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Twice-stolen Titian painting headed for auction

CHRISTIES.COM

LONDON — Rest on the Flight into Egypt, an early work by Titian that was looted by Napoleon and then stolen in the 1990s before being found at a London bus stop, will be offered for sale at auction next month, with an estimated price of up to $32 million.

The painting, which auction house Christie’s says is being offered to the market for the first time in around 145 years, depicts Mary holding the infant Jesus with Joseph sitting nearby as they rest while fleeing into Egypt.

The artwork, part of the collection at British stately home Longleat House, will headline Christie’s Old Masters Part I sale on July 2, with a price estimate of £15 million to £25 million ($19 million to $32 million).

“It’s painted when Titian’s about 20 years old, around 1510 and it’s that ignition moment when Titian is bringing about a real revolution in painting, introducing a naturalism to religious painting that had never really been seen before,” Henry Pettifer, international deputy chairman of old master paintings at Christie’s, told Reuters on Tuesday.

“It’s incredibly rare for a picture of this importance to come to the auction market … there are very few important works by Titian in private hands.”

The painting was looted by Napoleon’s troops in Vienna in 1809. It was auctioned by Christie’s in 1878 when it was bought by the 4th Marquess of Bath, who took it to his home, Longleat House.

It was stolen from there in 1995, and following a reward of £100,000 ($125,000) being offered, it was recovered by an art detective seven years later when it was found in a carrier bag at a bus stop in southwest London, without the frame.

“A colorful history and an extraordinary story is always interesting in a work of art, because it is about storytelling,” Orlando Rock, chairman of Christie’s UK, told Reuters.

“The fact that it was good enough for Napoleon and it was good enough for Lord Bath is again another reminder of just how rare and beautiful this thing is.” — Reuters

Don’t do AI for AI’s sake

BOOMI CHIEF Technology Officer Matt McLarty spoke at Boomi World 2024 in Denver, Colorado on May 9. — CRAG

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia, Editor-in-Chief

DENVER, Colorado — Companies should consider how artificial intelligence (AI) can help solve real-world problems instead of looking at it as just another bandwagon, according to a US technology executive.

“Don’t just do AI for AI’s sake,” Boomi Chief Technology Officer Matt McLarty told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of Boomi World 2024 last month.

“Think about how AI can help solve unsolvable problems or problems you couldn’t solve before AI. How can AI optimize what you’re doing?”

He said companies that seek to digitalize would want to reduce friction, provide automation, and offer value-added and data-enriched services.

“If you look in those areas, that’s where AI can help even more,” Mr. McLarty said. “You can use AI to provide even more streamlined experiences, personalization… You can use AI to provide more automation, come up with new business models, new products and services.”

Boomi, an integration and automation company, wants to be front and center in helping companies get value out of AI.

“For companies that are thinking, ‘What do we do about AI?’ Well, what are you trying to do today? And just look at where you can apply AI. And that’s where I think we can help a lot because we can make it less about a giant technological hurdle,” Mr. McLarty said.

“We can help make AI understand your business and provide useful business outcomes, not just write poems, Shakespearean sonnets about cats or whatever.”

The Boomi executive said companies must ensure their AI will be grounded using their own data.

“If you want to get value out of AI, you need to ground it. And if you want to ground it, Boomi is the Earth,” Mr. McLarty said.

As part of its AI suite, the company last year launched a generative AI-powered conversational interface called Boomi GPT. Boomi GPT lets organizations create and generate processes using natural language prompts.

At Boomi World last month, the company unveiled the Boomi AI agent framework, which allows users to run AI agents built by the company or its partners.

It launched four new AI agents built into the platform, namely Boomi Answers, an agent that gives prescriptive help; Boomi DataDetective, which classifies data fields and protects sensitive data; Boomi DesignGen, an agent for autonomously building integrations; and Boomi Scribe, which automatically documents existing and built-by-AI integrations.

“What we’re doing is starting to think about these AI-based features not as features of the platform, but as discrete agents,” Mr. McLarty said.

He said there will also be third-party pluggable AI agents.

“Over time, this will be more of a partner certification effort where we’ll provide guidance on agent building, certification process, onboarding process. And that’s where the marketplace garden of agents will be,” he added.

Another category of agents will be those that its customers can build using the Boomi platform.

“I think the industry will move to this agent architecture,” Mr. McLarty said. “But there’s still time… We would probably be more likely to just help companies orchestrate some AI workflows before we would help, you know, refactor their whole environment into agents.”

Corporate profile

JORGE BERMUDEZ- UNSPLASH

ARE BUSINESSMEN joining the celebrity game along with movie stars, game show hosts, politicians, fugitive religious leaders, and sports figures? How did the once quiet figures of business get onto the social radar?

CEOs are getting publicly known, sometimes by their initials, even by those who don’t work in the companies they run. These admirers may just be looking for jobs or temporary support in the journey through life. Anyway, the wealth that endows prestige can sometimes be hard to check for accuracy, even rounded off to the nearest million. How much of it is borrowed, or merely claimed?

The size of a conglomerate in different industries (usually with property development in the portfolio) elevates its leader. With our dependence on external status symbols, like cars and residences, corporate metrics like revenues, market cap, profits, leverage ratios, or employment levels are disregarded. It’s enough for a company to be described as among the top 1,000 in the country for its CEO’s corporate profile to rise and be accorded celebrity status. When introduced to strangers, it is his business holdings that are mentioned. (He heads an online gambling organization that rakes in millions in cash every day.)

One criterion for celebrity status is ubiquity. A business with many branches in different parts of the country qualifies. Thus, the owner of a food chain or a line of apparel featured on big billboards (with Korean celebrities) can be more famous than an investment banker or the CEO of a publicly listed mining company.

Moguls can be accompanied by eye candy, usually in a different profession like interior decoration. If a celebrity partner is seen in online posts accompanying a mogul (she is just a business partner), even movie reporters jump into the fray to get set up for future cyber libel charges with their speculations.

Maybe because business achievements like increasing shareholder value by 60% are too abstract for celebrity hounds to appreciate, it’s what the CEO can buy, whether whole office buildings or private jets, that seem to make an impression. Fawning articles by the non-business media concentrate on lifestyle attributes. Road rage incidents do not qualify, even when driving a Benz.

Advocacy is becoming an important part of the CEO brand. Prevention of child abuse, protecting an endangered species (old employees), fighting malnutrition among young children, and mass weddings of live-in couples are already taken.

Even young tycoons have blazed celebrity niches when buying into a media company in the open market to be the second largest stockholder. This celebrity game can be expensive. It also elicits a negative reaction from the CEO’s stockholders.

It is perhaps a general lack of economic literacy in media that often consigns the ordinary CEO to obscurity except for those in the know. The same attributes that attach to politicians, although for them luxurious living is no longer something to flaunt — Sure, I get to wear all these expensive clothes to attend wakes.

In the case of entertainers, a new mansion is routinely posted in a virtual tour — this door was made by a famous artist. There is even reference to childhood as an informal settler bathing in the public pumping area — look where I am now.

Even celebrity features and interviews on the net have now expanded coverage to corporate CEOs. Opening shots, using black and white shadings, can feature a brooding expression on the CEO’s face (Q2 numbers were terrible) to project a troubled soul.

Business details on the executive, except perhaps for his long working hours and constant foreign trips in his own plane, have nothing to do with success in business. No mention is made of his cost-cutting efforts, succession planning, and the introduction of a paperless office — except in toilets.

Even for celebrities, CEO stories seldom deal with the business side — how the boss grew the business and increased the company’s revenues through targeted marketing strategies including the acquisition of failing companies that were rehabilitated. Being a good employer and increasing the company’s market cap, improved return on investment and a good business strategy should be the criteria for a business reputation.

What celebrity status finds more interesting is what the boss does outside of work which usually leads to the CEO’s coverage and personal preoccupation… and post-occupation.

 

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Quezon City awards document digitalization contract to InfiniVAN

THE Quezon City local government awarded to Japanese telecommunications firm InfiniVAN, Inc. the contract to digitalize its city hall’s departments using a document management system (DMS) technology.

InfiniVAN was awarded the project to equip the city with an artificial intelligence-powered DMS suite with a bid offer of P29.5 million, based on a notice dated June 18.

“It’s not only Quezon City; all local governments have a problem with physical documents. Being the most, as far as we know, digitized city right now, we are going towards the digitization of the documents,” City Administrator Michael Victor N. Alimurung told BusinessWorld at the sidelines of the contract awarding on Tuesday.

InfiniVAN Senior Vice-President for Special Projects Koji Ishizaka said the company aims to digitalize the Quezon City Hall’s departments, as well as those of other local government units.

“Some departments, like the Business Permit and Licensing Office, City Assessors Office, and other major departments, already have some form of DMS,” InfiniVAN Business Development Manager for Special Projects Joshua Wan Remollo said.

The AI feature of the system will allow for less manual coding and physical storage of documents, Mr. Remollo said.

“Everything can be placed either on the cloud or through an on-premises solution for the storage of all the files. So, this is cost-effective, cost-efficient,” he added.

Asked about data privacy and cybersecurity concerns, he said InfiniVAN is using a DMS solution that has been certified by different institutions all around the world.

“We have already coordinated this with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and with other relevant government agencies in order to secure the different documents,” Mr. Remollo said.

He said InfiniVAN is “promoting the highest level of security for data encryption.” — A.R.A. Inosante

BSP extends P242.6M in loans in 2023

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) extended loans amounting to P242.6 million last year.

This was 99.9% lower than the loans granted in 2022, the BSP said in its 2023 annual report.

“Accordingly, total principal collections reached P247.2 million, likewise lower by 99.9% than in 2022,” the central bank said.

“This may be attributed to sufficient liquidity in the banking system, as reflected by banks’ non-availment of rediscounting loans and the National Government’s (NG) non-renewal of the P300-billion provisional advances it secured to address the adverse impact of COVID-19 in 2022.”

The BSP said there have been no past due loans recorded since 2014.

Meanwhile, existing past due loans slipped by 0.3% to P4.53 billion as of end-2023 from P4.51 billion at end-2022.

“This was on account of recoveries through cash collections, foreclosure proceedings, or dacion of real properties by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) of P4.4 million and the write-off of P10.5 million,” it added.

The central bank’s total outstanding loan portfolio inched down to P85.83 billion as of end-2023 from P85.84 billion a year prior.

The BSP said it introduced reforms in its facilities to “influence the volume of credit, consistent with its mandate of maintaining price and financial stability.”

These include changes in the computation of the peso rediscount rate as well as the US dollar and Japanese yen rediscount rates, the termination of the overdraft credit loan facility in check clearing and settlement that prohibited banks from incurring overdrafts, and the adoption of an investment policy statement of certain managed funds.

“The BSP remains steadfast in refining its credit facilities to ensure their effectiveness and adaptability to the evolving financial and digital environment. This commitment is integral to the central bank’s thrust toward a sustainable and inclusive financial system,” it added. — L.M.J.C. Jocson

Brad Pitt’s F1 movie set for release in June 2025

BRAD PITT and Damson Idris in the as-yet untitled Formula One Racing movie. — IMDB

BRAD PITT’S as-yet unnamed Formula One movie will be released globally on June 25 next year, with a North American debut two days later, F1 and Apple Original Films announced on Tuesday.

The film is being made with the cooperation of teams and drivers and directed by Joseph Kosinski, whose Top Gun: Maverick grossed $1.49 billion worldwide, with Jerry Bruckheimer as producer.

It will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in cinemas and IMAX.

Seven-times F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton is a co-producer, with filming starting last year and continuing during selected grand prix weekends this season.

The production team have had a garage and pitwall stand as a fictional 11th “APX GP” team.

The plot sees Mr. Pitt, who is 60 years old in real life, star as a former driver making a Formula One comeback alongside Damson Idris, who plays his rookie teammate, at APX.

Other cast members include Academy Award winner Javier Bardem and best supporting actress nominee Kerry Condon.

Formula One said production of the movie would be completed at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December.

The sport is hoping the movie cements the appeal of the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive that has boosted Formula One’s popularity and growth worldwide and particularly in the key US market.

Formula One now has three US races in Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas.

“We’ve already seen the great work and impact of the Netflix show and I think this will take it to new heights beyond that,” Mercedes driver Mr. Hamilton, who is joining Ferrari at the end of the season, said last year. — Reuters

Nvidia eclipses Microsoft as world’s most valuable company

FILE PHOTO: The logo of technology company Nvidia is seen at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California February 11, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File Photo

NVIDIA became the world’s most valuable company on Tuesday, dethroning tech heavyweight Microsoft as its high-end processors play a central role in a scramble to dominate artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Shares of the chipmaker climbed 3.5% to $135.58, lifting its market capitalization to $3.335 trillion, just days after overtaking iPhone maker Apple to become the second-most valuable company.

Microsoft’s stock market value was $3.317 trillion as its shares dipped 0.45%.

Apple’s stock slipped over 1%, leaving its value at $3.286 trillion.

Nvidia’s stunning surge in market value over the past year has become emblematic of a Wall Street frenzy driven by optimism about emerging AI technology.

While Nvidia’s rally has lifted the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record highs, some investors worry that unbridled optimism about AI could evaporate if signs emerge of a slowdown in spending on the technology.

“It’s Nvidia’s market; we’re all just trading in it,” said Steve Sosnick, chief market strategist at Interactive Brokers.

Nvidia has also become by far the most traded company on Wall Street, with daily turnover recently averaging $50 billion, compared to around $10 billion each for Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla, according to London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) data. The chipmaker now accounts for about 16% of all trading in S&P 500 companies.

Nvidia’s stock has nearly tripled so far this year, compared with a rise of about 19% in Microsoft shares, with demand for its top-of-the-line processors outpacing supply.

Tech giants Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Google owner Alphabet are competing to build out their AI computing capabilities and add the technology to their products and services.

An insatiable appetite for Nvidia’s AI processors, viewed as far superior to competitors’ offerings, has left them in tight supply, and many investors view Nvidia as the greatest winner to date from surging AI development.

“Nvidia has been getting a lot of positive attention and has been doing a lot of things very correctly, but a small misstep is likely to cause a major correction in the stock, and investors should be careful,” said Oliver Pursche, senior vice-president at Wealthspire Advisors in New York.

Tuesday’s gain lifted Nvidia’s stock to a record high and added over $110 billion to its market capitalization, equivalent to the entire value of Lockheed Martin.

The company’s market value expanded from $1 trillion to $2 trillion in just nine months in February, while taking just over three months to hit $3 trillion in June.

Since its blowout forecast about a year ago, the company has consistently breezed past Wall Street’s lofty expectations for revenue and profit, with demand for its graphics processors far outstripping supply as companies rush to embed AI applications.

Nvidia executives said in May that demand for its Blackwell AI chips could exceed supply “well into next year.”

Sharp increases in analysts’ expectations for Nvidia’s future earnings have outpaced its stellar stock gains, resulting in a fall in the stock’s earnings valuation.

Nvidia recently traded at 44 times expected earnings, down from over 84 about a year ago, LSEG data showed.

Increasing the appeal for its highly valued stock among individual investors, Nvidia last week split its stock 10-for-one. — Reuters

PSEi member stocks performed — June 19, 2024

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.

Philippines falls in Energy Transition Index

THE PHILIPPINES dropped 11 spots in an index that measures countries’ energy transition efforts, reflecting the slowing global momentum amid increasing uncertainty. Read the full story.

Philippines falls in Energy Transition Index

PSEi down for a sixth straight day on foreign selling

BW FILE PHOTO

THE PHILIPPINE Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed lower for a sixth consecutive day on Wednesday amid increased selling pressure from foreign investors.

The benchmark index slipped by 0.04% or 2.77 points to end at 6,366.03, while the broader all shares index dropped by 0.06% or 2.08 points to close at 3,438.46.

“The local bourse traded mostly in the green. However, due to a lack of fresh catalysts, the market dropped at the last minute,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Research Analyst Claire T. Alviar said in a Viber message.

“Moreover, foreign investors weighed further on the market…For the past six trading days, the market has experienced net foreign selling,” she added.

On Wednesday, net foreign selling reached P594.67 million, higher than the P262.54 million worth of net foreign outflows on Tuesday.

Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message that stock market investors have factored in the likelihood of the central bank implementing fewer rate cuts this year.

“Philippine shares traded flat with little market making activity on lower than average value turnover,” he said.

Analysts are now expecting the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to implement fewer rate cuts later in the year, as the US Federal Reserve has signaled delays in policy easing.

Most of the stock market’s sectoral indices ended higher led by services which rose by 0.93% or 18.22 points to 1,958.93.

Holding firms improved by 0.3% or 17.18 points to 5,598.33, while mining and oil inched up by 0.23% or 20.88 points to 8,749.06. Financials increased by 0.1% or 2.06 points to 1,934.86.

On the other hand, industrials slid by 0.89% or 80.50 points to 8,966.58; while property fell by 0.77% or 19.03 points to 2,438.25.

“Among the index members, Bloomberry Resorts Corp. was at the top, increasing by 1.8% while Century Pacific Food, Inc. was at the bottom, losing 3.15%,” Ms. Alviar said.

Value turnover improved to P4.07 billion with 363.03 million shares changing hands compared with the P2.97 billion and 706.84 million stocks traded on Tuesday.

Advancers outnumbered decliners, 99 versus 85, while 48 issues were unchanged.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rose to a one-month high on Wednesday, buoyed by a rally in tech stocks, while the dollar was steady as soft US retail sales data reinforced expectations of the Federal Reserve cutting rates later this year.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan  was 1% higher and on track for a more than 4% gain in June.

The tech stocks in the region rose over 2% to a record high as the rally raged on with AI darling Nvidia dethroning Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company on Tuesday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave with Reuters

Peso weakens vs dollar with Fed seen to stay hawkish

THE PESO depreciated anew against the dollar on Wednesday on expectations that the US Federal Reserve will keep benchmark rates elevated.

The local unit closed at P58.755 per dollar, weakening by 13.5 centavos from its P58.62 finish on Tuesday, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed.

The peso opened Wednesday’s session steady at P58.62 against the dollar. It dropped to as low as P58.77, while its intraday best was at P58.58 versus the greenback.

Dollars exchanged increased to $930 million on Wednesday from $858.53 million on Tuesday.

The peso was dragged down by signals from Fed officials on the need to keep benchmark rates higher for longer due to sticky inflation, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

“The peso weakened after several Fed officials remained cautious on their rate cut calls,” a trader likewise said in an e-mail.

“The weaker-than-expected US retail sales data helped keep rallies in check for today and the pair stayed within recent ranges as it continued its consolidation phase,” Security Bank Corp. Chief Economist Robert Dan J. Roces added in a Viber message on Wednesday.

US retail sales barely rose in May and figures for the prior month were revised considerably lower, data showed on Tuesday, suggesting economic activity remained lackluster in the second quarter, Reuters reported.

The data led to a small boost in rate cut expectations for September with traders pricing in a 67% chance of easing compared with a 61% chance a day earlier, CME FedWatch tool showed. Markets are pricing in 48 basis points of cuts this year.

Last week, mild US inflation readings contrasted with an overall hawkish stance by Fed officials, who trimmed their previous median projection for three quarter-point rate cuts this year to one.

Fed officials are looking for further confirmation that inflation is cooling and for any warning signs from a still-strong labor market as they steer cautiously toward what most expect to be a rate cut or two by the end of this year.

For Thursday, Mr. Ricafort said the local unit could move between P58.60 and P58.80 per dollar, while the trader sees it ranging from P58.55 to P58.80. — AMCS with Reuters

Subsidized-rice program to be enabled by imports

BW FILE PHOTO

By Adrian H. Halili, Reporter

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday that it plans to import 363,697 metric tons (MT) of rice to facilitate its plan to aid poor consumers by selling grain to them at the subsidized price of P29 per kilogram.

In a statement, the DA said the imports will offset the National Food Authority’s (NFA) ageing stock that will be sold off for the program.

The NFA council had approved the sale of ageing rice stocks to those below the poverty threshold.

It added that the NFA will also procure about 559,535 MT of palay (unmilled rice) from domestic farmers, which when milled into rice will be equivalent to the volume of the imports.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said that the program will cost the government between P1.39 billion and P1.53 billion per month, assuming 69,000 MT in monthly sales.

Separately, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel V. De Mesa said that the planned imports are still subject to approval, adding that one of the legal pathways for obtaining the green light to ship in the rice is via “amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law… and an executive order to do so under the Price Act.”

The NFA has said that it procured 3.37 million 50-kilogram bags (168,262 MT) of palay as of June 13, equivalent to four days of consumption when milled into rice. It has exceeded the initial target of 3.36 million bags for the first half.

The NFA said that it will sell the subsidized rice for a limited period through the KADIWA network by early July.

“Although the new NFA selling price is higher than the previous price of P25 per kilo, it is nonetheless a very deep discount to the prevailing market price to ensure that poor Filipinos have access to their main food staple,” the NFA added.

The market price of well-milled rice in Metro Manila was between P52 and P54 per kilo, while regular-milled rice was at P48-P51 per kilo, according to DA price monitors as of June 18.

The NFA said it had raised the selling price for ageing stock from P25 per kilo to reduce the need for government subsidies.

Apart from poor consumers, also eligible for the subsidized rice are persons with disabilities, solo parents, senior citizens, with plans to make indigenous people eligible. The estimated number of availers is about 6.9 million households or over 34 million individuals.

“Each beneficiary household is entitled to purchase 10 kilos per month,” the NFA said.

Asked to comment, Former Agriculture Undersecretary Fermin D. Adriano said that the DA’s planned import volumes are not significant.

“If distribution is targeted properly, given to the poorest of the poor, it will be a good subsidy. But if targeting is flawed, then it will be a waste of precious public funds,” Mr. Adriano said via Viber.

The Philippines has imported 2.17 million MT of rice as of June 6, according to the Bureau of Plant Industry.

Projected imports for the year are 4.6 million MT due to higher consumption and lowered import tariffs, the US Department of Agriculture reported.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said lower tariffs on rice could lead to the lowering of rice prices.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board has approved a plan to lower tariffs on industrial and farm goods, including the further reduction of rice import tariffs to 15% from 35%, until 2028.

“The sustainable, structural solution is to boost the productivity of the rice industry,” Mr. Ricafort said via Viber.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura Executive Director Jayson H. Cainglet said the government should buy the rice from farmers affected by the drop in palay farmgate prices.

“If they subsidize, I hope (they procure from) the farmers who have been hit by the drop in the farmgate price of rice since NEDA’s announcement of the 15% rice tariff,” Mr. Cainglet said via Viber.

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