Cirtek unit gets 25% capacity boost from new equipment

July 2, 2021 | 12:07 am

CIRTEK Holdings Philippines Corp. on Thursday said the new equipment obtained by its semiconductor unit will boost its manufacturing capacity by 25% in the second half of next year.

“This is at the back of the Cirtek Group’s manufacturing capacity already running at 100%,” Cirtek Holdings said in a disclosure on Thursday.

Cirtek Electronics Corp. began procuring new equipment earlier this year. The new units will support the orders it booked in the first quarter.

Three customers were secured from “major telecom players in Europe,” Cirtek Senior Vice-President for Marketing Tony Callueng said.

Cirtek also took note of the bright outlook for the industry.

Citing a market research report from the Integrated Circuit (IC) Insight, the IC market is said to grow by 24% this year due to a 21% increase in shipments and a two percent bump in average selling price.

In a separate report, IC Insights also forecasts sales for the IC market to grow to over $500 billion this year.

With a global chip shortage looming as demand continues to rise, Cirtek said it is collaborating with customers to address the issue.

“Due to the industry’s bullish outlook, supply chain backlogs, and chip demand outpacing supply, customers have even started to consign equipment to Cirtek as insurance for production capacity on top of Cirtek’s own internal equipment,” the company said.

Aside from this, Cirtek also sees a growing trend in products in the internet of things, wireless communication such as 5G deployment, medical devices and wearables.

Shares of Cirtek at the stock exchange went down by 1.62% or 10 centavos on Thursday, closing at P6.08 each. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

For your Height only

July 2, 2021 | 12:06 am

Movie Review
In The Heights
Hbo Max

LIN-MANUEL Miranda’s In the Heights, which he started working on in college and managed to stage on Broadway some nine years later, has finally made it to the big screen. It’s handsomely produced with a $55 million budget, shot on location in Washington Heights, and features a strikingly handsome cast of mostly young actors and a handful of recognizable veteran talents.

The movie is entertaining enough: the intertwining stories of largely Hispanic New Yorkers, sweating through one memorably hot summer as they pursue their various suenitos, or “little dreams.” Bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) wants to return to the Dominican Republic to reopen his late father’s business, which is for sale; nail technician Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) wants an apartment downtown and a career as a fashion designer; Nina (Leslie Grace) wants a college degree from Stanford; dispatcher Benny (Corey Hawkins) wants Nina, daughter of Kevin (Jimmy Smits), who owns the cab company he works for.

Throw in “Abuela” Claudia (Olga Merediz) who wanted to save enough money to go back and visit the Dominican Republic after so many years away; Kevin, who sells off pieces of his company to help finance Nina’s tuition; Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV) who wants to go to college someday; and Usnavi, who on top of wanting his father’s business wants to ask Vanessa out on a date. Oh, and the Piragua Guy (Lin-Manuel Miranda), who wants to recover the business he lost when a Softee truck started roaming his neighborhood.

I want to say it’s refreshing to see Hispanic faces telling Hispanic stories to a largely Hispanic and Afro-Latino beat… though there seem to be a lot of power ballads to my inexpert ears, and plenty of Broadway moments where the story stops dead on its tracks to allow a singer to hit his or her high note for at least a minute while we admire their tonsils. The rap lyrics don’t seem as intricately or cleverly written as in Mr. Miranda’s later Hamilton, though even that musical I found problematic, with its casting of black and Latin actors in the role of white patriarchs, largely whitewashing their role in slavery (for the record Hamilton’s own record was ambiguous: he supported abolition but didn’t let his stance jeopardize his relationships with George Washington and other influential slaveowners; he believed in freeing slaves, but also believed in property rights).

Jon Chu’s filmmaking serves this Miranda musical better than Thomas Kail’s did of Mr. Miranda’s more famous musical — this is a movie adaptation conceived as a movie, not an expensive high-def video recording lit mostly in red spots. The colors are bright, the camera active enough — though when the camera cuts to the beat and chops up Christopher Scott’s athletic choreography to insert sweeping swooping crane shots and other modern dance musical cliches you’re reminded that Mr. Chu’s previous work included Step Up 2 and Step Up 3D. We’re not cracking open and deconstructing the musical here folks, we’re just doing a big-budget music video, with short snippets ready to be uploaded to YouTube.

An aside: what would an interesting movie musical look like nowadays? Tossing out all the cliches would be nice; seeing a dance choreographer’s work intact would be nice. A more contemplative filmmaker with an actual vision would be nice, someone like, say, Tsai Ming-liang (The Hole and The Wayward Cloud anyone?). Also happens to be Asian, though not Asian-American.

Doesn’t help that Chu alludes to older, better musicals — the pool synchronized swimming number recalls Busby Berkeley and the best of Esther Williams (no waterskis or rising towers or breathtaking dives alas, and the sparklers are reserved for another number); the dance up against the side of an apartment building recalls Fred Astaire’s number in Royal Wedding, only they did it without computers. Trouble is watching these reminders makes you want to pause HBO Max to go into Amazon or Criterion to look for those older, better musicals instead.

Speaking of ethnic New York neighborhoods during a hot summer, Spike Lee’s earlier Do The Right Thing (and at one point this movie cracks open a few fire hydrants in apparent tribute) pretty much sums up my problem with this picture: Miranda’s is a Disneyfied New York, more a Washington Heightsland complete with guide rails and waiting lines for the rides and water park slides than an actual New York neighborhood. The streets are too clean (I did at one point jab my finger at a corner of the screen to exclaim “Look! A piece of litter!”), the actors too well-scrubbed. Where’s the grime? The rats? The enormous piles of trash bags, not just in Washington Heights but practically every neighborhood — Woodside, Flushing, Belmont, Coney Island? As if on cue one singer does walk past a pile of black bags — but discreetly tucked away in an alley, all carefully knotted up). More, where’s the ’tude? The beauty parlor number (in a shop the size of a Broadway stage) promises a little Latin sass (I thought the forehead waxing bit to be the movie’s comic highlight) but few of the cast speak, much less sing, any profanity, maybe the occasional “shit!” (not enough to raise the PG-13 rating to R). Dads hug daughters, daughters hug dads, everyone hugs the neighborhood abuela; sure, everyone has problems and no one has money, but there’s nothing that can’t be resolved with a little determination, a lot of love, and a rousing Broadway number.

Compare Mr. Lee’s provocation of a film, which starts with Rosie Perez dancing to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” and ends with Mr. Lee himself hurling a garbage can through a plate glass window. I miss the bitterness at being put down all the time every time; I miss the hot fiery fury that minorities feel when faced with everyday institutional racism (the most In the Heights manages to stoke up is mild dismay, maybe a little melancholy, a brief DACA demonstration that one might mistake for a Disneyland Main Street parade). The loudest voice one hears in this picture is yelling “We’re here and we want our dreams!” (also “Don’t forget to buy your daily Lotto ticket!”). The loudest voice heard in Do the Right Thing goes “We’re here we’re not going anywhere, and we’re not taking any more shit from you!” Take a guess which one I find more honest.

Britney Spears’ father asks for probe of her abuse claims

July 2, 2021 | 12:05 am

LOS ANGELES — Jamie Spears, father of Britney Spears, has asked for an investigation of the pop superstar’s claims that she had been mistreated under a legal conservatorship by being denied the ability to make her own medical decisions.

In a court filing late on Tuesday, attorneys for Jamie Spears said he was “greatly saddened to hear of his daughter’s difficulties and suffering” and “believes there must be an investigation into those claims.” Britney Spears has been under a conservatorship since she suffered a mental health breakdown in 2008.

The “Stronger” singer told a Los Angeles judge last week that she had been forced to take the drug lithium against her will and was prohibited from marrying or removing a birth control device, and that she wanted the “abusive” conservatorship to end. Jamie Spears is a joint conservator of his daughter’s finances and also was in charge of her personal affairs until he stepped down from that position in Sept. 2019. Care manager Jodi Montgomery, a licensed fiduciary, was appointed temporary conservator of personal affairs.

Last year, Britney Spears began a legal process to prevent her father from ever returning to that role. Attorneys for Jamie Spears said in the new filing that he had no intention of trying to reclaim the position and was not involved in her “personal care or medical or reproductive issues.”

“Mr. Spears has been unable to hear and address his daughter’s concerns directly because he has been cut-off from communicating with her,” the filing in Los Angeles Superior Court said. The attorneys also asked the court to hold a hearing to investigate whether Montgomery should continue to oversee the singer’s personal affairs given Britney Spears’ court testimony.

Montgomery’s lawyer, Lauriann Wright, said in a statement that her client “has been a tireless advocate for Britney and for her well-being” and would present a care plan to the court “setting forth a path for termination of the conservatorship.” The statement also said the conservatorship did not govern marriage or family planning. — Reuters

Greenergy acquires shares in AgriNurture

July 2, 2021 | 12:05 am

GREENERGY Holdings, Inc. acquired 10 million secondary common shares in listed agro-commercial firm AgriNurture, Inc. (ANI) in a move aimed at improving its green projects.

The company said in a stock exchange disclosure on Thursday that the acquisition was through the open market at a price of P6.13 per share, amounting to P61.3 million exclusive of taxes, fees, and commission.

After the acquisition, Greenergy now holds 105.10 million shares, which is equivalent to 10.26% of the total issued and outstanding shares of ANI.

“The transaction will strengthen the position of the company in the other ‘green’ projects,” Greenergy said in the disclosure.

Both Greenergy and ANI are led by businessman Antonio L. Tiu.

According to its website, Greenergy has business interests in food and agriculture, banking and finance, real estate development and construction, renewable energy, technology, biotechnology, and green infrastructure projects.

In May, the company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Winsun Green Ventures, Inc. decided not to renew its distribution agreement with solar panel supplier Hanergy Thin Film Power Asia Pacific Ltd. for the sourcing of solar panels on a pending project.

ANI is an agro-commercial firm that has business interests in the export and trading of organic products such as vegetables, fruits, and grains, according to its website.

On Thursday, shares of Greenergy at the stock exchange rose 3.72% or 16 centavos to end at P4.46 apiece while stocks of ANI improved 1.77% or 11 centavos to close at P6.33 per share. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Venice festival to honor Jamie Lee Curtis with lifetime achievement award

July 2, 2021 | 12:04 am

JAMIE Lee Curtis speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Halloween,” at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. — GAGE SKIDMORE/EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

LONDON — Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Venice International Film Festival in September, where the latest instalment of her Halloween movies will screen out of competition, organizers said on Wednesday.

Curtis made her film debut in John Carpenter’s 1978 horror flick Halloween, playing babysitter Laurie Strode, who faced off against deadly serial killer Michael Myers. She has reprised the role several times since in the popular slasher film franchise.

“I am incredibly humbled to be honored in this way … Halloween — and my partnership with Laurie Strode — launched and sustained my career, and to have these films evolve into a new franchise that is beloved by audiences around the world was, and remains, a gift,” Ms. Curtis said in a statement.

The 62-year-old, also known for True Lies, Freaky Friday, and Knives Out, will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 78^thedition of the festival before an out-of-competition screening of Halloween Kills, scheduled for release in October.

This year’s festival runs from Sept. 1 to 11. — Reuters

Robinsons’ Bridgetowne to house telco neutral data center Beeinfotech PH

July 2, 2021 | 12:04 am

Bridgetowne-C5-Pasig-Building-Perspective — BRIDGETOWNE Master-planned Perspective at C5 Pasig — ROBINSONSLANDCONDOS.COM

ROBINSONS Land Corp.’s (RLC) Bridgetowne Destination Estate will be the home base for a telecommunication neutral data center, which will give the development the opportunity to become an integrated smart city.

Bee Information Technology PH, Inc. or Beeinfotech PH has leased out a building in RLC’s estate.

“Beeinfotech PH occupies our Campus One development which has close to 19,000 square meters (sq.m.) of data center space. It will also build a power center on a 1,500 square meter land, which is adjacent to their leased premises,” RLC Senior Vice-President and Office Buildings Division General Manager Jericho P. Go said in a statement on Thursday.

Beeinfotech PH will be using the office building for a neutral data center, which allows the interconnection of various telco carriers. This will allow it to access all technologies and network providers.

It will also allow business process outsourcing (BPO) tenants and those occupying office spaces in RLC’s development to have access to a data center facility.

Mr. Go said the data center will help Bridgetowne Destination Estate to become an integrated smart city development.

Beeinfotech PH is also developing a dedicated power center “to provide multiple layers of redundancy for its supply of power.” This will ensure that the development will have enough power supply as the data center would have a higher demand for electricity.

“Campus One in Bridgetowne is the ideal location for this project as it is serviced by multiple telco providers, and the area is flood free and far away from the earthquake faultline,” Beeinfotech PH President and Chief Executive Officer Reynaldo Huergas said.

On Thursday, shares of Robinsons Land at the local bourse improved by 1.27% to finish at P17.50. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

SSS says process improvements to improve loan payment scheme

July 2, 2021 | 12:03 am

THE Social Security System (SSS) said it is seeking to upgrade the process for administering loans, chiefly via the use of the payment reference number (PRN) in salary, calamity, emergency and restructured loan payments.

SSS President and CEO Aurora C. Ignacio said in a statement Thursday that the changes will enable the pension fund to process loans more rapidly.

A PRN is a system-generated number for the member or employer’s loan billing statement. The SSS sends the billing statements and notices with PRNs every month to the registered e-mail address and mobile number of the borrower.

Loan payments that do not carry the PRN will no longer be accepted, including those filed via the electronic data interchange facility.

Ms. Ignacio said the initial plan was to implement mandatory PRN use starting Feb. 1 but decided to move the target date to July 1 to give their members and employers more time to register via the My.SSS portal.

The portal allows them to update their basic information, including e-mail addresses and phone numbers, to ensure they receive notifications and the PRN, which needs to be presented upon payment.

Borrowers can also update the amount they want to pay in their billing statement via the portal or through SSS branches.

The pension fund released P62.35 billion in loans to its members in 2020, up 53.6%. However, loan payments declined by 17.6% to P32.44 billion due to hardships they may have experienced during the pandemic.

Contribution collections fell 7.1% in 2020 to P204.75 billion. — Beatrice M. Laforga

Actress gets 3 years prison for role in NXIVM cult

July 2, 2021 | 12:03 am

Smallville TV show actress Allison Mack — EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/

Smallville TV show actress Allison Mack was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for her role in NXIVM, a New York-based cult in which women were branded with its leader’s initials and ordered to have sex with him.

Mack, 38, was sentenced by US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, after pleading guilty in 2019 to racketeering and conspiracy. She is expected to begin serving her sentence on Sept. 29.

Before being sentenced, Ms. Mack tearfully apologized to her victims and her family, saying her actions while in the group were “abusive, abhorrent and illegal.” She said she had completely renounced NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, who was sentenced to 120 years in prison last year for sex trafficking and other crimes. “Coming out from under this delusion has been the most difficult experience of my life,” Ms. Mack said.

Former NXIVM members testified at Mr. Raniere’s trial that he established a secret sorority within the organization in which “slaves” pledged total obedience to “masters,” with Mr. Raniere at the top as “grand master.” Women were kept on starvation diets, branded with Mr. Raniere’s initials and in some cases coerced into sex with him. Leaders of the group were said to use nude photos and other compromising materials to keep lower-ranking members in line. Ms. Mack, who was both a “slave” of Mr. Raniere and “master” of other women, admitted in her guilty plea that she coerced two women into doing unpaid work by threatening to release damaging information about them.

Mr. Garaufis said that Mack had been an “essential accomplice” in Mr. Raniere’s “monstrous crimes,” rejecting her lawyers’ plea for a sentence of home confinement or probation. However, the judge agreed with prosecutors that she deserved credit for cooperating against Mr. Raniere, warranting a sentence much lower than the 14 years called for by federal guidelines. He also said he believed her remorse was sincere.

Smallville, a television series that ran from 2001 to 2011, featured a young Clark Kent before he became famous as Superman. Ms. Mack played Chloe Sullivan, his close friend. — Reuters

Filinvest Land to continue developing projects in ‘emerging regional hubs’

July 2, 2021 | 12:03 am

FILINVEST Land, Inc. (FLI) will continue developing its residential projects across the country while working on increasing its gross leasable area (GLA).

“We will be in new emerging regional hubs. We want to expand geographically in areas that we are not yet present, and strengthen our foothold in areas we are already in,” FLI Chief Finance Officer Ana Venus A. Mejia said in a video call with BusinessWorld last week.

The company said it will continue its township and estate developments in Clark New City, Clark Mimosa, Ciudad de Calamba, Timberland, IL Corso in Cebu, among others.

Meanwhile, it will also continue the build-up for its GLA.

“We have laid the groundwork for our industrial and logistics segment in New Clark City. We have tapped on the co-living segment of the residential market, and we will continue to look at new trends with growth potential. In office, we are looking at co-working spaces other than the regular office leasing,” Ms. Mejia added.

FLI is also gearing up to dip into the real estate investment trust (REIT) market through its subsidiary, Cyberzone Properties, Inc. (CPI).

CPI has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering and is also seeking permission to change its name to Filinvest REIT Corp. or FILREIT. Both are still pending approval.

REIT OPPORTUNITIES
FLI has a two-fold objective in listing a REIT — it wants to provide an alternative choice for investments in the market and second, to support its expansion projects.

“A REIT offering will enable us to recycle capital to fund expansion projects,” CPI President Maricel Brion-Lirio said in the video call. “In the event any of these new developments are infused into the REIT, we believe such infusion will in turn add to the liquidity and size of REIT company going forward.”

The initial REIT portfolio includes 17 buildings, 16 of which are nestled in its 18.7-hectare development in Alabang’s Filinvest City, Northgate Cyberzone. Meanwhile, one building is located in Filinvest Cebu Cyberzone in Cebu IT Park.

Aside from its sustainability thrust and the accessibility of buildings in its portfolio, FLI offers its building tenants an “expansion option.”

“Unlike other REITs that may only have standalone buildings, our tenants have the option to expand within the vicinity since we have a pipeline of Grade A buildings inside the PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) IT park that will be more cost effective for the locators to connect,” Ms. Brion-Lirio said, adding that their leasing business has a strong history of renewals.

For its REIT listing, up to 1.63 billion CPI common shares owned by FLI will be sold at P8.30 each at most through a secondary offer, with an overallotment option of 163.42 million.

Net proceeds from the offer are estimated to amount to P13.03 billion, and up to P14.35 billion should the overallotment option be exercised.

“All proceeds from the IPO will be received by FLI, the selling shareholder,” Ms. Mejia said in a follow-up e-mail on Thursday.

“FLI will use the proceeds from the offer per its reinvestment plan. This includes the capex (capital expenditures) for largely for office buildings, residential mid-rise buildings, industrial warehouses and raw land acquisition. Some portion will also go to capex for retail malls and the expansion of the district cooling system,” she added.

On Thursday, shares of FLI at the stock exchange improved by 1.82% or two centavos to finish at P1.12 apiece. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

Stuff to do (07/02/21)

July 2, 2021 | 12:02 am

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Big Bad Wolf Book Sale online

THE BIG Bad Wolf Book Sale returns, this time online at https://ph.bbwbooks.com/, from June 30 to July 7. Over 60,000 book titles are available at discounted prices. Among the promotions are a P10 book deal for a minimum purchase of P1,800; a 5% discount for a minimum purchase of P1,200; a 10% discount for a minimum purchase of P5,000; and free shipping anywhere in the Philippines for a minimum purchase of P2,900. Online payments will be accepted through Dragonpay, eGHL, GCash, GrabPay, BDO, and BPI. Cash on delivery (COD) is not available as a payment option since shipments are from Malaysia. Enjoy book shopping online .

ABS-CBN holds book sale

OVER 90 ABS-CBN books are on sale virtually until July 7. ABS-CBN Books is offering huge discounts on various titles via Shopee, from Binibining Mia’s bestselling series I Love You Since 1892, Vice Ganda’s autobiography Tutoy, to Juana Manahan-Yupangco’s cookbook Mesa ni Misis, and movie-to-book adaptation Hello, Love, Goodbye. Limited collections are also available including the four-book set Babysitting the Billionaire series by Jamille Fumah for only P450 and a four-book set cookbook collection featuring chef Gene Gonzalez’s The Kitchen Scoundrel, Arci Munoz’s Cheat Days, Dimples Romana’s Dimps Tips, and Nadia Montenegro’s Have I Cooked For You for P400. Check out the books in the ABS-CBN Books’ Shopee store until July 7. For more details, follow ABS-CBN Books on Facebook (www.facebook.com/abscbnbooks) and Instagram (@abscbnbooks).

Online Trese tour in Manila

WANDERMANILA presents Through the Dragon Gate: The Trese Online Tour (Anime Edition), a tour of Metro Manila, as seen in the Netflix anime series Trese. There will be discussions about some of the more important locations that lent their notoriety and mystique to the Trese series, such as Balete Drive, the Manila South Cemetery, and the MRT. Through The Dragon Gate will be livestreamed over at the WanderManila Facebook page (www.facebook.com/WanderManila) on July 2, 8 p.m.

Ortigas malls hold Pasig Day Sale

CELEBRATE Pasig Day with deals and special promos with the Pasig Day Sale on July 2. Shops at Tiendesitas and Estancia malls are marking this day with special offerings. Health protocols will be strictly implemented. Enjoy meals al fresco at the restaurant of your choice. For more information, check out the official Facebook pages of Tiendesitas and Estancia.

Participative Solar Art exhibit in BGC

AS PART of the Day of Climate Action on July 3 to 4 — presented by Liter of Light, a Filipino-born global grassroots solar lighting movement, the Embassy of Italy, and the Philippine Italian Association — a huge woven participative solar artwork will be set up on 5^th Avenue in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig City at 6:30 p.m. on July 4. Coinciding with the International Day of Cooperation, July 4, the Day of Climate Action will include socially distant workshops at the tented area of My Street High Street to raise funds to provide a clean and sustainable source of energy to communities that have been affected by lack of tourists due to the pandemic. Liter of Light’s participative solar artwork, built using 1,500 hand-built solar lights, features a symbol for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #13: Climate Action. The artwork is the latest in a series of pop-up artworks that Liter of Light has built across Metro Manila revolving around the UN SDGs in the lead-up to the global climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, this November. To learn more about Liter of Light and its Light It Forward campaign, visit www.lightitforward.ph.

Lazada director to give e-commerce tips in online webinar

LAZADA Category Director for General Merchandise Mariel Caraig will headline a webinar entitled “The New Normal in Buying Behavior: Offline to Online,” which delves into the latest developments in the e-commerce scene and the impact of the pandemic on the industry, on July 2. Ms. Caraig will explain how the global epidemic shifted the attention of both buyers and consumers into alternative digital platforms and how this change challenged traditional marketing techniques. She plans to reveal explorable key product and e-commerce trends, new online business strategies that will be helpful for entrepreneurs for the years to come. Hosted by the Environment Studies Cluster of DLS-CSB, the webinar will be conducted via Zoom on today, July 2, from 1 to 2 p.m. Interested participants may register through: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_y7ZGPIZGYMLCqJisvrYohQY8p_5nWHJeXCdIQi1FbZRTYA/viewform. For more details, e-mail melissa.matugas@benilde.edu.ph.

Shop & Shop holds payday sale

SHOP & SHOP is holding a week-long grand payday sale until July 3, with exclusive offers of up to 80% off on beauty, fashion, luggage and home products. There will be discounts of up to 60% from Tefal Cookware, Cuisinart, Beka, Oneida, Aladdin, and Reisenthel, and up to 80% off on bags and luggage from Samsonite, American Tourister, High Sierra, Kamiliant, and Lipault. Stylish wadrobe pieces are available with discounts of up to 80% from Jack Nicklaus, Savile Row, Levi’s Footwear & Accessories, Nine West Footwear & Bags, Anne Klein Watches, and Diesel Footwear. Make-up, hair-care, and skin-care products are available for discounts of up to 80% from Max Factor, Covergirl, Nuxe, Australis, Babyliss, VS Sassoon, bkr, and Sally Hansen. Shop & Shop is open from Monday to Saturday at 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Shop & Shop is the new chat commerce channel of Rustan Marketing Corp. Browse the newest items and deals at Shop & Shop by Rustan Marketing Corp. on Facebook then order through Shop & Shop’s social media channels to complete your purchase.

Mitsubishi Power plans to roll out ‘smart’ power plants

July 2, 2021 | 12:02 am

THE local branch of Mitsubishi Power Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. aims to introduce power plants powered by “intelligent” digital solutions, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to ramp up performance and reduce carbon emissions, a company official said.

“Mitsubishi Power Philippines is focusing on transitioning power plants to fully automated facilities with enhanced efficiency and performance,” Shunsuke Nishimura, general manager of Mitsubishi Power’s Philippine branch, told BusinessWorld in a recent e-mail interview.

“Our focus is on developing digital power plants that will increasingly be able to take autonomous action to optimize performance and reduce emissions as well as adjust to changing environmental conditions, the grid and energy markets,” he said through a public relations agency.

Mitsubishi Power has a suite of intelligent digital solutions called TOMONI, which uses advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to make power plants “smarter.”

“TOMONI helps our customers make more efficient use of their assets, improve efficiency and enhance power plant performance. It can also enable fuel flexibility which in turn can promote decarbonization of power generation systems,” Mr. Nishimura said.

He said using TOMONI technology for monitoring and forecasting can provide savings of over $4 million per year.

“These benefits come from digital solutions that eliminate trips or failed starts and digital analytics that can provide early warning of issues that could cause trips and runbacks,” he said.

The Philippines currently houses one of the Yokohama-headquartered company’s monitoring centers in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

“The center tracks performance data to provide improvements to plants through early fault detection, optimized outage management as well as data collection and forecasting analysis. It utilizes TOMONI to collect and analyze this data to generate actionable insights for customers,” Mr. Nishimura said.

The Philippine branch of Mitsubishi Power has served 15 plants across the country’s three major island groups. These plants account for 27% of the country’s energy requirements.

In February, Mitsubishi Power committed to install a 29-megawatt binary cycle power system called Organic Rankine Cycle at the Lopez-led Energy Development Corp.’s Palayan geothermal power plant together with Turboden S.p.A., a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. — Angelica Y. Yang

Merger plan to affect LANDBANK’s profitability

July 2, 2021 | 12:02 am

LAND BANK of the Philippines’ (LANDBANK) proposed merger with the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) may affect its financial profile and profitability in the near term, but the government’s support will be a safety net for the state-run lender, Fitch Ratings said.

“UCPB has been under a long-drawn rehabilitation program because of its weak financial health, but its size relative to LANDBANK could significantly weaken the larger bank’s financial profile, as it would make up about 14% of LANDBANK’s assets, based on our preliminary understanding of the pro forma merged entity,” Fitch said in a note on Thursday.

The debt watcher said the merger could have a “meaningful impact” on LANDBANK’s standalone financial strength, which is part of the factors considered for its viability rating for the bank, which currently stands at “bb”. This grade is given to banks seen to have a “moderate degree of fundamental financial strength,” which would have to be eroded before it needs support to avoid default.

Fitch said with UCPB’s non-performing loans (NPL) reportedly reaching more than P22 billion at end-2020, LANDBANK’s NPL ratio could rise by two percentage points once UCPB’s soured debt is integrated into its portfolio.

“This would exacerbate asset quality pressures that LANDBANK already faces from the current economic slowdown,” it said.

“This is especially in light of UCPB’s low loan-loss coverage of around 20%, which portends sharp increases in credit costs, on top of the increase we were already expecting from LANDBANK’s own,” Fitch added.

LANDBANK will likely only see the benefits of the merger in the long run as the risks are seen outweighing these in the near term, the debt watcher said, especially in terms of profitability, as it could incur significant integration expenses due to the transaction.

These benefits include a wider market share for LANDBANK as the surviving entity after the merger, which could help the agriculture sector.

“The merger would increase LANDBANK’s market share by about 1.7 percentage points to make it the second-largest bank in the Philippines by assets, potentially improving the bank’s franchise by catalyzing economies of scale in serving the agricultural community,” Fitch said.

“The bank’s unique policy role and its high systemic importance are key rating drivers underpinning our expectation of extraordinary support from the government when determining the bank’s Issuer Default Rating. These factors would be strengthened by the proposed merger,” it added.

LANDBANK’s “BBB” rating was affirmed by Fitch in May 2020, although its outlook was downgraded to “stable” from “positive” following a similar move for the sovereign. A stable outlook means the rating will likely be kept within the next 18 to 24 months.

The state-run lender’s net income rose 1.67% to P5.48 billion in the first quarter while its assets stood at P2.405 trillion as of March, making it the second-biggest bank in the country in terms of assets and deposits. Meanwhile, latest central bank data showed the assets of UCPB amounted to P327.39 billion as of December 2020.

Executive Order (EO) No. 142 signed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte on June 25 approved the LANDBANK-UCPB merger. All assets and liabilities of UCPB will be transferred to LANDBANK.

The merger was considered because of the two banks’ shared objectives and interrelated mandates, the EO said. LANDBANK mainly lends to the agriculture sector, while UCPB was originally acquired by the government for the benefit of coconut farmers.

The order said the move “will significantly strengthen the capability to deliver financial services to the coconut industry and the entire agricultural sector, contribute to economic sufficiency, foster countryside development and financial inclusion, and promote stability in the country’s banking system.”

The provisions in the order are expected to be fully implemented within six months from its effectivity. — LWTN