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Warner Bros.’ $1-B Abu Dhabi theme park to open in July

ABU DHABI — Abu Dhabi hopes the opening of a $1-billion Warner Bros. theme park in July will help it in its bid to nearly double the number of tourists visiting the emirate over the next few years.
Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is investing billions of dollars in tourism, industry and infrastructure to diversify its economy away from oil.
It is already home to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ferrari World and the Yas Water Park. Two more museums — the Guggenheim and the Zayed National Museum — are being built as well as a SeaWorld theme park.
The Warner Bros. park will be an added attraction, but with neighboring Dubai already a leading tourist destination and given the huge investment in the theme park, returns may not be immediate.
“The theme park is a long-term play, we have a sustainable business plan,” Mohamed Khalifa al Mubarak, chairman of Miral, the developer, told reporters on Wednesday, adding that Abu Dhabi and Dubai were complimentary destinations with different theme parks.
Abu Dhabi attracted 4.8 million tourists in 2017 and targets 8.5 million visitors by 2021, according to the emirate’s department of culture & tourism.
Features of the 1.65 million-square-foot Warner Bros. park on Yas island will include a DC Metropolis, Gotham City, Cartoon Junction, Dynamite Gulch, and a Warner Bros. Plaza.
“We have worked with Miral to faithfully bring iconic franchises such as DC Entertainment, Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera to life in a truly immersive and authentic environment,” said Pam Lifford, president, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. — Reuters

Cebu Pacific’s new aircraft to push Davao expansion

By Carmelito Q. Francisco, Correspondent
DAVAO CITY — Budget airline Cebu Pacific (Cebu Air, Inc.) is looking to expand its services to and from the Davao International Airport here with the delivery of three new Air 321 CEO planes in the coming weeks.
“We will evaluate whether there are possible new (local and international) routes that we can serve,” Ma. Rosario L. Lagamon, Cebu Pacific corporate communications director, told BusinessWorld on Wednesday on the sidelines of an agreement signing for the Visit Davao Summer Festival 2018.
Ms. Lagamon said the three new aircraft, among the 45 expected for delivery within the next five years, will already be used for some of the existing 10 Davao routes.
Demand for flights to Davao has been increasing, she said. “Even the A330 that seats 436 is always full… We change some of the aircraft (to Davao) that seats more people using the same slot in Manila with bigger aircraft so (we) can fly more people into Davao.”
“In terms of cargo, Davao is a very big thing. The total volume (in and out of Davao) reached 15,000 tons in 2017,” she added.
Cebu Pacific currently has 148 weekly flights between Davao and nine local destinations, and a lone international route, Singapore.
Ms. Lagamon said the Davao airport, which the airline declared as its third hub in 2008, accounted for more than 12% of the 19.7 million passengers it flew in 2017.
As part of the summer tourism campaign for Davao, Ms. Lagamon said the company is bringing digital “content creators” from Singapore and the United Arab Emirates to experience the city and other parts of the region.
“Davao and adjacent provinces have so much to offer tourists… We want people to spread the word and dispel any notions they may have about Mindanao in general. We strongly feel that positive word-of-mouth is integral to promoting the region, especially for foreign tourists,” she said.
The airline official also said that they are assessing the push from the Department of Tourism and local stakeholders to launch new international routes.
Arturo M. Milan, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc., earlier said airline companies should consider servicing new routes in Asia, particularly Japan.
“I believe there already is a good market for the Davao-Japan route,” said Mr. Milan as he noted that the governments of both countries have been actively strengthening linkages.
Davao City Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio and other local officials are in Japan this week upon the invitation of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to discuss “urban planning and infrastructure development,” the city government said in a press statement. — with a report from Maya M. Padillo

Movie tickets now sold on RWM app; Ultra fancy cinema also launched

RESORTS WORLD MANILA (RWM), recently unloaded the update to its mobile companion app which includes features such as the capability to buy tickets for Newport Cinema movies as well as providing information about RWM promos, dining spots, and Newport Performing Arts Theater shows.
“When we first came out with the mobile app, we were trying address [functions] to be able to actually get to mobile… it was a natural progression and we keep on updating the app as the technology progresses,” Jay Padua, RWM director for digital channels, told BusinessWorld shortly after the launch on April 16.
The RWM Mobile Companion app has been on the Google Play Store since 2014 and as of press time, has had around 50,000 downloads.
The original app functioned more to inform the user about the property and was without the cinema ticket booking capability.
Mr. Padua added that the new update included a more “easy-to-navigate interface.”
But even before the app introduced the new feature, cinemas under the Megaworld Lifestyle Malls (Lucky Chinatown cinemas, Venice Cineplex, Southwoods cinemas, and Eastwood cinemas) already offers online ticket booking via blockbusterseats.com.
“The number of people getting tickets online are still small but we’ve seen a constant lift, so we continue pushing,” Mr. Padua said.
“Aside from the convenience of early reservations and cashless payments, moviegoers no longer have to line up at the box office… all they need to do is pay, scan, and watch,” he explained in a company release.
People booking online can pay using their credit cards, they will then be given a QR code which serves as their virtual ticket which is scanned at the cinema entrance.
ULTRA CINEMA
Along with the launch of the updated app, RWM also introduced the likewise updated Ultra Cinema 1 meant to guarantee “the most luxurious movie viewing experience possible,” said the release.
The new cinema includes personal butler service, free-flowing popcorn and soda fountain drinks, and semi-enclosed leather reclining seats equipped with USB ports and LED lamps.
Ultra Cinema tickets cost P520.
Premium movie merchandise is also available at Newport cinemas and other Megaworld malls beginning with merchandise from Marvel’s The Avengers: Infinity War. Mr. Padua said that this tie-up is one of many for the group. — Z.B. Chua

Investor urges Facebook to set up risk oversight

AN INSTITUTIONAL investor that wants Facebook to set up a risk oversight committee asked fellow shareholders on Tuesday to back the proposal, highlighting investor concerns over the company’s handling of controversies such as the recent data privacy row.
Trillium Asset Management, which owns about 73,000 shares of Facebook, Inc., said existing risk oversight structures at Facebook appeared to lack a “dedicated focus.”
Facebook has faced public outcry and intense political scrutiny since it was disclosed that the personal information of several millions of users was harvested by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Menlo Park, California-based Facebook has also been criticized for its role in Russia’s alleged influence over the 2016 US presidential election.
“The sheer volume, magnitude, and frequency of Facebook’s controversies strongly suggests that the company’s whack-a-mole approach is insufficient — Facebook needs to institutionalize stronger risk oversight mechanisms,” Trillium said in a letter here to fellow Facebook shareholders.
Trillium’s proposal first came in a regulatory filing on Friday.
Facebook, at the time, appeared to oppose the proposal, saying it would be inefficient to form a separate oversight committee, given that many of its board members were already overseeing risk-related matters.
“We believe that our board and committees have sufficient time and resources to address risk oversight matters along with their other responsibilities,” Facebook had said.
A Facebook spokeswoman maintained that response on Tuesday.
The social networking giant’s lack of attention to risk management has eroded shareholder value, Trillium said, pointing to Facebook’s warning last week that new investments in security will “significantly” impact future profits.
Facebook has lost nearly $47 billion in market value since the Cambridge Analytica revelations first surfaced last month. — Reuters

Bangko Sentral trims next week’s term deposit offer due to holidays

By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Senior Reporter
THE CENTRAL BANK has trimmed the volume for next week’s term deposit auctions, in anticipation of upcoming holidays which could leave banks opting to hold more cash.
Term deposits to be offered by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday will be reduced to P90 billion, down by P20 billion from this week’s P110-billion offer.
Broken down, auction amounts were lowered for the one-week and two-week tenors. Only P40 billion will be issued under the seven-day term, down from this week’s P50 billion. The volume for the 14-day term deposits will also be slashed to P30 billion from P40 billion for the April 25 exercise.
Meanwhile, the central bank will still float P20 billion under a 28-day term for the fourth straight week.
BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. said the cut in the auction amounts is “temporary,” as the reduced volumes are timed ahead of upcoming holidays.
Financial markets will be closed on May 1 in observance of Labor Day. May 14 will also be a national holiday for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
The amounts will be “back to usual” after the break, Mr. Espenilla said in a WhatsApp message to reporters.
The term deposit facility (TDF) is currently the central bank’s primary tool in capturing excess funds in the local financial system. The BSP expects to keep market rates closer to the 3% benchmark rate by paying margins to banks who decide to park unused cash under the window.
Market rates usually drop if banks are sitting on idle funds.
The BSP is also relying on the weekly TDF auctions to mop up additional liquidity after the reserve requirement ratio imposed on universal and commercial banks was lowered to 19% of deposits starting March 2.
Banks wanted to place P112.07 billion under the three instruments this week, lower than the P133.034 billion tenders received a week ago but a tad higher than the P110 billion offered by the central bank.
Wednesday’s auction saw banks preferring the seven-day instruments, which resulted in a slight undersubscription for the 14-day tenor. Yields saw mixed movements as average rates for the one-week and two-week tenors climbed, while the 28-day notes saw a slight drop in returns.

An experience you’ll not soon forget

By Richard Roeper
Movie Review
The Florida Project
Directed by Sean Baker
FOR MOST of The Florida Project, I found myself rooting for unseen authorities.
The police. The Florida Department of Children and Families. Maybe a church leader.
Someone to swoop in and rescue a little girl from her monstrously unfit mother and to provide much-needed psychological help for this child, who already has picked up some alarmingly anti-social tendencies (and that might be understating it) from her mom.
With The Florida Project, the gifted writer-director Sean Baker delivers a sun-dappled but decidedly dark and severely fractured (and occasionally class-condescending) fairy tale, set so close to Disney World you can see the fireworks popping off in the distance at night, but a galaxy away for the impoverished children who live in the garishly painted, barely inhabitable, rundown motels of certain Orlando suburbs.
Often shot from the point of view of the young children who roam the properties and nearby streets with either no adult supervision, or “supervision” so incompetent they might be better off on their own, The Florida Project does a masterful job of exploring a world rarely explored in movies: the almost completely dream-free lives of poverty-class millennials (many of them parents) who barely get by on part-time, hourly wage jobs and/or misdemeanor-level moneymaking schemes.
They work as maids in the nicer hotels, or patrol the parking lots of those hotels, trying to resell cheap perfume to guilty rich folks at a steep markup. They’re cashiers in tacky souvenir shops or reduced-price ticket kiosks. They scrap and scrape to make enough for their $35 a night “rent” payment. (At the end of each month, they have to put their things in storage, move out of their rooms and stay at a nearby motel for a night, because they’re not allowed to establish permanent residency in any of these places.)
They live with their kids in tiny motel rooms, with the TV or music almost always blaring, and junk food strewn about. If they spend any time trying to teach their children to learn, we don’t see it in this movie. (Hence my earlier comment about class condescension.)
In a remarkable performance, free of self-conscious, child-actor mannerisms, Brooklynn Prince plays Moonee, a girl of about six who is bright and filled with energy, and sometimes adorable and cheerful — but also manipulative and dishonest and a little mean-spirited and temperamental.
Moonee and her little running mates Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Jancey (Valeria Cotto) get themselves into all sorts of trouble, ranging from the disturbing but relatively harmless to the disturbing and potentially quite harmful.
Moonee is the leader of the bunch, giving the lay of the land to new arrival Jancey. She says not to use the elevator because it always smells of urine. She’s the tour guide to food stands where if they hang around long enough, the proprietors will give them free treats just so they’ll go away. She’s a resourceful kid and even when she’s getting into trouble, she breaks your heart because even though she’s awfully cynical for someone her age, she’s not sophisticated enough to realize every street in her neighborhood might as well be a dead end.
Bria Vinaite is so good as Halley, Moonee’s nightmare of a mother, we want to yell at the screen for her to get her stuff together. Halley loves Moonee, but she can’t take care of herself, let alone a child. She can’t hold a job, she has a horrible temper, she’s had multiple run-ins with the law, and when there’s no money left, she advertises herself online and welcomes a steady parade of men into the tiny motel room, parking Moonee in the bathroom and turning up the radio so Moonee can’t hear what’s happening on the other side of the door.
In one of the finest performances of a long and varied career, Willem Dafoe is Bobby, the manager of the motel.
Talk about a thankless job. Not a day goes by — heck, not an HOUR goes by — without some problem, whether it’s a guest behind on her rent slamming the door in his face, or busted washing machines in the laundry room, or a creepy adult stranger wandering over and talking to kids in the rusted-out playground, or a 70-ish female guest insisting on going topless at the swimming pool, which looks like the sort of swimming pool in which no one should ever go swimming.
Bobby’s kind of a hapless character — apologetic to a fault, intimidated by some of the guests — but he’s pretty damn heroic in his own way, in this small and godforsaken corner of the world. Even as the kids are driving him nuts and giving him lip and screaming things like, “You’re not my father!” you get the impression they realize on some level he’s the closest thing to a positive adult role model in their lives.
As The Florida Project grows bleaker, writer-director Baker nimbly shifts the tone of the film, with the skies literally growing darker, and certain characters meeting the consequences of their actions. It’s a film that’ll make you wince at times, and you’ll most likely not want to see it twice, but seeing it once is an experience you’ll not soon forget. — Chicago Sun-Times/Andrews McMeel Syndication
Rating: 3 and a half ★s
MTRCB Rating: R-13

FINTQ loan disbursements post double-digit growth

FINTQNOLOGIES CORP. (FINTQ), the financial technology (fintech) arm of PLDT Group’s Voyager Innovations, Inc., increased by double digits in terms of loan disbursements through its online platform in the first quarter.
“Loan disbursements processed through Lendr, FINTQ’s digital lending platform, recorded a double-digit growth in the first quarter from the same period last year,” the fintech firm said in a statement sent to reporters on Thursday.
FINTQ said the loan disbursements made in the January to March period brought the total volume of loans booked and released through Lendr since it was launched in 2015 to over P30 billion.
Lendr has posted a compounded annual growth rate of 61% in loans booked, while its approval rate is at 40%.
“These encouraging results manifest Filipinos’ rapid digital adoption. This forms part of our metrics to leapfrog digital financial transactions to a minimum of 20% from the current one percent,” FINTQ Managing Director Angelito M. Villanueva was quoted as saying in the statement.
Aside from salary, personal, home and auto loan products, FINTQ also offers mobile crop, micro-, small- and medium-enterprise and medicine loans among others.
Meanwhile, majority of its borrowers in the first quarter were from the millennial segment.
“Majority of those who have borrowed through Lendr are single, female, employed, and are the so-called millennials or those born from 1982 to 2004. Nearly a third of our borrowers work in the government sector and the customer service industry,” Mr. Villanueva shared.
FINTQ’s managing director added that millennials prefer digital platforms for transactions due to its convenience.
Aside from this, he also noted that seven out of its 10 borrowers reside outside Metro Manila.
“Customers want a fast and easy access to money, anytime they need it, wherever they are. At the same time, we provide platforms for financial institutions, allowing them to go beyond their brick and mortar branches and tap a bigger market at a lower cost,” Mr. Villanueva added.
In March, Malaysian lender CIMB Bank Berhad has tapped FINTQ as it plans to enter the Philippine market as a digital-only bank.
Mr. Villanueva said in a previous text message that CIMB would “initially [offer] appliance loans via Lendr.”
Voyager Innovations is PLDT, Inc.’s digital innovations unit. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

Prince’s outfits, guitars to go on sale

NEW YORK — Outfits and instruments by late pop icon Prince, who was known for his distinct and unique style, will go under the hammer in New York next month.
Julien’s Auctions said Wednesday it was putting more than 150 items from the late superstar up for sale on May 18, ranging from early childhood photos to golden record trophies to some of his most eye-grabbing attire.
Highlights include a custom-made yellow “Cloud” guitar, so named for its unique twisting body, which also has Prince’s signature love symbols engraved between the frets.
The auction house estimated the guitar would fetch between $60,000 and $80,000. Last year, it sold another Cloud guitar for a surprisingly hefty $700,000.
The Cloud guitars were made for Prince by Minneapolis luthier Dave Rusan, with one appearing prominently in the 1984 film Purple Rain where Prince’s alter ego “The Kid” receives one as a gift from his girlfriend Apollonia.
Another key item on sale next month is an electric blue turtleneck with matching trousers which Prince — whose best-known hits included “1999” — wore at his turn-of-the-millennium New Year’s Eve party at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota.
The auction house said that it expected the outfit, which Prince also wore when jamming with Lenny Kravitz at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1999, would go for $50,000 to $70,000.
The suit, like many of the items, were listed as coming from Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia, a dancer and mother of Prince’s only known child — who died shortly after birth in 1996 due to a rare disorder.
Many of the items including stereo equipment came out of Paisley Park, the reclusive star’s studio and headquarters that has since been opened for paid tours.
CHARGES IN PRINCE’S DEATH
Meanwhile, A Minnesota prosecutor will announce on Thursday (Friday in Manila) whether anyone will be criminally charged in the death of the pop star, who died two years ago from an opioid overdose.
Carver County Attorney Mark Metz will hold a news conference at 1630 GMT regarding his decision following a lengthy investigation, the Carver County Attorney’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
Prince, 57, was found dead at his Paisley Park complex near Minneapolis on April 21, 2016. The official cause of death was a self-administered overdose of the painkiller fentanyl, but no prescriptions were found for the powerful drug that is 50 times stronger than heroin.
Police investigating Prince’s death found numerous opioids in the singer’s home, according to court documents released in April 2017. At that time, they had not identified who supplied the dose of fentanyl that caused his death or where it came from.
Authorities have been investigating the death of the “Purple Rain” singer for two years, terming it an “active homicide investigation,” according to affidavits and search warrants unsealed in 2017.
The probe included searches of Prince’s computer, his friends’ mobile phone records and interviews with associates, the documents said. Some of the painkillers found at the residence had prescriptions in the names of other people.
Investigators were told that the singer, whose legal name was Prince Rogers Nelson, had a history of going through withdrawals believed to be tied to prescription pain medication abuse, the unsealed documents showed.
Prince, known for his androgynous style and sexually charged songs, died a day before he was set to meet a California-based doctor who specializes in addiction treatment for a “life-saving mission.” — AFP/Reuters

California agency probing Tesla on occupational safety

TESLA, INC. is being probed by a California agency for occupational safety after a report that the electric car maker failed to disclose serious injuries at a Fremont factory.
The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) disclosed the inspection on Wednesday, two days after news website Reveal said that Tesla’s omissions in legally mandated reports made its safety record appear better than it was.
The probe began on Tuesday, Erika Monterroza, spokesperson for Cal-OSHA, said. The agency typically reviews an employer’s log of work-related injuries and illnesses to make sure that serious injuries are reported directly to the administration within eight hours, she added.
A Tesla spokesman said Cal-OSHA is required to investigate any claims, whether they have merit or are baseless.
“We have never in the entire history of our company received a violation for inaccurate or incomplete injury record-keeping,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
The injury rate at the Fremont factory, which it had taken over from General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., is half what it was in its final years under the previous owners, the spokesman added. — Reuters

Say it again, Peres

By Richard Roeper
Movie Review
7 Days in Entebbe
Directed by Jose Padilha
THE RAID is on.
Israeli commandos are about to descend on Entebbe Airport on a mission to take out Ugandan soldiers and hijacker-terrorists and rescue more than 100 civilian hostages.
Back at command central, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin looks at his military advisers and says:
“This is it.”
It’s almost a surprise when no one replies, “No (bleep), sir.”
All too often in 7 Days in Entebbe, primary characters on all sides of this 1970s period-piece political thriller state the obvious — and then state it again, and then have to stand around while someone else states the obvious one more time, just in case the folks in the seats have yet to grasp the stakes at hand and the dilemmas in play.
Directed with a creative (sometimes to the point of distraction) flourish by Jose Padilha (the Netflix series Narcos) and featuring an international gathering of gifted but in some cases miscast players, 7 Days in Entebbe is an honorable but not essential retelling of Operation Entebbe, still hailed as one of the most audacious, brave, and successful rescue missions of its kind.
In the summer of 1976, an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris with 248 passengers was hijacked by pro-Palestine radicals and eventually landed in the main airport in Uganda. After a week of tense standoffs (during which time some of the hostages were let go), with the hijackers demanding the release of dozens of imprisoned Palestinian militants in exchange for the hostages, the Israeli government sent a unit to Entebbe on a rescue mission.
We’ve seen dramatizations of the story before. There were two mediocre made-for-TV extravaganzas: Victory at Entebbe (1976) and Raid on Entebbe (1977), remarkable mostly for their marquee casts, with Kirk Douglas, Helen Hayes, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Hopkins, Elizabeth Taylor, Charles Bronson, Peter Finch, and Yaphet Kotto starring in one or the other. And The Last King of Scotland (2006) wasn’t solely about Entebbe, but a (highly fictionalized) version of events was incorporated into the story.
Now comes this disappointingly listless thriller, in which at least four of the titular seven days feel like place-holders, with everyone holding their positions and regurgitating the same concerns and regrets and debates.
7 Days in Entebbe begins with a pulse-pounding opening sequence, but it doesn’t involve the hijackers or the passengers or any government officials. It’s a dance number. A pulse-pounding, chills-inducing, powerful, and provocative dance number.
Members of the Batsheva Dance Company take their places on folding chairs arranged in a semi-circle. As the music intensifies, the dancers rise from their seats with almost violent choreography, with one of them falling to the floor with a jarring thud each time it’s her turn to join the sequence.
We cut back to this sequence a number of times in the film, with the dancers becoming increasingly intense, their movements ever more mesmerizing. There are some brilliant quick-cuts between the precision moves of the dance company and the precision moves of the rescue operation, but that’s also a problem, because the dance company footage is, on some level, more involving than the life-and-death military ops stuff, which is pretty standard action movie fare.
The lead characters in 7 Days are actually the German radical terrorist hijackers, Wilfried Bose and Brigitte Kuhlmann.
The German-Spanish actor Daniel Bruhl is outstanding as Bose, an idealistic and relatively naive bookstore operator who makes the cardinal mistake of getting to know some of the hostages, further weakening his already bending commitment to his cause.
The British actress Rosamund Pike, alas, is a disaster as Kuhlmann. Wearing a bad wig and huge glasses, working the German accent to the point of nearly grinding her teeth, spouting threats like she’s Honey Bunny in Pulp Fiction, her eyes growing into ever-wider saucers as she pops pills, Pike’s Kuhlmann is a caricature careening through the scenery of a docudrama.
Meanwhile, back in Israel, Prime Minister Rabin (Lior Ashkenazi, excellent) chain-smokes and works the phones and debates strategy with his cabinet. His defense minister, Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan, another case of miscasting), states again and again and AGAIN that Israel must never negotiate with terrorists, and the only solution is swift and sweeping military action.
“You want us to invade Uganda?” says Rabin.
Peres shrugs. Yes. Invade Uganda. Go to war. Do whatever must be done, and if the civilians (including many Israelis) perish in the process, so be it.
Nonso Anozie is appropriately hammy as the lunatic Idi Amin, who chuckles and grins and talks up his own legend no matter what the situation. We circle back to the dance company with a corny romance subplot involving one of the commandos and a dancer. (“I fight so you can dance!” says the soldier to his fretting gal.)
And then comes the raid, and it’s muted and underwhelming, containing only a fraction of the fire and fury of that aforementioned dance number. — Chicago Sun-Times/Andrews McMeel Syndication
Rating: ★★
MTRCB RatingPG

BPI Direct BanKo targets 200 branches by yearend

BPI DIRECT BANKO, Inc., the microfinance unit of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), targets to have 200 branches at the end of the year in a bid to expand its small and medium enterprise (SME) loan segment.
“We’re looking at 200 [branches] at the end of the year. That’s a pretty fast growth rate for the SME business,” Joseph Albert L. Gotuaco, retail client segment group head of BPI, said in a press conference following the bank’s annual stockholders meeting in Makati City on Thursday.
Mr. Gotuaco said BPI Direct BanKo targets to have up to 150 branches by August.
“We opened two [branches] this week. We’re going to have 115 [and] by the end of June, I think we’ll be at 130 branches. By July or August, [we might have] 150,” he told reporters, adding that the additional 50 branches to hit the 200 target branches are yet to be approved by the central bank.
“The last 50 [still have no approval, but] it’s [already] applied. I don’t want to say 200 [because] the regulator hasn’t given us the approval, but the target is 200,” Mr. Gotuaco said, noting that some of the branches were built using the branch-lite model.
“Some of them are branch-lite and some of them are regular… You can’t tell the difference… it’s the way the branch operates. You can [distinguish] a branch-lite from a main branch just by counting the number of heads.”
In December, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approved the option for banks to set up branch-lite units. This kind of branch is dressed-down and less formal compared with the typical brick-and-mortar bank branch, and can be placed in towns and cities which are unbanked or underserved.
The branch expansion, BPI’s retail client segment group head said, will help bolster BPI Direct BanKo’s self-employed micro-entrepreneur (SEME) segment.
“[Our] SEME portfolio is around P800 million right now. That’s relatively small compared with the bank’s total portfolio, but I think it’s one of the fastest-growing segments,” he said, adding that the BPI’s subsidiary lender “would be in good shape” should it elevate its loan volume for SEME to around P1.5 billion to P2 billion.
“Because some of the branches are new, I don’t think we’ll double the loan [volume]. So [for me], if we get to P1.5-2 billion total loans, we would be in good shape.”
BPI Direct Banko’s plan to tap more SMEs is in line with the goal of its parent bank to expand its retail loan segment.
“Over the next few years, we’d like [our] corporate-retail loan [share] to actually change a little bit. So we’d like to build our SME loans, we like to build our retail loans, we like to grow our microfinance [loans],” BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Cezar P. Consing said at the briefing.
Currently, BPI’s loan portfolio consists of 80% corporate loans and only 20% retail loans, according to Mr. Consing.
“If we can execute it, this will make us more inclusive, and this will improve our net interest margins.”
BPI is conducting a stock rights offer until April 25 seen to raise P50 billion.
Proceeds from the capital raising exercise will be used to fund the expansion of its loan portfolio particularly in the consumer, small to medium enterprises and microfinance segments.
“At the same time, we’re going to take portion on this new equity that was raised to digitize the bank. For clients, that means access to online or mobile [banking],” Mr. Consing added.
BPI generated a net income of P22.4 billion in 2017, 1.7% higher than the P22.1 billion logged the previous year.
Shares in the Ayala-led bank gained P5 or 4.81% to close at P109 apiece on Thursday. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

ICTSI remains bullish amid fears of US-China trade war

INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is keeping a positive outlook for the year, while being cautious on the impact of the looming trade war between the United States and China on its international operations.
ICTSI Chairman and President Enrique K. Razon, Jr. said its operations in Mexico may be affected should the ongoing conflict between the US and China grow into a full-blown trade war.
“The outlook globally is okay, unless of course there’s some disruption with this trade war that could break out… Our only exposure will be Mexico because a lot of the goods going through Mexico come from China,” Mr. Razon told reporters after the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting at Solaire Resort and Casino in Parañaque City yesterday.
ICTSI currently operates two ports in Mexico, which Mr. Razon noted is one of the company’s fastest growing terminals, alongside Iraq. In 2017, the company’s Mexican operations hit a capacity of more than one million twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs).
Mr. Razon said they are aiming to hit 1.5 million TEUs from its operations there, while reaching for a one-million TEU capacity goal in Iraq.
While the looming trade war could affect ICTSI’s Mexican operations, Mr. Razon said the Philippines may benefit should China start looking for other export markets.
“If the trade war between US and China will affect the exports from China to the US, so China may have to find other markets for these exports. So China may actually be beneficial to us, the trade war,” Mr. Razon explained.
Tensions between the US and China have been escalating since US President Donald J. Trump imposed higher tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, with plans to further slap additional tariffs on $100 billion worth Chinese products. China has since responded with higher tariffs on $50 billion worth of US goods.
ICTSI booked $182.14 million in net income attributable to equity holders last year, up 1.2% from its earnings in 2016. This was boosted by a 10.3% increase in revenues to $1.24 billion during the year.
Asked if the listed port operator can top its 2017 performance, Mr. Razon said “there’s always a chance.”
“That depends how the start-ups actually start producing cash flow. It’s really driven by that. Because our existing terminals are also growing. It’s really the new terminals, how fast they ramp up. When do they start producing cash, that will drive that,” the ICTSI executive said.
ICTSI raised $400 million from its issuance of senior guaranteed perpetual capital securities last January to finance its capital spending.
Shares in ICTSI dropped P1.60 or 1.67% to close at P94 apiece on Thursday. — Arra B. Francia

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