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BDO looking to raise at least P5B via sustainability bonds

BW FILE PHOTO

BDO Unibank, Inc. plans to raise at least P5 billion via an issuance of peso-denominated fixed-rate sustainability bonds, the lender said on Monday.

The issuance would have an indicative tenor of two years, while the offer period will run from Jan. 10 to Jan. 21, 2022, BDO said in a disclosure to the local bourse on Monday. The listing date will be on Jan. 28, 2022.

The offer will mark the third issuance out of the bank’s P365-billion bond program.

“This is the first time that the bank will be issuing a peso-denominated sustainability bond to both institutional and retail investors,” BDO said.

BDO said the net proceeds from the issuance will be used to diversify the bank’s funding sources and finance assets under its sustainable finance framework.

The bank set a minimum investment amount of P500,000 for the papers, with additional increments of P100,000 thereafter.

BDO said it reserves the right to change the terms and timeline of the issuance.

Standard Chartered Bank is the sole arranger of the bond offer. It will also be a selling agent along with BDO and BDO Private Bank, Inc. Meanwhile, BDO Capital & Investment Corp. is the financial advisor for the issue.

The issuance qualifies as an ASEAN sustainability bond under the standards set by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The proceeds of these issuances must be used to finance projects with environmental and social benefits.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the ASEAN sustainability bond standards were developed for transparency and consistency, helping investors make informed decisions and reducing due diligence costs.

The Finance department and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in October released a sustainable finance roadmap, which seeks to bridge policy and regulatory gaps in promoting sustainable investments.

The Philippine roadmap is aligned with Southeast Asian standards for green bonds along with other international green finance standards.

BDO in 2017 issued a $150-million green bond with the International Finance Corp. as the sole investor.

The bank’s net earnings in the July to September period went down by 10.6% to P11.033 billion from P12.346 billion a year earlier.

This brought BDO’s net income for the first nine months to P32.484 billion, jumping by 95.7% from the P16.598 billion logged in the same period in 2020.

BDO shares closed at P127 apiece on Monday, up by P1.70 or 1.36%. — J.P. Ibañez

BRIEFS (12/21/21)

Rada Promenade offers outdoor dining in Makati

 

THE MAKATI Commercial Estate Association (MACEA) and Ayala Land, Inc. launched the first phase of a new permanent outdoor dining initiative called the Rada Promenade in Makati City.

Located along Rada Street in Legaspi Village, the space offers al fresco dining options every day, along with Makati Live busking performances. It also has pet-friendly and bike-friendly features.

Rada Promenade hosts restaurants and merchants such as Wildflour, Nikkei, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Sarsa, Wicked ‘Wich, among others.

“(Rada Street) now becomes a place [where] we can enjoy [and] we can spend time in, hopefully not just on weekends but more often. We have a much livelier neighborhood because of this,” Manuel Blas II, MACEA board of governors member, said in a statement.

MACEA targets to complete the Rada Promenade by 2022.

‘Millionaire’s playground’ opens doors in Clark

THE HANN Group last week opened the doors of the Hann Casino in Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga.

Hann Casino had its soft opening on Dec. 15. It is part of the integrated Hann Casino Resort, which will also feature Clark Marriott, and Swissotel Clark. The lifestyle resort, touted as a ‘millionaire’s playground,’ is the first premium sub-brand under the master brand Hann Resorts.

“Despite the undeniable disruption that the pandemic has caused, Hann’s vision of creating the ultimate playground in Clark remains true and the same. We are set to open Clark’s first fully integrated resort, and our guests can expect only the finest in hospitality and entertainment,” Daesik Han, chairman and CEO, Hann Philippines, Inc., said in a statement.

Hann Casino is three times the size of the gaming area in Widus Hotel & Casino, with hundreds of table games and over 800 slot machines.

The second phase will involve the grand launch of Hann Casino and the first flagship franchise of Swissotel Clark.

“The soft opening of Hann Casino and Swissotel Clark will help kickstart the country’s economy by providing much-needed jobs to Filipinos. By 2022, Hann Casino Resort is expected to employ more than 1,000 Filipinos,” Mr. Han said.

Federal Land tops off The Seasons Residences

FEDERAL LAND, Inc. and its Japanese partners Nomura Real Estate Development Corp., and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd., recently held the topping off ceremony of The Seasons Residences Haru Tower in Bonifacio Global City.

The Haru Tower is the first tower of The Seasons Residences, a Japanese-inspired residence located within Grand Central Park. Grand Central Park is the master-planned community being developed by Federal Land in Bonifacio Global City.

“Aki, the third tower of The Seasons Residences, is set to be launched in the first quarter of 2022,” the company said in a statement.

Shakey’s launches new 100% plant-based pizza

SHAKEY'S PHILIPPINES FB PAGE

Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures, Inc. launched its 100% plant-based pizza called the “Goood Taco Pizza,” which is now available in selected Shakey’s branches.

“Shakey’s is well-known for pizza, and since the beginning of our journey in plant-based, we’ve been aiming to develop a great-tasting vegan pizza for our guests,” Shakey’s President and Chief Executive Officer Vicente L. Gregorio said in a statement on Monday.

Shakey’s partnered with Century Pacific Food, Inc.’s unMEAT brand for its plant-based meat alternative products. Patties, nuggets, and meat toppings are made with the brand’s plant-based burgers and nuggets, which are created with non-genetically modified organism (GMO) soy proteins.

The Goood Taco Pizza will “serve as the centerpiece” of the company’s “Goood Menu,” which include Goood Burger and Goood Nuggets.

unMEAT also created a dairy-free cheese alternative to complete the vegan pizza. Called the “unCHEESE,” the product is made with potato starches and is blended with natural flavors and oils.

Shakey’s vegan pizza is made up of 100% plant-based ground “meat,” onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and “savory spices.”

“From the dough to the toppings to the cheese, or unCHEESE rather, everything was made entirely of plant-based ingredients,” Mr. Gregorio said.

The company said it plans to continue building up its “Goood” menu as the demand for healthier alternatives continue.

“As health and wellness become more widespread among our consumers, the demand for healthier choices will continue to rise. Thus, we will continue our pursuit in building our ‘Goood’ menu,” Mr. Gregorio said. “Expect more green innovations to come from Shakey’s kitchens.”

Shakey’s shares on Monday closed 0.21% or two centavos higher to P9.50 apiece. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

Avatar director James Cameron’s inspirations laid bare in art book

LOS ANGELES — Movie director James Cameron has created some of the most striking images on screen, from the sinking of the ocean liner in Titanic to Sigourney Weaver battling with an extraterrestrial creature in Aliens.

The original concepts and characters stem from his early days as a young artist in Canada, as revealed in the book Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron, which shows how his early ideas evolved into films.

Researchers collected Mr. Cameron’s sketches and paintings as a young man and compiled them into thematic chapters. When Mr. Cameron first read the book, he was astounded.

“I think those strong thematic threads were the surprise or the revelation to me, because I’d just always thought it was all scattershot,” he said.

Mr. Cameron began drawing as a child, and as a young man he focused on scenes based on his favorite sci-fi stories and comic books.

One of his first forays into movies was creating the fantasy world of Xenogenesis, a film that never saw the light of day but a pilot can be seen on YouTube.

The book shows pages of concept art from the unproduced film with much of the imagery foreshadowing scenes from Terminator, Aliens, and Avatar.

“Every idea I ever had for a plant or an animal or a planet or a piece of technology or a robot or anything, I just stopped my life for a year and a half and drew it all up. It’s really all the things I was playing around with, kind of in the sidelines of my life,” Mr. Cameron said.

The Terminator was based on a dream in which he saw a robotic man emerging from flames; an entire sequence in Aliens was based on a nightmare; and the blue Na’vi humanoids from Avatar originated from a dream his mother told him about.

Mr. Cameron ground his fantasy designs in reality, creating anatomically correct aliens, fully operative machinery, and aerodynamic spacecraft.

“There’s a sense that what’s happening is very real and very immediate. You can kind of project your mind into the screen and into the story because … what’s happening looks like it could be real,” he said.

Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron was published by Insight Editions. — Reuters

Open finance framework to boost small firms, BSP says

BW FILE PHOTO

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) open finance framework released earlier this year is expected to help more small businesses be part of the financial system.

The central bank in a press release on Monday said the framework supports customer-driven development of financial products and services.

“With the tailor-fit solutions that open finance brings, we will be able to onboard more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into the formal financial system and provide them with access to digital financial services,” BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said.

The central bank in June released Circular 1122 or the open finance framework, which allows for consent-driven data sharing among institutions that follow the same data security standards.

The central bank said financial data sharing would lead to the creation of more finance solutions for both customers and financial institutions.

“Customers, as owners of the transaction data, will have the power to grant access to financial data which will help shape customer-centric products,” BSP said.

Mr. Diokno said more access to funding would help small businesses sustain economic activities, and it would back their digital transformation.

The BSP last month announced that it created an interim transition group ahead of a pending industry-led open finance oversight committee that will come up with standards for data sharing among financial institutions.

The interim group will lead the creation of the formal committee, and it will facilitate the development of policies and standards, which include participation arrangements, technical standards, and other common guidelines. — J.P. Ibañez

Singapore property curbs may be short-term fix for market

A VIEW of the public housing apartment estate in Singapore Sept. 1, 2021. — REUTERS/EDGAR SU

SINGAPORE’S MOVE to introduce property cooling measures may slow down demand and prices in the next six months. But this may just be a short-term fix in a market with an insatiable appetite for homes.

Home sales and values are likely to pick up once the market gets used to the latest curbs — just like they did after the last round in 2018, analysts said on Thursday after the government raised levies and tightened some lending limits.

Like other countries around the world, Singapore’s residential property market has remained resilient during the pandemic. Low interest rates and a rebounding economy have fueled demand for homes in the city-state, prompting policy makers to take steps to maintain affordability.

The latest curbs focus on buyers of second homes for investment and foreigners purchasing private property, rather than residents seeking to purchase a place to live. As a result, they’re unlikely to have a long-term impact given that locals make up the majority of buyers, said Alan Cheong, executive director of research at Savills Plc.

“The measures are something akin to pointing the gun to the sea when the enemy comes from the back,” Mr. Cheong said.

The steps may have a bigger impact on the mid to high-end market, which has a larger portion of investors and foreign buyers, said Christine Sun, senior vice-president of research and analytics at OrangeTee & Tie.

Private home prices climbed 5.3% in the first nine months of the year. New home sales in November jumped to a four-month high after the city-state gradually eased social restrictions. The public housing market has also been buoyant, with resale prices surging a record 9.1% through September.

Like in the aftermath of the 2018 curbs, Singapore home prices may dip 1% to 2% over the next two quarters before resuming growth that more closely keeps pace with rising incomes, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note on Thursday.

Citigroup, Inc. said home sales may fall between 25% to 35% in the near term, mainly due to a reduction in demand from investors as well as a decreased desire among permanent residents and foreigners given the substantial stamp duties imposed.

But sales volume may return to normal after three to six months as buyers “acclimatize to the measures amid still-strong fundamentals of the residential market and soft interest rates,” Citigroup analyst Brandon Lee wrote in a note.

The higher additional stamp duties will remove buyers at the margin who would be most vulnerable to any interest-rate increase, said Christine Li, head of research for Asia Pacific at Knight Frank in Singapore.

“But given that most of the transactions are backed by wealth rather than income, property prices are unlikely to come back down in a sustainable manner,” she said.

 LOW SUPPLY

Developers may think twice about buying existing residential sites to be redeveloped as they assess the risks that come with the new measures, Li said. That may help to cause prices to rebound as early as the second half of next year, she said.

An increase in land taxes to 35% from 25% will place “immense additional pressure” on developers trying to recover from the pandemic, the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore said.

The number of unsold units in the supply pipeline has been on a steady decline since the third quarter of 2019 as sales outpaced new additions of homes, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a report this month. As of September, there were about 17,100 unsold units, 35% lower than such inventory a year ago and close to the historical low of about 15,100 units in 2017.

The cooling measures also come as Singapore opens up more vaccinated travel lanes, which could lead to foreigners coming in to snap up homes. While the new property curbs may dampen demand among foreigners following the higher stamp duties — raised to 30% from 20% — it may not deter both local and foreign ultra-rich buyers who have partly driven sales in the past year.

“These are unlikely to curb the well-heeled and deep pocketed,” said Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners. “They can afford it and will factor it into their costs.” — Bloomberg

Meralco’s eSakay installs EV charging stations in McDonald stores

MANILA Electric Co.’s (Meralco) green mobility arm e-Sakay, Inc. announced on Monday its partnership with McDonalds to install electric vehicles (EV) charging stations at the fast food store.

Meralco said in a statement that eSakay will install its initial charging stations at McDonald’s Green and Good Stores along UN Avenue in Ermita, Manila and Shaw Boulevard, Wack-Wack in Mandaluyong.

Customers who are using electric scooters or electric bikes can charge their vehicles in the coin-operated charging stations for P1 per five minutes, P5 per 25 minutes, and P10 per 50 minutes.

The partnership with Golden Arches Development Corp., the master franchise holder of McDonald’s in the Philippines, is expected to extend to other branches to advance sustainability initiatives.

“We look forward to working very closely with even more companies in driving key sustainability programs such as this as part of our pledge to protect and preserve our planet, and to power good lives for Filipinos,” Meralco Chief Sustainability Officer and eSakay President and Chief Executive Officer Raymond B. Ravelo said in a statement.

Shares in Meralco at the stock exchange declined by 0.72% or P2.20 on Monday to close at P304.80 apiece. — Marielle C. Lucenio

Entertainment News (12/21/21)

Side A Live at The Grand

Side A, M.Y.M.P. at RWM’s Grand Bar and Lounge

WITH THE return of live entertainment at Resorts World Manila (RWM), the best ballads and pop hits from OPM’s popular powerband Side A and acoustic duo M.Y.M.P. can be heard this December at RWM Grand Wing’s The Grand Bar and Lounge. Side A will perform live on Dec. 21 and 28, 9 p.m., while it is M.Y.M.P.’s turn on Dec. 22 and 29, 9 p.m., at the Grand Bar and Lounge. Door charge is P800 per person, with consumable food and drinks. Guests must be at least 21 years old. For more information on RWM’s entertainment offers, visit www.rwmanila.com and follow @rwmanila on Facebook and Twitter, and @resortsworldmanila Instagram.

 

K-channel tvN now exclusively on Smart’s GigaPlay

BINGE WATCH K-dramas as mobile services provider Smart Communications, Inc. partners with Korea’s No. 1 network tvN to stream non-stop content on the GigaPlay app this December. Smart subscribers can enjoy K-dramas and Korean variety shows in the streaming platform that gives subscribers exclusive access to live concerts, sports events, films, lifestyle and variety shows. The GigaPlay app also carries local pay-per-view content like Love Is Color Blind, the romcom starring Donny Pangilinan and Belle Mariano. Download the app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or visit smrt.ph/gigaplay.

 

GTV shows movies on G! Flicks

GTV now offers a roster of movies on G! Flicks, weeknights at 8 p.m. and every Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Follow James Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan) as he tries to stop a mad media mogul from inciting another World War in Tomorrow Never Dies on Dec. 20. This will be followed on Dec. 21 by Batman Forever, on Dec. 22 by Men In Black 4, on Dec. 23 by Mission Impossible II, on Dec. 24 by The Perfect Storm, on Dec. 25 by Gemini Man, Dec. 27 by The Merciless, Dec. 28 by No Escape, Dec. 29 by Sharknado 2, Dec. 30 by Golden Slumber, and on Dec. 31 by Resident Evil: Extinction. Welcome the New Year with another James Bond film and join Daniel Craig in thwarting the plans of a villain who plans to launch a national surveillance network to mastermind criminal activities across the globe in Spectre on Jan. 1.

 

Taiwan’s Ariel Tsai on Waterwalk Records

SONY MUSIC Philippines recently announced the launch of Waterwalk Records, a music label focused on bringing fresh Christian music to the streaming generation throughout Asia. After launching several new songs from Filipino artists such as Morissette, Hazel Faith, and Nathan Huang, it is releasing a song from Taiwanese singer-songwriter, pianist, and YouTuber Ariel Tsai. Her track, “My All in All,” is a piano-driven worship song. “My All in All” is available in all digital music streaming platforms. The official lyric video is also available on Ariel Tsai’s YouTube channel.

The economies of typhoon-hit regions

211221Typhone_Odette

THE Philippine government signed a €250-million (about P14-billion) loan agreement with France’s development agency to support local governments’ disaster response, the Department of Finance (DoF) said. Read the full story.

THE ECONOMIES OF TYPHOON-HIT REGIONS

China’s banks cut borrowing costs to counter economic slowdown

PIXABAY.COM

Chinese banks lowered borrowing costs for the first time in 20 months, foreshadowing more monetary support to an economy showing strain from a property slump, weak private consumption and sporadic virus outbreaks.

The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was set at 3.8% versus 3.85% in November, the first reduction since April 2020, according to a statement from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) on Monday. The five-year loan prime rate, a reference for mortgages, was unchanged at 4.65%.

The cut comes as the central bank and government increase support for the economy and follows the PBoC’s decision earlier this month to cut the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve, which freed up 1.2 trillion yuan ($188 billion) of cheap long-term funding for banks. Monday’s decision means the strongest companies will be able to borrow at a slightly cheaper rate and also reinforces the shift to looser policy as the leadership aims for stability in 2022.

“The cut reinforces our view that China’s authorities are increasingly open to the possibility of an interest-rate cut amid looming headwinds to the economy,” said Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

While technically not a policy interest rate, the LPR is based on 18 banks’ loan rates for their best customers and has been considered China’s de facto benchmark funding cost since 2019. The cut will lower overall interest payment burden of Chinese companies by 80 billion yuan per year starting next year, according to Xing, who said there are around 160 trillion yuan of loans pegged to the one-year LPR.

The CSI 300 Real Estate Index climbed as much as 2.6%. Gemdale Corp. and Poly Developments and Holdings Group Co. led the gains, each rising at least 3.5%. China’s 10-year note yield was little changed at 2.85%, while the offshore yuan steadied at 6.3865 to the dollar.

The move strengthens the easing bias of the PBoC, and more measures could be rolled out if the economic slowdown deepens, including further cuts to the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) as well as reduction of policy rates, according to analysts. The PBoC vowed last week to continue to unleash the potential of interest rate reforms and guide overall corporate financing costs lower.

“The signal is obvious that we are in an easing cycle,” said He Wei, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, who expects the PBoC’s policy rates, or the rates for the medium-term lending facility (MLF) and seven-day reverse repurchase notes, will be lowered in the first half of next year.

In another sign of support, China will focus on supporting “quality” property developers buying the real estate projects of large companies which are experiencing difficulties, Financial News, a newspaper co-founded by the PBoC, reported Monday, citing a notice from the central bank and the banking regulator.

Bruce Pang, head of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance Securities Hong Kong Ltd., said the next window for monetary easing could be late January, when the PBoC may act to cut the RRR, policy rates or roll out more structural tools depending on the economy’s state as well previous policies’ impact.

“In the near term we may not see PBoC adding more measure,” said Qi Gao, a strategist at Bank of Nova Scotia. The PBoC could cut the MLF rate next year and lower the RRR again in the first half of 2022, he said.

Xing of ANZ echoed the view that the LPR reduction signals there may not be policy rate cut in the short term, but forecast another RRR cut early next year to cushion mounting credit risks in the property sector.

The LPR is reported by banks in the form of a spread over the interest rate on PBoC’s medium-term loans. With the PBoC having kept the MLF rate unchanged last week, most economists polled by Bloomberg had expected the LPR to remain steady as well.

Still, the chorus for a rate cut has grown louder recently, and interest rate swaps also showed traders had been betting the LPR would soon be cut. — Bloomberg

How PSEi member stocks performed — December 20, 2021

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Friday, December 20, 2021.

Stocks drop on typhoon damage, Omicron fears

COURTESY OF PHILIPPINE STOCK EXCHANGE, INC.

STOCKS dropped on Monday as investors assess the damage caused by Typhoon Odette, which may affect economic growth, and amid the spread of the Omicron variant. 

The 30-member Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell 60.05 points or 0.82% to close at 7,237.61 on Monday, while the broader all shares index went down by 23.21 points or 0.60% to 3,828.38. 

“Share prices opened the week on a sour note as the local market weakened amid the damage caused by Typhoon Odette in the Vis-Min area, particularly in the agriculture and manufacturing industries,” Papa Securities Corp., Equities Strategist Manny P. Cruz said in a Viber message.  

Typhoon Odette (international name: Rai) brought heavy rains and destructive winds over central and southern Philippines. It first made landfall in Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte on Thursday. Surigao del Norte may have suffered around P20 billion in damage, according to provincial officials. 

The Agriculture department on Monday said damage to crops in these areas is estimated at P333.40 million. Agriculture typically makes up around 10% of overall economic output, and a fourth of the country’s jobs.  

“The local bourse joined its regional peers in the decline as worries over the Omicron variant disrupting the global economic recovery weighed on sentiment,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Senior Research Analyst Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco said in a Viber message. 

Asian share markets fell and oil prices slid on Monday as surging Omicron cases triggered tighter restrictions in Europe and threatened to drag on the global economy into the new year, Reuters reported. 

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei 0.7%. 

The spread of Omicron saw the Netherlands go into lockdown on Sunday and put pressure on others to follow, though the United States seemed set to remain open. 

The Philippines on Monday also reported another case of the Omicron variant, bringing the total to three. 

Sectoral indices ended in the red on Monday except for financials, which went up 7.86 points or 0.48% to 1,629.78.  

On the other hand, mining and oil declined 110.98 points or 1.21% to 9.003.95; industrials decreased 119.13 points or 1.14%; holding firms tumbled 78.94 points or 1.10% to 7,051.95; services went down 21.28 points or 1.05% to 1,997.47; and property retreated 26.10 points or 0.80% to 3,203.54. 

Value turnover plunged to P6.70 billion on Monday with 1.09 billion shares traded from the P14.47 billion with 3.08 billion issues that switched hands on Friday. 

Decliners outnumbered advancers, 112 against 57, while 51 names closed unchanged. 

Foreigners turned net sellers on Monday, recording P237.48 million in net outflows versus the reversal of the P333.22 million in net purchases seen on Friday. 

Diversified Securities, Inc. Equity Trader Aniceto K. Pangan pegged the PSEi’s immediate resistance at 7,300, while immediate support is at 6,920. — M.C. Lucenio with Reuters 

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