixed-use estate in Pampanga called Clark Global City. The group earlier said it will pour in P6 billion to redevelop the area.
The SM Group of country’s richest man Henry Sy, Sr. has also been expanding its footprint in Clark, adding office buildings and a 154-room Park Inn Hotel to its mall there. The company will be building a convention center within its complex by 2019, in a bid to capture the growing market for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) in Clark.
Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) and Megaworld Corp. are both developing their own townships in Pampanga, with the former’s 1,800-hectare Alviera in Porac and the latter’s Capital Town in San Fernando.
With more developers cashing in on Pampanga’s growth, Colliers noted that companies should differentiate their projects from others. This means being able to respond to the needs of both tenants and investors, beyond the usual office, residential, retail, and hotel projects.
“Developers should incorporate institutional uses such as education and health care. Other developers have been more aggressive in differentiating their communities by integrating entertainment and recreational facilities. Moving forward, developers need to be more innovative to be steps ahead of the competition,” the real estate consultancy said.
The company also encouraged the development of more industrial spaces and warehouses in Clark, as it sees the industrial hubs in the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas area spilling over to Clark. It highlighted the need for more standard factory buildings to support the growth of the country’s exports and imports.
More hotels and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) facilities should be built as well, as Clark International Airport’s expansion is set to attract more people into the area.
“We recommend that developers cash in on this opportunity by building more three to four-star hotels particularly as these facilities mainly cater to Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese tourists, who are the major visitors to the Philippines,” Colliers said.

Phoenix acquires digital payment platform

PHOENIX Petroleum Philippines, Inc. has acquired 75% of two companies that own a digital payment platform, which eases the financial transactions between merchants and customers, the oil firm told the stock exchange on Monday.
“The acquisition of Pos!ble shall support business operations particularly the retail network development of the Company as well as the synergies created in business operations of its subsidiaries such as Philippine FamilyMart and other affiliates,” Phoenix said.
“It will likewise enhance onsite offerings while gaining entry into the fast growing digital and physical commerce segment,” it added.
Phoenix Petroleum bought 75% of the outstanding shareholdings in Action.Able, Inc. from its owners Wildlemon, Inc. and 75% of the outstanding shareholdings in Think.Able, Ltd. from Seawood Prime Ltd. (SPL).
Both Wildlemon and SPL are owners of Pos!ble.net, a digital payment platform.
In its disclosure, Phoenix Petroleum priced the shares of Action.Able at P1 apiece or a total of P748,749 for the 748,749 shares it acquired. The shares of Think.Able were priced at P5,312.97 each for a total of P71.24 million for the 13,410 shares.
In all, Phoenix Petroleum paid about P71.996 million for the controlling stake in Pos!ble.net.
Phoenix Petroleum said Pos!ble.net “enables and facilitates financial transactions between a merchant, who avails and uses the service, and his customers, who uses the platform to purchase, buy, or pay all kinds of prepaid loads, bills, and money remittances through a single Point of Sale device.”
Last year, Phoenix Petroleum bought Petronas Energy Philippines, Inc., immediately giving the company a share in the liquefied petroleum gas business, and Philippine FamilyMart CVS, Inc., which holds the exclusive franchise to the Japanese convenience store brand.
On Monday, shares in the company rose 0.16% to close at P12.64 each. — Victor V. Saulon

T-bill offer awarded fully

THE GOVERNMENT fully awarded the Treasury bills (T-bills) it offered on Monday as yields declined across all tenors, supported by the additional liquidity in the financial system.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) decided to fully award the short-termed securities, raising the P15 billion it placed on the auction block yesterday.
The offered volume was more than twice oversubscribed, with total tenders received at the auction totalling P37.909 billion, albeit slightly lower than the P38.856 billion logged a week ago.
Bids for the 91-day T-bills amounted to P13.8 billion, nearly thrice the programmed P5 billion that the BTr fully awarded yesterday. The average rate declined by 13.7 basis points to 3.3% from the 3.437% logged in the previous auction.
The Treasury also made a full award of its P4-billion offer of 182-day papers. Total tenders reached almost thrice the offered amount at P13.574 billion. Yields also dropped by 17.9 basis points to 3.7% from the 3.879% quoted for the T-bills at last week’s auction.
The government also borrowed P6 billion as planned via the 364-day securities, with tenders amounting to P10.535 billion. The average rate on the papers also slid by 9.9 basis points to 4.198% from 4.297% in the previous auction.
At the secondary market, prior to the auction, the three- and six-month bills were quoted at 3.6679% and 4.0321% respectively, and 4.0143% for the one-year debt papers.
At the market’s close, all T-bill tenors rallied to close at lower yields. The 91-day, 182-day and 364-day papers fetched 3.3821%, 3.7129% and 4.0136%, respectively.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said on Monday that the auction was well-received by investors on the back of expectations of additional liquidity following the central bank’s move to cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) imposed on lenders.
“Following the release of the [reserve requirement] cut and then the maturity of P120 billion [in securities], combined together, we see liquidity flowing into the system,” Ms. De Leon told reporters yesterday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas announced last week that the RRR imposed on universal and commercial banks will be trimmed by a percentage point to 18% effective June 1. The reserve requirement cut is seen to free up an estimated P90 billion in additional money supply.
The move also came following the maturity of around P130 billion in previously issued peso-denominated debt notes last week.
A trader interviewed yesterday said the lower rates seen yesterday were expected.
“The outcome of the bill auction was better than expected because we expected lower yields by five basis points, and the results were lower than that,” she said over the phone.
The trader added that the yields were lower due to increased investor demand.
“This was due to the demand coming from the maturities…last week, and also from the recent RRR cut by the BSP. We see some players probably positioning already the liquidity coming from those.”
STRONG DEMAND FOR RTB
Meanwhile, Ms De Leon said the Treasury expects similarly good investor demand for its retail Treasury bond (RTB) offering this week.
The Treasury will offer up to P30 billion in three-year retail bonds to individual investors. This is the first RTB offering of the government this year, following a similar issuance in November 2017
Ms. De Leon said the papers will likely be met with ample demand amid improved liquidity in the financial system following maturities and the RRR cut.
“Also, given that the tenor [of the bonds are at] the three years, so that’s the sweet spot for the investors,” she said.
Ms. De Leon said proceeds from the RTBs will be used to fund the government’s budget deficit for the year as well as the prior rejections made by the BTr in previous T-bill and Treasury bond auctions.
The Treasury tapped Land Bank of the Philippines to be the lead issue manager for the RTBs, while Development Bank of the Philippines, BDO Capital & Investment Corp., Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., BPI Capital Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. will serve as issue managers.
The government borrows from local and foreign sources to fund increased spending and boost economic activity.
It plans to borrow a total of P888.23 billion this year to plug its budget deficit that is capped at three percent of the country’s gross domestic product. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

Solo: A Star Wars Story struggles to take off in opening weekend

LOS ANGELES — Solo: A Star Wars Story, the latest prequel in the hugely popular film franchise, struggled to achieve escape velocity this holiday weekend, with an estimated $101-million four-day take falling far below expectations.
Analysts had predicted the Disney/Lucasfilm project — directed by Ron Howard and with Alden Ehrenreich as a young version of the swashbuckling Han Solo — would reach $130 million to $150 million, possibly setting a Memorial Day weekend record.
Solo, the second standalone Star Wars anthology film, has fallen far behind 2016’s Rogue One, which landed a three-day weekend opening of $155 million. The most recent installment in the franchise — Star Wars: The Last Jedi — opened less than six months ago. The second film in Star Wars’ sequel trilogy debuted with $220 million domestically.
Solo, with a cast including Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Emilia Clarke, was falling short not only in North America, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations predicted, but also abroad.
“The news is grim overseas,” said Hollywood Reporter, saying the film was heading for barely half the $300 million global take many had predicted.
Last weekend’s No. 1 film, Deadpool 2 from 20th Century Fox and Marvel, took second spot this weekend, with a four-day estimate of $53.5 million.
That movie stars Ryan Reynolds as the foul-mouthed, irreverent title character as he forms an X-Force team to protect a young mutant from evil Cable (Josh Brolin).
Third place went to Disney/Marvel collaboration Avengers: Infinity War, which took in $20.1 million in its fifth weekend out. It stars Robert Downey, Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Hemsworth.
In fourth, with $12 million in ticket sales, was a movie featuring no superheroes or interplanetary battles, and with a sedate sounding title — Book Club — that belies its racy story line.
The Paramount film tells the story of four aging friends — Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen — who decide to read the steamy book Fifty Shades of Grey and find it stimulating more than just their intellects.
And in fifth was Warner Bros. comedy Life of the Party, at $6.5 million. It stars Melissa McCarthy as a newly divorced mother who returns to college, only to find herself in class with her (deeply embarrassed) daughter.
Rounding out the top 10 were: Breaking In ($5 million); Show Dogs ($4.2 million); Overboard ($4.1 million); A Quiet Place ($2.7 million); RBG ($1.4 million). — AFP/Reuters

Megaworld eyes P1-billion sales from shophouse lots

MEGAWORLD Corp. expects to generate P1 billion from the sale of lots in the Shophouse District of its San Fernando, Pampanga township, disclosing on Monday that 70% of the available lots have been sold.
The listed property developer said in a statement that since its launch in June 2017, the prices of shophouse lots have already risen by 20%. Prices now range from P12 million to P32 million for the lots covering 276 to 680 square meters.
Megaworld offers a total of 98 lots in the 6.3-hectare Shophouse District. Lot owners may build three-level shophouses, using the ground and second floors for commercial purposes and the third level as a residential unit.
The Shophouse District is expected to feature retail, food and beverage, pet shops, fashion boutiques, outpatient clinics, product showrooms, and boutique hotels.
It noted that up to 40% of the Shophouse district will be allotted to open spaces such as alleys, roads, and easements.
“The core concept and idea of the Shophouse District is to provide a venue for local entrepreneurs of Pampanga and nearby provinces to showcase their products and masterpieces by building their businesses with us,” Megaworld Pampanga First Vice-President for Sales and Marketing Eugene Em Lozano said in a statement.
Megaworld said it will start turning over the lots to owners by the end of 2019. Mr. Lozano also noted that they expect property prices to “even soar higher” as they head toward the project’s completion.
The Shophouse District forms part of Capital Town, Megaworld’s 35.6-hectare township in San Fernando, Pampanga. The company unveiled the project located near the Pampanga Provincial Capitol last year. This is Megaworld’s first integrated project in Central Luzon.
Megaworld will be investing P30 billion over the next 10 years for Capital Town, which stands on what used to be the site of the Pampanga Sugar Development Co.
The company looks to attract business process outsourcing (BPO) companies into the area, as it targets to build office spaces with a gross floor area of 300,000 sq.m. for the BPO industry alone.
Megaworld delivered an 11.3% increase in attributable profit for the first three months of 2018 to P3.2 billion, supported by a 10% climb in revenues to P13.1 billion. The company attributed the growth to its residential and office businesses.
Shares in Megaworld rose four centavos or 0.85% to close at P4.75 apiece on Monday. — Arra B. Francia

Robinsons set to open 3 more Summit hotels

By Mark Louis F. Ferrolino
Special Features Writer
ROBINSONS Land Corp. (RLC) plans to open three more hotels under the Summit brand, bringing the total number of its Summit hotels to eight in the next two years.
The three additional branches will be located in Greenhills in San Juan; Naga City in Bicol; and General Santos City in South Cotabato.
“We are building more hotels to cater to more clients for both business and leisure. As mentioned, we will be opening three more and hopefully more hotels,” Summit Hotels and Resorts Operations Manager Drixel M. Ortega told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of Josiah’s Hospitality Management’s launch of its partnership with Summit Ridge Tagaytay last week.
RLC currently operates five Summit hotels — Summit Ridge Tagaytay, Summit Hotel Magnolia in Quezon City, Summit Galleria Cebu and Summit Circle Cebu, and Summit Hotel Tacloban in Leyte. Summit Hotel Tacloban opened in April with 138 rooms, giving the Gokongwei-led property firm a total room inventory of 758 under the Summit brand.
Aside from ramping up its portfolio, Summit Hotels and Resorts continue to keep each of its properties unique by incorporating designs that are related to where these branches are located.
For instance, Summit hotel in Cebu features designs associated with the province’s mangoes, while the hotel in Tacloban features decor related to its famous Pintados Festival.
“I think that’s also one way of sending that message — that we know what the trends are,” Mr. Ortega said, noting the company adjusts to what the market needs.
JOSIAH’S PARTNERSHIP
As part of the initiative, the management of Summit Ridge Tagaytay tapped Josiah’s Catering, Inc. as its new food and beverage (F&B) partner.
“To bring Josiah’s — our brand — in different cities, the best partnership is hotel. And then, there are hotels that look for F&B provider like Summit Ridge. It’s a good thing that they tapped us,” Freshnaida Versoza, chief operating officer of Josiah’s Catering, told BusinessWorld.
“For Josiah’s Hospitality Management, it’s our first property to handle. We’re really excited for it because Summit Ridge has a lot of potential that can give in the market,” Ms. Versoza added.
Josiah’s is set to open a new concept restaurant, Sartin, at the Summit Ridge Tagaytay by June that will become the hotel’s in-house restaurant.
Sartin is a Filipino restaurant that specializes in Tagalog, Kapampangan and Ilonggo dishes, which according to Ms. Versoza, are the best of the best recipes of their family members, infused with Josiah’s twist. It could cater to 100 up to 200 diners.
“I wanted to strengthen the brand because I believe that Filipinos, at the end of the day, always go back to our comfort food such as Sinigang, Bulalo, and Adobo,” Ms. Versoza said.
“Tagaytay is a perfect location for our first F&B operations management because aside from its picturesque views and cool climate, it is a culinary destination on its own. We want to make the Tagaytay experience more exciting and delicious for tourists and locals,” she said.

RRR cut driving peso’s sharp decline

THE fresh cut in bank reserves announced by the central bank is driving the sharper decline of the peso, a global bank said, as players anticipate increased liquidity in the local financial system.
“We attribute the very recent underperformance of the Philippine peso to expectations of higher liquidity in the system,” ING Bank N.V. Manila said in a report published yesterday.
On Thursday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced that the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) imposed on big banks will be trimmed to 18% starting Friday, marking the second adjustment this year for the regulatory standard.
By June 1, universal and commercial banks would only have to keep 18% of deposits vaulted under the BSP’s watch, freeing up at least P90 billion funds which they can deploy for new credit lines. This follows a cut also worth one percentage point back in March, which sought to gradually reduce the “ultra-high” reserve regime which is the steepest in Asia.
“The cut in RRR is the second this year (after one in March). Liquidity in the next few days will be high and work against the peso unless BSP directly intervenes in the spot market or external developments turn more friendly to emerging markets,” ING analysts said.
The local unit saw a three-day losing streak last week and even hit a fresh low of P52.70 versus the dollar on Friday, which came a day after the central bank announced the RRR cut. It is the currency’s weakest showing in nearly 12 years.
Apart from the additional money supply to be released by the RRR adjustment, the maturity of P130 billion worth of government-issued debt papers have also raised domestic liquidity this month, ING said.
The Bureau of the Treasury will start its offering of three-year retail bonds by Wednesday worth at least P30 billion. ING said this seeks to refinance the recent maturity and capture the additional liquidity following the RRR cut.
“BSP targets to bring the RRR to below 10% in five years… Unfortunately, the short-term liquidity would be negative for the peso.”
“There is also a longer-term impact on the currency. Banks will likely use part of the liquidity to finance corporate and government activity resulting in enhanced growth prospects for the economy. Higher growth also means higher imports and wider trade deficits.”
Moody’s Investors Service said the sustained peso depreciation would be “credit negative” for the Philippines, as a weaker currency will push up foreign borrowing costs and trigger more capital outflows. It said the peso is the second-worst performer in among regional currencies, falling by 5.2% year-to-date against the greenback. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez

Fed-up Spanish cities are bursting Airbnb’s bubble

MADRID — Spain may be one of the world’s top tourist destinations, but many people in its biggest cities have grown exasperated with Airbnb-style rentals.
And now, their city councils are taking action.
Airbnb and other peer-to-peer rental websites have for years been credited with enabling lovers of travel and culture to find new ways to explore foreign lands.
However, complaints have abounded in Spain that greedy landlords are throwing out long-term tenants in order to cash in on the tourist flow, and that the short-term leases are pushing up rent.
By introducing a slew of new rules, Madrid’s left-wing city hall plans to make it impossible for short-term rental companies to rent out 95% of apartments in the Spanish capital by the end of the year.
To get a holiday rental license homeowners will have to prove their property has a separate entrance from the rest of the building — a condition that is in most cases impossible to fulfill.
Homeowners who rent their primary residence for less than three months a year will be exempt.
“We are aware that this is a very restrictive condition, and that is our intention,” Madrid’s city councilor for sustainable urban development, Jose Manuel Calvo, told AFP.
He said certain Madrid neighborhoods have reached “the same saturation level” as Barcelona, where a boom in holiday rentals has drained the city’s housing supply and pushed up rents, sparking a backlash against tourists that saw protesters take to the streets.
LOCALS OUT?
There are now around 9,000 flats in Madrid that are rented out to tourists, six to seven times more than in 2013, Calvo said. Of these, about 2,000 operate without a license.
In some buildings landlords have evicted all local residents in order to rent their flats to tourists for more money, Calvo explained.
“The consequence is that these neighborhoods end up emptying out gradually, and this must be prevented. There is still time,” he said.
Madrid city hall in January stopped issuing new licenses for tourist apartments, and only plans to resume licensing once the new system is in place.
‘THEME PARKS’
Other cities in Spain, the world’s second most visited country after France according to the UN World Tourism Organization, are also facing a surge in the number of sharing economy short-term rentals, threatening hotel businesses.
In the Mediterranean port city of Valencia the number of peer-to-peer holiday apartments has soared by 30% since 2016.
While the situation is not as critical as in Madrid and Barcelona, the city’s left-wing mayor wants a raft of new regulations to be approved by July.
“It seems important to have rules in place that, without stopping this model of the sharing economy, are compatible with cities’ desire to preserve the spirit of their neighborhoods, without becoming theme parks,” the city’s economic development coordinator, Julio Olmos, told AFP.
The plan is to apply the same laws regulating hotels to tourist rentals. In practice under the new rules, only apartments on the ground floor or first floor can be legally rented out to tourists.
In the old town center the legislation will be even tighter. There, licenses will only be awarded to flats in buildings specifically designated for holiday rentals.
INTERNET TRACKING
To ensure the rules are respected, Madrid and Valencia plan to follow Barcelona’s lead.
The Catalan city employs 40 people tasked with poring through holiday rental sites to ensure that properties have the proper licenses.
Between mid-2016 and mid-2017 Barcelona city hall, headed by a former housing rights activist, ordered the closure of over 2,300 holiday rental flats.
Fewer than 750 have obeyed the order, with legal proceedings under way against those still resisting.
Airbnb has, however, removed 1,500 ads for unlicensed flats, helping to return the properties to the regular rental market.
Palma de Mallorca, capital of Mediterranean tourist destination the Balearic Islands, is going even further — it is poised to ban nearly all short-term rentals of private homes like those listed on Airbnb.
The island city saw the number of holiday flats jump 40% between 2013 and 2017.
The surge is blamed for a shortage of long-term rental apartments, forcing some locals and seasonal workers to live in vans and campsites in the summer because they can’t find affordable housing.
Detached homes will be available to rent for tourists only if they are located near the airport, in industrial areas, or in buildings not designated for residential use. — AFP

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