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Ayala unit takes control of US-based Merlin Solar

By Krista A.M. Montealegre,
National Correspondent

A SUBSIDIARY of Ayala Corp. acquired a majority stake in a manufacturer of innovative solar solutions that will enable the conglomerate to bolster its global manufacturing presence and put the company in a position to disrupt the solar energy industry.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the Ayala group said AC Industrial Technology Holdings, Inc. purchased a controlling stake in Merlin Solar Technologies, Inc. where the group made a minority investment in 2016.

AC Industrials, through subsidiary ACI Solar Holdings NA, will own 78.2% of Merlin after the transaction and completion of other related activities.

ACI Solar held an 8.2% interest in Merlin prior to the transaction, according to regulatory filings.

Based in San Jose, California, Merlin is developing products with high durability, flexibility, and increased solar power output using differentiated solar solutions.

This will allow AC Industrials to produce potentially innovative applications in areas with demanding environments, such as transportation and infrastructure — areas of investment of the Ayala group.

Merlin has manufacturing facilities in Thailand and the company plans to expand in the Philippines through Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. (IMI), a subsidiary of AC Industrials.

The acquisition is in line with the Ayala group’s strategy to “boost its presence in the global and domestic industrial technologies spaces by capitalizing on opportunities arising from disruptive technological shifts, changing industry landscapes, and increasing demand from end-users.”

AC Industrials Chief Executive Officer Arthur R. Tan said Merlin’s patent and intellectual property portfolio allows the Ayala group to offer a differentiated value proposition in solar which, when combined with AC Industrials’ core strength of providing manufacturing scale through IMI’s global platform, will give the group an opportunity to disrupt the solar energy industry.

“The proprietary solar solutions that Merlin brings to the table are key to AC Industrials’ strategy of working on disruptive technologies, and aligns with the Ayala group’s drive to invest in emerging, innovative spaces, such as in e-commerce and (financial technology),” Ayala and AC Industrials Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala was quoted in the statement as saying.

“In addition, Merlin is highly complementary to various Ayala businesses, such as the renewable energy generation under AC Energy (Holdings, Inc.). We strongly believe that Merlin’s solar technology has the potential to profoundly impact people’s lives in the coming years,” he added.

The Ayala group consolidated its automotive and manufacturing assets under AC Industrials last year after transferring its ownership of IMI to its wholly owned subsidiary.

Ayala Corp. has diversified business interests that include real estate, financial services, telecommunications, water infrastructure development and electronics manufacturing. It has recently entered new sectors with investments in power generation, transport infrastructure development, health care, education and e-commerce.

Shares in AC added P5 or 0.47% to close at P1,065 apiece on Monday.

Cebu Landmasters expands in Negros Occidental with 2 projects

CEBU LANDMASTERS, Inc. (CLI) unveiled two projects in Negros island with a combined sales value of P3.54 billion, as it looks to provide housing for employees of the booming information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) sector in the area.

In a statement on Monday, the listed property firm said it will develop a residential condominium project in Bacolod City called MesaVirre Garden Residences, consisting of 1,072 units covering 22 to 40 square meters (sq.m.) of space. The units will be spread out across three buildings, valued at P2.63 billion.

The launch of MesaVirre Garden Residences would bring the total number of units under the housing brand to 4,474, as CLI also has projects under the brand in Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao City.

CLI’s second project in Negros Occidental is Casa Mira Coast. Under CLI’s brand of economic townhouses, the project in Sibulan offers 543 townhouse units sized from 38 to 58 sq.m., with sales projected to reach P908 million. The location is near Dumaguete City, considered a destination for IT-BPM firms.

Housing units under the Casa Mira brand will hit 5,300 upon completion of the Sibulan project. Other projects under the brand are located in different parts of Cebu, namely Naga, Talisay, Guadalupe, and Tabangon.

CLI’s decision to put up more projects in the Visayas region comes as IT-BPM firms look for more expansion opportunities in the country outside of Metro Manila.

“We’re seeing a lot of economic growth in the South and where there is growth, demand for housing follows especially among the emerging middle class,” CLI President and Chief Executive Officer Jose R. Soberano III was quoted as saying in a statement.

The company cited a study by real estate consulting firm Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC), which revealed that 11% or about 644,000 sq.m. of office space set to come online from 2018 to 2023 will be in Cebu and other parts of Visayas. IT-BPM firms will most likely be taking up these spaces, according to LPC.

“We are now replicating our housing successes in Cebu in other cities in the Visayas with relative ease given our strong relationships in the area and keen understanding of the market,” Mr. Soberano said.

This year, the company targets to launch a total of 16 projects, as Mr. Soberano noted it is “definitely the right time” to continue developing the real estate market in the Visayas-Mindanao region.

CLI aims to book a P1.7-billion profit in 2018, 41.7% higher than its projected net income in 2017. Revenues are expected to reach P5.3 billion, 47% higher than its revenue goal of P3.6 billion in 2017.

For the first three quarters of 2017, CLI’s net income stood at P960 million, as revenues came in at P2.77 billion for the period.

Shares in CLI gained two centavos or 0.44% to close at P4.52 apiece at the stock exchange on Monday. — Arra B. Francia

Variety at Sinag Maynila film fest

RETURNING for its fourth year, the Sinag Maynila Film Festival presents five full-length features which have yet to grace Philippine cinemas (but which may have been presented in international film festivals) alongside six short films and six documentaries.

“[This year] we didn’t consider the year of production,” festival director Brillante Ma. Mendoza said during the launch on Feb. 21 at SM City North EDSA, Quezon City.

Sinag Maynila was the brainchild of Mr. Mendoza and Solar Entertainment president Wilson Y. Tieng and was initially started to screen films that appeal to an international audience.

“Sinag Maynila is here not to compete with other film festivals. We are here to become venues for filmmakers so they can show their films,” Mr. Mendoza said.

“We decided to make it less restrictive because, at the end of the day, we want to have good films regardless of [date of] origin or anything. The only [stipulation] is that it hasn’t been shown yet in the Philippines,” Mr. Tieng explained.

Included in this year’s festival, which runs from March 7 to 15, is Ralston Jover’s Bomba (2017) which tells the story of a deaf/mute taking on the toughest jobs made more difficult because of his condition. Bomba’s Allen Dizon and Angelline Nicholle Sanoy were named Best Actor and Actress respectively at the 33rd Warsaw International Film Festival in Poland.

Meanwhile, Abomination (2015) by Yam Laranas is a story about the search for identity. A woman found unconscious in a city street is brought to a psychiatric hospital. There she claims to be someone — who it turns out has been brutally murdered two months before. She then escapes in order to prove her identity.

El Peste (2018) by Richard Somes is about a man who works for a pest control company who enters into an illicit relationship with a client. The film, which has been in development since 2013, will be shown for the first time in theaters at Sinag Maynila.

Melodrama/Random/Melbourne! (2018) by Matthew Victor Pastor — about a feminist documentarist, a pickup artist, and a virgin, and how the lines between reality and fiction blur and blood is shed on the streets of Melbourne — is billed as “Cinema-o-ke,” with lyrics of songs in the film shown on screen.

Completing the Sinag Maynila lineup of full-length finalists is Joselito Altarejos’ Tale of the Lost Boys (2017), about the friendship and romance between a Filipino mechanic and a Taiwanese aborigine, highlighted by a road trip which reconnects them with their mothers and the discovery of identity and freedom.

Aside from the full-length films, Sinag Maynila will also be screening six short films: Cesar and Magda (2017) by Pamela Barrios, Firestarter (2017) by Jill Urdaneta, Halusinasyon (2018) by John Agcalis, Kalye FM (2017) by Tom Nava, and, Pompoms (2017) by Angelo Amar and Odin Fernandez.

Completing this year’s festival are six documentaries: Am-amma (2017) by Dexter Macaraeg, Halaga (2018) by Vandam Arambulo, Mahal (2017) by Janine Santos, Journeyman (2017) Albert Almendralejo, Tsuper (2018) by Rina Abary, and Voltaire (2018) by Jaimee Bernardo.

Sinag Maynila will run from March 7-15 in select cinemas in SM North EDSA, SM Manila, SM Bacoor, SM Megamall, SM Fairview, SM Sta. Mesa, SM Southmall, and SM Mall of Asia.

For more information, visit www.sinagmaynila.com or follow its social media pages. — Zsarlene B. Chua

In year of #MeToo, women win big at Berlin film festival

BERLIN — Touch Me Not, an experimental Romanian docudrama exploring sexual intimacy and the fears around it, won the Golden Bear top prize at the Berlin film festival Saturday in a strong year for female filmmakers and women’s stories.

First-time director Adina Pintilie, 38, clutching the trophy after her surprise triumph, said the movie was intended to “invite you, the viewer, to dialogue” with its graphic portrayals of nudity and disability.

US filmmaker Wes Anderson clinched the best director Silver Bear prize for Isle of Dogs, an animated allegory with political bite and an early favorite among the 19 contenders.

Actor Bill Murray, who voices one of the pack of pooches in Anderson’s first animated feature since 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, picked up the award for Anderson.

“I never thought that I would go to work as a dog and come home with a bear,” he quipped.

“Ich bin ein Berliner Hund (I am a Berlin dog),” he added, riffing on John F. Kennedy’s famous speech.

The runner-up Grand Jury Prize went to Polish social satire Mug by Malgorzata Szumowska, the second winner among four women in competition.

It tells the story of a man who is shunned by his community when he has a face transplant after a horrific accident, in a plot examining tensions over identity and exclusion in eastern Europe.

Szumowska said the film “reflected problems not only in my own country” but around the world.

“I am so happy that I am a female director, yeah!” she added.

WOMEN ‘FIGHTERS’
Ana Brun of Paraguay won the Silver Bear prize for best actress for her role in The Heiresses as a middle-aged lesbian whose partner has to go to prison for their spiralling debts.

“I’d like to dedicate this prize to the women of my country, who are fighters,” she said.

France’s Anthony Bajon won best actor for an emotionally raw portrayal of a young man struggling to beat his drug addiction at a Catholic Alpine retreat in Cedric Kahn’s The Prayer.

Museum from Mexico, starring Gael Garcia Bernal in the true story of a daring 1985 heist by two students at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, bagged the best screenplay award.

Austria’s The Waldheim Waltz by Ruth Beckermann about the scandal surrounding the Nazi past of former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim claimed the best documentary prize.

Despite critical accolades, wrenching drama U-July 22 about the mass murder of 69 mainly teenage victims on the Norwegian island of Utoya by far-right militant Anders Behring Breivik in 2011, left the ceremony empty-handed.

#METOO CAST SHADOW
In a year in which the #MeToo movement cast a long shadow over the Berlinale, with several topical films screened and a raft of industry initiatives launched to combat sexual exploitation and discrimination, women proved to be the big winners.

Touch Me Not, which also picked up the best first feature prize, shows Pintilie on screen interviewing a range of protagonists about their intimate lives.

Although the stories are fictionalized, the actors include a transgender sex worker and a severely handicapped man and his able-bodied partner discussing how they came to feel at home in their bodies. Later all three visit a sadomasochistic sex club to explore their fantasies on screen.

A middle-aged British woman, Laura, who finds it difficult to be touched, enlists the help of call boys — whom she only watches — to work through her own, unspecified traumas.

Film industry bible Variety called the movie “divisive” but praised its refreshing approach to standards of beauty and “normal” sexuality.

“If anyone is shocked by Touch Me Not they’re not getting the point,” its reviewer said.

Pintilie, the sixth woman to the Berlinale in its 68-year history, admitted that the film might make many viewers uncomfortable but called it a “necessary” provocation.

“The fear of the other is growing and there is so much conflict all over the world,” she told reporters.

“The film is an invitation to empathy and to embrace otherness and to reconsider everything that you know.”

Last year, a tender Hungarian love story set in a slaughterhouse, On Body and Soul by Ildiko Enyedi, captured the top prize and is now nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar. — AFP

List of winners at the 68th Berlin film festival

BERLIN — Here are the winners of the main prizes awarded Saturday at the 68th Berlin film festival:

• Golden Bear for best film: Touch Me Not, Adina Pintilie, Romania/Germany/Czech Republic/Bulgaria/France

• Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear: Twarz (Mug), Malgorzata Szumowska, Poland

• Silver Bear for best director: Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson, Britain/Germany

• Silver Bear for best actress: Ana Brun in Las Herederas (The Heiresses), Marcelo Martinessi, Paraguay/Germany/Uruguay/Norway/ Brazil/France

• Silver Bear for best actor: Anthony Bajon in La Priere (The Prayer), Cedric Kahn, France

• Silver Bear for best screenplay: Manuel Alcala and Alonso Ruizpalacios for Museo (Museum), Mexico

• Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for work that opens new perspectives: Las Herederas (The Heiresses)

• Best documentary: Waldheims Walzer (The Waldheim Waltz), Ruth Beckermann, Austria

• Best first feature film: Touch Me Not

• Golden Bear for best short film: The Men Behind the Wall, Ines Moldavsky, Israel

• Teddy for best feature film with gay or lesbian context: Tinta Bruta (Hard Paint), Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher, Brazil

• Teddy for best documentary film with gay or lesbian context: Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag), Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman, Brazil — AFP

Spanish films shown to celebrate Int’l Women’s Day

TO CELEBRATE International Women’s Day which falls on March 8, a series of movies directed by Spanish female filmmakers, called “Espacio femenino: Spanish Female Directors,” will be shown at 6 p.m. every Saturday at the FDCP Cinematheque Manila. The film cycle aims to highlight the relevance of female filmmakers in the film industry.

The films are presented by the Instituto Cervantes, the Embassy Spain, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).

The lineup is composed of award-winning films such as the poignant drama La novia (The Bride), the comedy Requisitos para ser una persona normal (Requirements to Be a Normal Person), Vicky Calavia’s documentary María Moliner (2017), and Riot Girls, a set of short films directed by Spanish female filmmakers.

The film cycle will kick-off on March 3, 6 p.m., with the screening of La novia, a drama inspired by García Lorca’s play Blood Wedding. The story is set in Spain in the 1930s and tells of a blood feud between families that is about to be settled by a wedding. But fate has other plans as the bride is in love with another man, and unbridled passion will set a chain of events in motion that will have devastating consequences. Directed by Paula Ortiz in 2015, the film has bagged several awards, among them the Premio Feroz 2016 to the Best Film, Best Director, and Best actress for Inma Cuesta.

The film cycle will continue on March 10, with the comedy Requisitos para ser una persona normal. Directed by Leticia Dolera in 2015, it tells the story of María, a 30-year-old woman who has an immediate goal in life: to become a normal person. But first of all she has to discern what this implies. What does it exactly mean, to be normal? After a while she creates a list of those requirements needed, and she starts a journey to reach them all.

The documentary María Moliner (Vicky Calavia, 2017) will be shown on March 17. A female presence leads us through the important events in the life of linguist María Moliner, highlighting the terms that define them, using the definitions María offers in her great work: the Diccionario de Uso del Español.

Finally, the series of short films Riot Girls: Españolas en corto will conclude the film cycle on March 24. The lineup of short films is composed of: Miss Wamba, directed by Estefanía Cortés in 2017; Oasis, directed by Carmen Jiménez in 2014; Sara a la fuga, produced by Belén Funes in 2015, and Waste by Laura Sisteró and Alejo Levis, 2016.

Entrance is free on a first-come, first-served basis. The FDCP Cinematheque Manila is at 855 T.M. Kalaw St., Ermita, Manila. For details, visit http://manila.cervantes.es, www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila, or e-mail cinematheque@fdcp.ph.

Transgender artists make history at the Oscars

LOS ANGELES — Transgender representation in entertainment has made baby steps forward in recent years, but 2018 has seen a history-making giant leap, with two movies involving trans artists in the Oscars race.

Chilean actress Daniela Vega has won acclaim for her turn as Marina, a young waitress and aspiring singer who falls prey to the prejudices of society, in A Fantastic Woman, the overwhelming favorite in the best foreign language film category.

Yance Ford is also shattering glass ceilings for his intensely personal documentary Strong Island as the first openly transgender director — or trans man in any category — vying for a statuette.

Ford is only the third-ever openly transgender nominee, after Anohni — formerly Antony Hegarty of experimental US band Antony and the Johnsons — lost out for best original song in 2016, and composer Angela Morley, known as Wally Stott before a sex change, was nominated twice in the same category in the mid-1970s.

“It’s a pattern happening in the last few years, since Transparent or Laverne Cox in Orange is the New Black… and now the Oscars,” said Larry Gross, a social media and communications professor at the University of Southern California.

The history of transgender representation at the Oscars is predictably threadbare — but not completely nonexistent.

The Crying Game (1992) examined race, gender, and sexuality against the backdrop of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, while Oscar-winner Hilary Swank starred as an American trans man who falls victim to a brutal crime in Boys Don’t Cry (1999).

More recently, Jared Leto won an Academy Award for his acclaimed performance as an AIDS-stricken transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club (2013), while Eddie Redmayne was a losing nominee as a pioneer of the transsexual movement in The Danish Girl (2015).

‘SEISMIC MOMENT’
On television, Transparent, starring Jeffrey Tambor as a Californian homemaker, has been an outlier in the movement for greater representation of transgender characters in entertainment.

But that conversation quickly developed into a call for more actors who are transgender in real life to be hired for these roles, traditionally given to the “cisgendered” — people whose sense of gender corresponds with their birth sex.

“I hope I’m the last cisgender man playing a transgender woman,” Tambor said when he won his second Emmy for the hit Amazon show in 2016.

When the Academy Awards take place on March 4, that breakthrough will truly be felt.

“It’s incredibly meaningful, especially to share this with Daniela Vega. Our work hopefully transcends the fact that we’re transgender,” Ford said in an interview with AFP.

“It is a seismic moment, a tiny earthquake, and hopefully it will begin to change the field overall, and the ability of trans actors and actresses and artists of all backgrounds to have recognition.”

Strong Island chronicles the arc of Ford’s African American family from the racial segregation of the Jim Crow era to the promise of a better life in New York, shattered by the unexpected, violent death of Ford’s brother.

William Ford, Jr., a 24-year-old teacher, was fatally shot in 1992 during a trivial argument with a mechanic on New York’s Long Island.

A grand jury decided his killer had a “reasonable” fear for his life and shouldn’t be tried after Ford bizarrely became “the prime suspect of his own murder,” his character scrutinized for signs that he actually got what was coming to him.

CARICATURE
In Sebastian Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman — “a love story that happens to a transgender woman,” according to the Chilean director’s own synopsis — Vega embodies a woman almost like any other, with feminine wiles but also strength and dignity.

“Marina and I share being trans, loving to sing opera, and handsome men,” says Vega. “But that’s it.”

The actress described her character as “more elegant than me, more patient… a very peaceful woman” whereas Vega herself is “more explosive, more Latin.”

For Ford, Vega’s performance and the attention it has garnered are important because she was playing an ordinary woman.

For a long time, trans characters have been portrayed as disturbed, marginal, depressive, and on edge — one clumsy remark away from committing mass murder.

“There were a lot of psychopathic killers, like in The Silence of the Lambs,” said USC professor Gross, contrasting Jonathan Demme’s 1991 thriller with Transparent and A Fantastic Woman, and their more authentic characters.

“The media industry loves it when they know a new twist becomes possible. Often the stories are about the challenges of being different,” Gross told AFP.

“This movie, A Fantastic Woman, is an example of that. They’ve done it before with gay people, people of color, Jews — the old wine of your narrative in a new bottle… The big challenge always, is that the difference is good, rather than threatening.” — AFP

Indebted Lisa Marie Presley, manager file lawsuits

LOS ANGELES — Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of Elvis Presley, says she is facing financial ruin and has filed a $100-million lawsuit accusing her former business manager of negligence and mismanaging her finances. Her ex-manager has filed his own lawsuit, accusing Presley, 50, of squandering her famous father’s inheritance because of her lavish lifestyle. The lawsuit seeks $800,000 in unpaid bills. The dueling lawsuits, filed earlier this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, follow the collapse in 2016 of Presley’s fourth marriage and her announcement that she was $16 million in debt. Presley was just nine years old when Elvis died in 1977, leaving her his sole heir. Her affairs have been managed by Barry Siegel since 1993, when she came into her inheritance through a trust. Her lawsuit said Presley’s “11-year odyssey to financial ruin” began in 2005 and alleged that as result of Siegel’s actions, “Lisa has been damaged in an amount that has not yet been fully ascertained, but is believed to be in excess of $100 million.” The 2005 deal she was referring to involved income from Elvis’ former home Graceland and his intellectual property rights. The lawsuit said that by 2016, the trust was left with $14,000 in cash and over $500,000 in credit card debt. Siegel’s lawsuit said Lisa Marie has “twice squandered” her inheritance and she had been repeatedly told to curb “her spendthrift ways.” Siegel’s attorney, Leon Gladstone, said in a statement on Friday that the 2005 deal Presley was complaining about “cleared up over $20 million in debts Lisa had incurred and netted her over $40-million cash and a multimillion-dollar income stream, most of which she managed to squander in the ensuing years.” “It’s clear Lisa Marie is going through a difficult time in her life and looking to blame others instead of taking responsibility for her actions,” Gladstone said. Presley launched her own career as a singer in 2003 and has released three albums to mixed success. She is better known for her two-year marriage to singer Michael Jackson and her 108-day marriage to actor Nicholas Cage. — Reuters

Maynilad inks P18.5-B notes facility

MAYNILAD Water Services, Inc. has signed a P18.5-billion notes facility with various banks, which will be used mainly to refinance debt.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Monday, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and DMCI Holdings, Inc. disclosed their subsidiary Maynilad will use the proceeds of the notes facility to refinance existing peso-denominated loans and other general corporate requirements.

The loan will have a tenor of seven, 10 and 15 years. It tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, BPI Capital Corporation and China Bank Capital Corporation as lead arrangers and bookrunners for the deal.

Maynilad, the concessionaire for Metro Manila’s west zone, earlier said it is setting aside P9 billion for 2018 as capital expenditure (capex).

Two-thirds of the capex or about P6.5 billion will be spent on infrastructure projects, such as rehabilitation of water network facilities, upgrade and construction of pumping stations, and reservoirs for better supply and pressure management.

Maynilad will also allocate P1.7 billion for wastewater management projects to increase sewerage coverage and maintain network reliability. The remaining budget will go to upgrading the company’s customer service and information program.

WATER CONNECTIONS
In a separate statement, Maynilad said it connected nearly 53,000 water service connections to its distribution network in 2017, bringing the total number of accounts to over 1.4 million. Most of the new connections are in Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Quezon City, Valenzuela, Caloocan, and parts of Cavite province.

As of end-2017, the water concessionaire said around 98% of its customers have 24-hour water supply. It noted all of its customers receive water at an average pressure of 7 psi (pounds per square inch), allowing water to go up to the second floor of a house.

Maynilad said it is targeting to bring water pressure to 16 psi., which is already being provided to 70% of its concession area.

“We have yet to reach more than 600,000 residents in the West Zone, who still rely on unsustainable water sources like deep wells for their daily needs. More investments are still needed to expand our distribution network so that we can provide these people with potable surface water,” Maynilad President and CEO Ramoncito S. Fernandez was quoted as saying in a statement.

MPIC, which has majority stake in Maynilad, is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.

With IT parks and competitive rents, Quezon City reels in more office builders

By Francis Anthony T. Valentin,
Special Features Assistant Editor

ROBINSONS LAND Corp. (RLC) recently held a topping-off ceremony for one of its newest structures, the Zeta Tower, situated near the busy intersection of E. Rodriguez, Jr. Avenue (C-5) and Ortigas Avenue in Quezon City. With a total floor area of 34,517.70 square meters (sq. m.), the 20-storey edifice will primarily have information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) firms as its tenants.

Zeta, which has a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, is connected to another tower called Exxa, which is of the same height. The latter is nearing completion, while the former is expected to be fully operational by the second half of the year.

Exxa and Zeta are the second and third towers to be constructed within the Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited (PEZA) Bridgetowne IT park, an eight-hectare development in Barangay Ugong Norte. They were preceded by Tera, which is also 20-storey high. A fourth building, named Giga, is already under construction. RLC General Manager for the Office Buildings Division Faraday D. Go said during the topping-off ceremony that there are three more towers in the pipeline.

Bridgetowne is RLC’s second IT park in Metro Manila, following Robinsons CyberGate in Mandaluyong City. “In terms of location, it’s very strategic,” Mr. Go said of Bridgetowne’s Quezon City address. It’s strategic in that Bridgetowne has easy access to two of the major thoroughfares in the region, and that it’s a short drive from Ortigas Center and Eastwood City.

It’s also strategic demographically speaking. Mr. Go pointed out that Bridgetowne’s location is close to the eastern cities of Antipolo City and Marikina City, densely populated areas from which talent can be sourced. “So it’s preferred by a lot of BPOs,” he added.

COMPETITIVE RENTS
The country’s former capital, Quezon City is fast emerging as a powerhouse in the booming office property market in Metro Manila. According to the fourth-quarter report on the office market prepared by the consultancy Colliers International Philippines, Quezon City’s office supply in 2017 stood at 89,600 sq. m. Two buildings that were completed in the fourth quarter of 2017 that added a combined 10,200 sq. m. of space to the city’s stock were 68 Kalayaan Building and The Sky Suites Tower. Of all the submarkets Colliers keeps tabs on, only Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City had a greater office supply of 383,000 sq. m.

Colliers sees the most populous city in the country contributing 148,100 sq. m. of space to Metro Manila’s total office stock this year, and 157,400 sq. m. next year.

When it comes to rents, Quezon City’s foremost mixed-use development, Eastwood City, is competitive. Colliers noted that rental rates in the development ranged from P550 to P950 per square meter per month, much cheaper than the rates in Makati Central Business District (P1,300 to P1,750) and in Fort Bonifacio (P900 to P1,500).

The number of businesses operating in the city has been steadily growing this decade. In 2011, there were 60,154 registered businesses. In 2016, the latest year for which data is available, Quezon City had 69,204 registered businesses, of which 12,116 were new.

And the city has a growing portfolio of vast information technology parks. As of October 2016, it had nine, including Bridgetowne. Mr. Go said Bridgetowne will later be expanded to 30 hectares. He added, “We will have… offices, mall, hotel and residential developments all within a total of 30 hectares.”

Nanette Fabray, winner of Emmy and Tony awards, 97

HOLLYWOOD — Nanette Fabray, a child performer in the 1920s who went on to star in Broadway musicals, dance with Fred Astaire on the big screen and win three Emmy Awards working with Sid Caesar during television’s Golden Age, has died at the age of 97, media reports said. Fabray, who also had her own short-lived TV show in the 1960s as well as a recurring role on the sitcom One Day at a Time in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Thursday of natural causes, her son, Jamie MacDougall, told the Los Angeles Times. Born on Oct. 27, 1920, Fabray was a child singer in vaudeville, billed as “Baby Nanette,” and performed with silent movie comedian Ben Turpin. She debuted as an adult actress in a secondary role in director Michael Curtiz’s lavish film The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn. Fabray’s singing and comedy talents were put to good use in the 1940s in Broadway musicals such as the hit High Button Shoes opposite comedian Phil Silvers. She won a Tony Award in 1949 for Love Life and was nominated in 1963 for Mister President. In the 1950s, Fabray starred with Caesar, one of the shining stars of television’s Golden Age of the 1950s, in his Caesar’s Hour sketch comedy program. Having taken the place of comedian Imogene Coca opposite Caesar, she won two Emmy Awards in 1956 and another one in 1957. Fabray’s best role on film was with Astaire, one of the great Hollywood dancers, in director Vincente Minnelli’s 1953 musical The Band Wagon, which earned three Oscar nominations. Fabray appeared in a handful of episodes in the 1990s in the sitcom Coach alongside her niece, Shelley Fabares, who had a starring role. Fabray was married twice and MacDougall was her only child. Fabray, who was hearing impaired, also was known for her advocacy on issues involving people with hearing impairments. — Reuters

Gov’t rejects all bids for T-bills as yields climb

THE GOVERNMENT rejected all bids at yesterday’s auction of Treasury bills (T-bill) as banks asked for higher returns following growing expectations of a rate hike from the US Federal Reserve soon.

The Bureau of the Treasury’s offer yesterday was met with P21.3 billion in demand, slightly above the P20-billion program. Broken down, the 91-day debt paper saw demand worth P13.328 billion, higher than the P9 billion the Treasury offered yesterday. The offers had an average rate of 2.989%, up from the 2.67% fetched during the last auction.

The Treasury also rejected P3.81-billion worth of bids for the 182-day tenor, which fell short of its P6-billion offer. The bids averaged 3.265%, rising from the 2.854% fetched in the Feb. 12 auction.

Lastly, the 364-day debt papers attracted only P4.19 billion in demand, likewise below the programmed borrowing of P5 billion. If the Treasury had awarded the offer size, the average interest rate would have gone up to 3.428% from the 3.04% fetched during the previous auction.

At the secondary market before the auction, the 91-day paper was quoted at 2.9975% and the 182-day tenor at 3.6836%. The 364-day T-bill fetched 3.9496%.

At the close of trading, the three-month, six-month and one-year papers fetched lower yields at 2.974%, 3.025% and 3.4882%, respectively.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters after the auction that the unreasonable offers the banks gave prompted the Treasury to reject all bids.

“You see in terms of the increase, it’s not really reasonable to have such very big spikes in the bids that were offered today,” Ms. De Leon said on Monday.

She attributed the rise in yields to “imminent Fed rate hikes” and “very hawkish statements of Fed officials.”

A number of Fed officials have raised their economic forecasts as economic activities and the labor market in the US continue to strengthen at a solid pace.

This caused the market to expect the Fed to hike its interest rates as early as next month.

Last week, San Francisco Fed President John H. Williams said the US central bank should raise its rates “three to four times” this year, adding that the next rate hike should take place in the near future.

Meanwhile, the market is waiting for the testimony of newly minted Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell before the US House of Representatives.

“Though the demand [was there], it’s more of the yields they [offered]. It was high. If ever BTr accepted that, it would push the market to sell off, so they opted to reject it altogether,” a trader said when sought for comment.

Meanwhile, Ms. De Leon said February inflation data, which will be computed using a new methodology, and the implementation of the 19% reserve requirement ratio might normalize the bond market.

“As they move to the new methodology of inflation, [it might] normalize. And also once we see the liquidity to be unleashed in March,” she said.

The Treasury plans to auction off P120 billion worth of Treasury bills and another P120 billion worth of Treasury bonds in the January to March period. This is higher than the P200 billion it offered in the last quarter of 2017.

The government borrows from local and foreign sources to fund its budget deficit, which for this year is capped at 3% of the country’s gross domestic product. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

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