United, Delta cancel more than 200 US Christmas Eve flights amid COVID surge

December 24, 2021 | 3:22 pm

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines on Thursday said they had each canceled dozens of Christmas Eve flights, as the spreading coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Omicron variant takes a toll on its flight crews and other workers.

Chicago-based United canceled 120 flights for Friday, while Atlanta-based Delta said it has canceled about 90. Both said they were working to contact passengers so they would not be stranded at airports.

“The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation. As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport,” United said.

Delta said it has “exhausted all options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying — before canceling around 90 flights for Friday.”

Delta cited potential inclement weather and the impact of the Omicron variant for the cancellations.

On Tuesday, Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian asked the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to shrink quarantine guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals who experience breakthrough COVID-19 infections, citing the impact on the carrier’s workforce. Mr. Bastian asked that the isolation period be cut to five days from the current 10.

That request was echoed both by Airlines for America, a trade group representing major cargo and passenger carriers, which wrote to the CDC on Thursday, and by JetBlue on Wednesday.

The CDC released updated quarantine guidance for healthcare workers on Thursday, cutting the isolation time to seven days for workers who test positive for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic, providing they test negative. — David Shepardson/Reuters

Vaccines, pills and data offer some Christmas cheer in face of Omicron advance

December 24, 2021 | 2:58 pm

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON — Omicron advanced across the world on Thursday, with health experts warning the battle against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) variant was far from over despite two drugmakers saying their vaccines protected against it and signs it carries a lower risk of hospitalization.

Coronavirus infections have soared wherever the highly infectious Omicron variant has spread, triggering new restrictions in many countries and record new cases.

But in another glimmer of hope two days before Christmas, a US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) official said data indicated that both Merck & Co Inc.’s and Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 antivirals are effective against the variant.

There were encouraging signs too about hospitalization rates from Britain and South Africa, although the head of a leading African health agency joined the World Health Organization in cautioning that it was too soon to draw broader conclusions.

“Let’s be careful not to extrapolate what we are seeing in South Africa across the continent, or across the world,” Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC) chief John Nkengasong said.

Nevertheless, US stock indexes and yields on US Treasuries both climbed on Thursday, partly on new optimism after Omicron helped ratchet up market volatility for much of the last month of 2021.

“Today is a very calm day. It’s the relief over Omicron apparently not being as bad as we feared,” Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial, said.

Even as Omicron has begun leaving an imprint on parts of the U.S. economy, economists say it so far seems unlikely to prevent a second straight year of above-trend growth.

First identified last month in southern Africa and Hong Kong, Omicron is becoming dominant in much of Europe including Britain, where daily new infections have soared beyond 100,000.

France had its worst-ever day in terms of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, with more than 91,000 recorded, while Germany reported its first Omicron death.

In Italy, the first Western country to be hit by the pandemic last year, all public New Year’s Eve celebrations were banned, while Greece banned public Christmas festivities. Both countries also made outdoor mask-wearing mandatory.

In the United States, millions of Americans pushed ahead with holidays including cross-country flights. Authorities said 2,081,297 passengers were screened through the nation’s airports on Wednesday, 144,000 more than on the same date in 2019 before the pandemic.

Increases in hospitalizations and deaths in South Africa and Britain since Omicron took hold appear to have been only gradual, and AstraZeneca and Novavax joined other manufacturers in saying their shots protect against it.

University of Edinburgh researchers who tracked 22,205 Omicron patients said on Wednesday the number who needed to be hospitalized was 68% lower than they would have expected, based on the rate in patients with Delta.

Imperial College London researchers reported evidence of a comparable 40%–45% reduction in hospitalization risk.

Britain recorded a record number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with the daily tally reaching 119,789. But analysis of preliminary data by the UK Health Security Agency showed an individual with Omicron was estimated to be between 31% and 45% less likely to attend hospital compared to someone with Delta, and 50% to 70% less likely to be admitted.

UKHSA boss Jenny Harries said this was “an encouraging early signal,” but added: “this is early data and more research is required to confirm these findings”.

In Washington, the FDA authorized Merck’s antiviral pill for certain high-risk adult patients, a day after giving the go-ahead to a similar treatment from Pfizer.

Both pills worked, said Patrizia Cavazzoni, a top FDA official, adding that both interfere with how the virus replicates, a process that is not altered across variants.

‘DON’T OVER-INTERPRET’

Scientists have warned that, with the surge in cases in Britain, even a small proportion of hospitalizations could overwhelm the healthcare system.

In the US Midwest, Omicron’s rapid spread has hospitals “preparing for the worst,” with their personnel already severely strained from a wave of the Delta variant.

The British data supported findings from South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

A separate South African government-backed study, yet to be peer-reviewed, on health workers given the Johnson & Johnson vaccine identified “clear and early de-coupling” of hospitalization from Omicron cases compared with Delta.

AstraZeneca said a three-course dose of its vaccine offered protection against the variant, citing data from an Oxford University lab study.

Findings from the study, yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, matched those from rivals Pfizer-BioNTech, and Moderna.

Novavax also said early data showed its vaccine — authorized for use by the European Union and WHO but yet to be approved by the United States — generated an immune response against Omicron.

But the older Delta variant lurks.

The coronavirus death toll in Russia, where officials had detected only 41 Omicron cases, passed 600,000 on Thursday, Reuters calculations based on official data showed, after a surge of Delta-linked infections.

Only the United States and Brazil have recorded more coronavirus deaths. — James Macharia Chege and Josephine Mason/Reuters

Writer Joan Didion, chronicler of contemporary American society, dies at 87

December 24, 2021 | 2:11 pm

23274342829_3bec26eba1_o — Image via Tradlands/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

Author Joan Didion, whose essays, memoirs, novels, and screenplays chronicled contemporary American society, as well as her grief over the deaths of her husband and daughter, has died at the age of 87.

The cause of death was Parkinson’s disease, her publisher Knopf said on Thursday in a statement.

Didion first emerged as a writer of substance in the late 1960s as an early practitioner of “new journalism,” which allowed writers to take a narrative, more personalized perspective.

Her 1968 essay collection Slouching Toward Bethlehem, a title borrowed from poet William Butler Yeats, looked at the culture of her native California. The title essay offered an unsympathetic view of the emerging hippie culture in San Francisco and a New York Times review called the book “some of the finest magazine pieces published by anyone in this country in recent years.”

Didion had an air of casual glamour and writerly cool and in her heyday frequently was typically photographed in oversized sunglasses or lounging nonchalantly with a cigarette dangling from a hand. She was 80 in 2015 when the French fashion house Celine used her as a model in an ad campaign for its sunglasses.

Tragedy inadvertently led to a career resurgence in the 2000s as Didion wrote of the deaths of her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, in The Year of Magical Thinking and daughter Quintana Roo Dunne in Blue Nights.

Didion’s works were insightful, confessional and tinged with ennui and skepticism. The Los Angeles Times praised her as an “unparalleled stylist” with “piercing insights and exquisite command of language.”

British writer Martin Amis referred to Didion as the “poet of the Great Californian Emptiness” and she was especially incisive in writing about the state. Her 1970 novel Play It as It Lays showed Los Angeles, through the eyes of a troubled actor, to be glamorous and vapid while the 2003 essay collection Where I Was From was about the culture of the state, as well as herself and her family’s long history there.

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means,” Didion said in a speech at her alma mater, the University of California in Berkeley, in 1975.

FROM CALIFORNIA TO NEW YORK

Her life and career were captured in the 2017 documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold by her nephew, actor-filmmaker Griffin Dunne. The New Yorker magazine called the film, which borrowed its title from another Yeats work, “an intimate, affectionate, and partial portrait.”

Didion ended up in New York by winning a college essay contest that provided an internship at Vogue magazine in the late 1950s. She met Dunne there two years later.

Didion and Dunne, who were married nearly 40 years, split their lives between Southern California and New York and managed to be leading figures in both literary circles and Hollywood. The parties at their Malibu beach house, where Harrison Ford worked as a carpenter before Star Wars fame, drew crowds that included singer Janis Joplin, moviemakers Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese and actor Warren Beatty, who was reportedly infatuated with Didion.

Dunne was demonstrative and garrulous while Didion could come off as introverted. Their marriage was rocky at times and Dunne moved to Las Vegas for a while. In an essay in The White Album, Didion wrote that they once took a vacation in Hawaii “in lieu of filing for divorce.”

Through it all they edited each other’s work and collaborated on screenplays for the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, The Panic in Needle Park, the 1971 film that gave Al Pacino his first starring role, as well as the movie adaptations of Play It as It Lays and Dunne’s novel True Confessions.

The couple moved to New York in 1988 and after Dunne suffered a heart attack at the dinner table in 2003, Didion wrote of the ensuing heartache in The Year of Magical Thinking, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction.

“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it,” she wrote.

Twenty months after Dunne’s death, Didion returned to the place of grief when Quintana Roo died from acute pancreatitis after a series of health problems, which she chronicled in Blue Nights.

The diminutive Didion dwindled to 75 pounds (34 kg) after the deaths but began to come out of it by working on a one-woman stage version of Magical Thinking that opened on Broadway in 2007 with Vanessa Redgrave starring and David Hare directing.

Didion, whose other books included the novel A Book of Common Prayer and non-fiction works Miami and Salvador was presented the National Medal of Arts in 2013 by President Barack Obama. — Reuters

How 2021 became the year of ESG investing

December 24, 2021 | 1:52 pm

BOSTON/LONDON — Investors concerned about climate change and social justice had a bumper year in 2021, successfully pushing companies and regulators to make changes amid record inflows to funds focused on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues.

Extreme weather becoming more frequent and events highlighting social justice issues, such as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, contributed to ESG rising to the top of the agenda of investors, companies and policy makers.

A record $649 billion poured into ESG-focused funds worldwide through Nov. 30, up from the $542 billion and $285 billion that flowed into these funds in 2020 and 2019, respectively, the latest Refinitiv Lipper data shows. ESG funds now account for 10% of worldwide fund assets.

Stocks of companies rated highly for their sustainability efforts also notched gains. The MSCI World ESG Leaders’ index has risen 22% so far this year, compared with the MSCI World Index’s gain of 15%.

Investors flexed their muscle to challenge companies’ ESG credentials, culminating in a landmark board challenge against oil major Exxon Mobil Corp. Support for social and environmental proposals at the shareholder meetings of US companies rose to 32% in 2021 from 27% in 2020 and from 21% in 2017, according to the Sustainable Investments Institute.

“It was a watershed year,” said Tim Smith, a director at investment management firm Boston Trust Walden.

He contrasted the votes this year with one of the earliest corporate social policy measures, in 1971, when only 1% of General Motors’ shareholders backed an investor resolution for the automaker to withdraw from South Africa over the country’s racist social policies at the time.

Regulators have responded to the new pressure by making ESG disclosures a priority. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been asking money managers about the ESG classifications they use for their funds and is expected to firm up guidance on corporate disclosures such as carbon emissions.

The European Commission has finalized most of its “sustainable finance taxonomy” rulebook on which corporate activities can be labeled climate-friendly. Rules will apply to some sectors in the European Union starting next month.

Of the $6.1 trillion in ESG funds, 59% of the money is held in Europe, Middle East and Africa, according to Lipper, reflecting the region’s earlier embrace of the investing trend.

Inflows in European ESG funds dropped in 2021, but this was more than offset by rising flows into US and Asian ESG funds.

Major wins for ESG investors pushing for changes at companies this year included the replacement of three directors at Exxon Mobil, the rejection of a $230 million pay package for General Electric Co’s CEO Lawrence Culp, and a successful call for Union Pacific to make public its workforce diversity statistics.

Catherine Winner, global head of stewardship at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s asset management division, which backed the critical shareholder efforts at those three companies, said investors are no longer satisfied with companies delivering shareholder returns without doing more for the environment and society.

“It’s not just about shareholders; it’s about all stakeholders,” she said.

ESG SETBACKS

To be sure, ESG investors also suffered blows in 2021. Shareholder resolutions that drew significant support but did not gain majorities included a call to reform employment arbitration procedures at Tesla Inc. and a call for Amazon.com Inc. to review how it addresses racial justice and equity.

Many top corporate investors warmed up to ESG resolutions, even if they did not back them most of them time. Out of 49 climate-related resolutions this year, BlackRock Inc. supported 41%, up from 10% of a similar set of resolutions in 2020, according to advocacy group Ceres. Vanguard funds increased their support to 37% from 14%.

Both major index fund companies declined to comment on the Ceres report. But they have previously said companies must have appropriate risk oversight of environmental and social issues, and that they try to be transparent about their views.

In the United States, companies can sometimes avoid putting shareholder resolutions to a vote by asking the SEC for permission. Thomas Skulski, managing director at proxy solicitor Morrow Sodali, said the SEC strengthened the hand of ESG investors in November by narrowing the circumstances under which companies can skip votes.

As a result, companies next year could face more challenges on operational issues, such as how they use consumer packaging or plastics, Mr. Skulski said. — Ross Kerber and Simon Jessop/Reuters

Wall St. firms grapple with return-to-office conundrum as Omicron explodes

December 24, 2021 | 1:06 pm

Wallstreet-reuters — Three months after the sharpest sell-off in history, Wall Street is freaking out about valuations once more. Image courtesy of Reuters.

NEW YORK — Canceled holiday parties, booster-shot recommendations and advisories to work from home are the new normal for Wall Street companies reacting to the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) variant ripping through New York and other financial centers.

With the fourth wave of the pandemic now in full force, financial firms are once again grappling with when they can realistically get back to business-as-usual, and how to communicate to staff and retain workers amid the uncertainty.

“There is a great deal of squishiness around when the return to office is going to occur. They have had to reverse course so many times to the public, themselves and to staff,” said Neal Mills, chief medical officer for the professional services firm Aon, who advises companies on return-to-work plans.

A number of Wall Street banks and investment firms, including Bank of America, Citigroup, and Jefferies Financial Group have reversed their push to get staff back to the office as Omicron has spread across the Northeast.

New York City is being hit hard, with cases rising 60% last week. Breakthrough infections are also rising among the 61% of the country’s fully vaccinated population.

Companies acknowledge that the safeguards they had been relying on to get workers back to the office, such as vaccinations, may not protect staff, Mr. Mills said.

Employers are targeting February as the likely return-to-office date, but with the situation changing fast “they are reluctant to do any communications,” he said.

One financial firm executive said their return-to-office target date was largely “arbitrary” but that the company did not want to leave workers in the dark.

“People do a horrible job of communicating,” said Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School who advises companies on their back-to-office plans. Companies feel they cannot update staff until they have more information, he said.

The financial industry has been among the most aggressive in getting back to business-as-usual. Among banks, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley led the charge to get workers back to offices after vaccines were rolled out.

Goldman and JPMorgan had most workers back at offices on a rotational basis from the summer, while Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman had pushed for workers to return by September, although his stance has softened.

“US banks were saying ‘OK, everyone is back, and it’s time to go and see clients in person’. That was the trendy thing in September, October,” said a senior New York-based executive at a European bank with large US operations.

That aggressive stance has forced the industry to pivot quickly in recent weeks. Some executives have said the industry may have pushed too hard.

“I thought we would be out of it by Labor day, past Labor day. We’re not,” Mr. Gorman told CNBC last week. “I think we will still be in it through most of next year. Everyone is still finding their way.”

‘PEOPLE WILL QUIT’

Citigroup and Bank of America have told New York area staff to work remotely if possible for the time-being, while Wells Fargo delayed its planned Jan. 10 office return. Jefferies, one of the first firms to send staff home, is now targeting Jan. 17 to get workers back.

Some banks, however, still have staff in the office.

Morgan Stanley has not told staff to work from home but is giving them the flexibility to do so. JPMorgan has sent home unvaccinated staff at its Manhattan offices and urged teams to review again who needs to be in the office. While Goldman Sachs canceled some holiday gatherings, it has not sent staff home.

A spokesperson for JPMorgan said the bank was monitoring the situation and would adjust accordingly. The other banks declined to comment.

“The return to the workplace will not be a straight line,” said Elisabeth Joyce, a vice president at Gartner Research and Advisory. “However, I anticipate organizations who are looking to mandate a return to the office will push timelines.”

She added that over the long term companies would stay the course in trying to get staff back into the workplace.

That is likely to cause retention issues. The senior New York-based executive said he believed hybrid working was “here to stay” and that banks had to figure out how to make remote working effective while reconnecting people physically.

“Companies set their date for when people are coming back and every quarter it moves another quarter out,” said Andy Challenger, senior vice president at executive-coaching firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

“In the beginning, it was because of the waves of COVID and the danger. Now [employers] are worried that they can’t ask people to come back because people will quit.” — Elizabeth Dilts Marshall, Matt Scuffham, and David Henry/Reuters

China’s Sinovac COVID-19 booster weaker against Omicron — Hong Kong study

December 24, 2021 | 12:34 pm

Three doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine do not produce adequate levels of antibodies to fight the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, researchers from Hong Kong said in a statement.

Their analysis revealed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was more effective, as a third dose of the shot administered after two doses of the same or China’s Sinovac vaccine provided “protective levels” of antibody against Omicron.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have said their three-shot course was able to neutralize the new Omicron variant in a laboratory test.

The latest study was conducted by researchers from the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and funded by the Health and Medical Research Fund and the Government of Hong Kong.

The statement did not say how many samples were used in the analysis. Sinovac did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sinovac’s CoronaVac and state-owned Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV vaccine are the two most-used vaccines in China and the leading COVID-19 vaccines exported by the country. Sinopharm also has a second vaccine in use in China.

Hong Kong has been using the Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech shots. But people aged 12–17 are eligible only for the BioNTech vaccine. — Reuters

Empowering more learners in 2021 with PLDT, Smart’s resilient education programs

December 24, 2021 | 8:00 am

Education is an invaluable gift that can never be taken away. If we receive it with an open mind and heart, it remains with us no matter how many number of times we share it with other people.

For the country’s largest fully integrated telco PLDT and its mobile subsidiary Smart, education plays a pivotal role in improving lives. In line with the PLDT group’s core value of malasakit (compassion), PLDT and Smart ensure that their pandemic-resilient education programs reach as many people as possible, so there will be No Learner Left Behind.

“The PLDT group strongly advocates for education, empowering the education sector with crisis-resilient solutions, as it supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG#4 which upholds Quality Education,” said PLDT and Smart First Vice President and Head of Group Corporate Communications Cathy Yap-Yang.

Enhancing digital literacy with PLDT Infoteach

The Infoteach Outreach Program, PLDT’s flagship digital literacy initiative for its education advocacy, recently completed its nationwide run this year with virtual graduation ceremonies and an online academic quiz participated in by the Program’s leading graduates. The top three winners of the 2021 PLDT Infoteach-HomeFibr Broadband Quiz consisted of high school students Ma. Eugenie Yvette Gata from Casiguran National High School in Aurora; Key Calpito, Cabarroguis National School of Arts and Trades, Quirino province; and Jobelle Enverga, Jesus Dela Peña National High School, Marikina City.

Conducted in partnership with the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Infoteach enables high school students and teachers from public schools nationwide to gain new digital knowledge and related topics from subject matter experts while staying safely in their homes.

An ongoing PLDT education program for almost 20 years, Infoteach was implemented in webinar format in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Phase 6 of the Infoteach Webinar Series was rolled out this year with over 19,800 learners, mostly Grades 7-12, participating in the 10 online sessions which were recorded and are available for viewing in the UPOU Facebook page.

Providing access to digital literacy for IP communities

PLDT, in partnership with the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), have initiated the Digital Project for Arakan Women, working with Barangays Ganatan, Salasang, and Tumanding in Arakan, North Cotabato. Women and girls from the three barangays underwent orientations on basic computer literacy and the use of office and Windows apps using the 12 refurbished desktop computers provided by PLDT. Later, follow-up sessions were held to assess the participants’ proficiency.

Through this PLDT-PEF project, another group of women-parent volunteers were empowered to act as educators to the grade school students in their respective barangays. This encouraged the students to pursue and continue their studies amid modular distance learning challenges caused by COVID-19.

A group of women and girls, consisting of 90 residents from the three barangays in Arakan were provided access to digital literacy which enabled them to explore the digital world and enhanced their skills on digital technology.

Learning anywhere with School-In-A-Bag

Part of Smart’s flagship advocacy is the School-in-a-Bag (SIAB) which ensures that children in hard-to-reach areas get the opportunity to learn. A portable digital classroom, SIAB contains a laptop for the teacher, Smart Bro LTE pocket WiFi to download additional learning materials, and tablets preloaded with multimedia content and apps based on the mother tongue developed by Smart and its partners.

By the second half of 2021, Smart and its partners have deployed 508 SIABs across the country, reaching more than 4,000 teachers and over 93,000 students.

A slimmer iteration of SIAB are the Learn Smart Kits which are also donated by Smart to schools and organizations that conduct learning sessions in underserved areas. A Learn Smart Kit consists of a mini-bag with a Smart LTE pocket WiFi device and a 32GB USB preloaded with educational materials and videos for students and teachers.

Rebuilding the country through digital solutions

The Smart Prepaid Innovation Generation (InnoGen), a grant program for the youth, has welcomed, in virtual ceremonies, over 355 college students, from 29 universities and colleges nationwide, who will be joining the second season of the program.

InnoGen Season 2 poses the challenge “How can youth help the Philippines recover from the pandemic?” Presenting innovative solutions to the challenge using wireless or digital technology, the participating teams will get the chance to learn from experts and advocates, through a series of exclusive online lectures, helping them expand their knowledge and skills to enhance their projects.

Training digital artists, animators, content creators

Sprint, Smart’s newest training program, was launched to encourage partner-schools to create their own content and application by providing their students with the necessary skills and knowledge, guided by experts.

Some 119 students from 10 colleges and universities nationwide attended the Sprint five-day online training-workshop recently conducted by Smart. Topics discussed included storyboard design, character design, animation, sound, and application development. At the end of the course, the participants presented their outputs which were rated by judges. The top three outputs bagged special prizes from Smart.

Supporting independent learning method

Smart, PLDT, and the PLDT-Smart Foundation have continued their support for the Central Visayan Institute and Foundation-Dynamic Learning Program (CVIF-DLP), a proven teaching method that works whether the school adopts printed modules, online learning, or radio and television to teach students. Designed to encourage students to become independent learners through the self-directed CVIF-DLP Learning Activity Sheets (CVIF-DLP LAS), CVIF-DLP improves learner outcomes even with little to no teacher and parent intervention.

The number of schools implementing the CVIF-DLP has increased from 73, in school year (SY) 2019-2020, to 1,090 by the end of SY 2020-2021. Supporting the shift to distance learning, to date, Smart has already trained 6,390 teachers and made available 1,874 modules that can be downloaded on the DepEd Commons in the second quarter of 2021.

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UnionBank to buy Citi’s retail unit

December 24, 2021 | 12:33 am

UNIONBANK of the Philippines, Inc. will buy the local consumer unit of Citigroup, Inc. for P55 billion, in a deal that could boost the local lender’s retail banking segment.

The transaction would include Citi’s credit card, personal loans, wealth management and retail deposit businesses in the country, UnionBank said in a statement to the Philippine Stock exchange on Thursday.

The acquisition also includes Citi’s real estate interests in relation to Citibank Square in Eastwood, three full-service bank branches, five wealth centers and two bank branch lites.

“This acquisition further cements our position as a leading bank in the Philippines, as well as fast-tracks our growth aspirations in the retail banking segment,” UnionBank Chairman Erramon Isidro M. Aboitiz said in the statement.

The transaction is part of Citi’s global plan to shed consumer franchises in 13 overseas markets, 10 of them in the Asia-Pacific region. It will continue to offer consumer banking in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and the United Arab Emirates, the bank’s four wealth hubs.

About 1,750 Citi employees including senior management are expected to join UnionBank, Mr. Aboitiz said. “With the strong cultural similarities between the organizations, we believe Citi’s employees will feel at home at UnionBank.”

The transaction will be effected through an asset and liability transfer of the consumer banking activities of Citibank, N.A., Philippines Branch, the sale of the shares in Citicorp Financial Services and Insurance Brokerage Philippines, Inc. and the sale of Citibank Square building, the local lender said.

UnionBank will pay for the net assets of Citi Philippines’ consumer business in cash, plus a premium of P45.3 billion. Based on the anticipated increase in risk-weighted assets, the required equity is about P9.7 billion as of June 30.

UnionBank will finance the acquisition through a combination of internal resources and a stock rights offering. The bank’s key shareholders — Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Insular Life Assurance and Social Security System — are fully committed to the stock sale, it said.

The Aboitiz-led lender said the transaction is expected to be finalized by the second half of next year. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals including by the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Philippine Competition Commission, Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission, and Insurance Commission.

“We look forward to this game-changing opportunity to leapfrog our credit card business and significantly expand our banking business in the higher end segment of the consumer market,” UnionBank President and Chief Executive Officer Edwin R. Bautista said in the statement.

He noted that City has the third-largest credit card franchise and is a pre-eminent wealth management provider in the Philippines.

To fund the acquisition, the board approved a plan to raise additional capital of as much as P40 billion through the sale of additional shares from the bank’s unissued authorized capital stock via a stock rights offering to all existing shareholders, UnionBank said in a separate statement.

Citi said there would be no change in the service provided to its consumer banking and wealth customers during the transition to the closing of the deal.

“We are delivering on our renewed strategy, focusing resources in areas where our global network positions us to deliver optimal growth and returns,” Citi Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer Peter Babej said in a separate statement.

“We are very pleased with today’s announcement, and we will use the capital generated to invest in our strategic priorities,” he added.

Citi’s consumer banking operations, including call centers, online and mobile banking services, will continue to serve their clients.

“Customers will be contacted in the coming months with more details,” UnionBank said. “Citi will continue to operate its institutional business in the Philippines.”

Asian Institute of Management Economist John Paolo R. Rivera expects more merger and acquisition deals in the local banking industry.

“Mergers and acquisitions would persist given the uncertainties in financial markets and the changing preferences of clients that other banks can address,” he said in a Viber message.

UnionBank shares closed P8.60 lower at P101.20 apiece on Thursday after the local bourse approved a one-hour voluntary trading halt in the morning. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Gov’t to borrow P200 billion from domestic market

December 24, 2021 | 12:32 am

THE GOVERNMENT plans to borrow P200 billion from the domestic market in January, according to the Treasury bureau, after raising less than half of its planned local borrowing this month amid increasing rates.

In an advisory posted on its website on Thursday, the bureau said it would borrow P60 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills) and P140 billion in Treasury bonds (T-bonds) next month.

The January borrowing plan is higher than the P70 billion planned for December. The Treasury last borrowed P200 billion in November.

It will auction off P15-billion each in T-bills on Jan. 3, 10, 17, and 24. It plans to offer P5 billion each in 91-day, 182-day and 364-day debt at each auction.

For the longer-term T-bonds, the government will sell P35 billion each in seven-year debt on Jan. 4 and Jan. 25. It also plans to offer P35 billion in four-year securities on Jan. 11 and another P35 billion in 10-year debt on Jan. 18.

The January borrowing program was expected to return to the November volume so the Treasury could resume normal borrowing levels, a bond trader said in a Viber message. It was too early to comment on demand expectations, the trader added.

“Initially, we think this will put pressure on the seven- to 10-year space, which will cause a steepening of the yield curve.”

Another bond trader said the return to the regular borrowing plan was expected after the reduced volume in December.

“With no auction awards for fixed-rate Treasury notes this month, investors who are still awash with liquidity welcome the government’s borrowing plan to start the year.”

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon did not immediate reply to a Viber message seeking comment.

She said this month that the government would borrow less from the domestic market next year to make way for private sector lending.

The Treasury raised P30 billion out of the P70 billion planned in December. It sold P30 billion in T-bills as planned, but rejected all bids for P40 billion in T-bonds.

Ms. De Leon had said the government rejected all bids for the reissued bonds on Dec. 14 because there was room for rates to decline, with inflation easing and with the central bank vowing to keep borrowing costs steady to support economic recovery.

The government borrows from foreign and local sources to plug its budget deficit that is expected to hit 8.2% of economic output this year.

DISASTER LOAN
Meanwhile, the Department of Finance (DoF) will draw $80 million (P4 billion) from a World Bank loan to support the government’s rehabilitation efforts in regions devastated by Typhoon Rai, locally named Odette.

In a statement, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the government would draw from the $500-million World Bank credit line for disaster recovery.

“This week, the DoF will draw $80 million from the World Bank disaster financing loan to fund the amount with cover in the 2021 budget,” he said.

The World Bank in November approved the $500-million fund for a contingent line of credit the Philippines can use to manage the financial impacts of disasters and diseases.

The loan can be drawn as soon as the president declares a state of calamity or public health emergency.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Tuesday declared a state of calamity in six regions affected by the typhoon to speed up aid deliveries and relief efforts.

Western, Central and Eastern Visayas, Mimaropa (consisting of the provinces of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan), Northern Mindanao and the Caraga Administrative Region have been placed under a state of calamity.

Mr. Dominguez said the government would draw another $120 million from the same loan program in the first week of January, when the loan cover will become available in the 2022 national budget.

The agency said the loan program would help support the country’s ability to manage climate risks and disease outbreaks.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dominguez said that the Budget department would release P1 billion to local government units affected by the typhoon from the president’s contingent fund.

The money would be released on Friday, he told reporters in a Viber group message, citing Budget Officer-in-Charge Tina Rose Marie L. Canda.

Mr. Duterte on Tuesday said he would spend P10 billion for typhoon recovery efforts.

While P2 billion is available under the national disaster risk management fund, another P2 billion will come from the president’s contingency or special purpose fund, Ms. Canda told a news briefing on Wednesday.

The remaining P6 billion is expected to come from the 2022 national budget. — Jenina P. Ibañez

State projects boost infra expenditures

December 24, 2021 | 12:31 am

Infra-construction-workers — PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

By Jenina P. Ibañez, Senior Reporter

GOVERNMENT TRANSPORT and flood control projects boosted state infrastructure spending in October, according to data from the Budget department, in a potential boost to the Philippine economy.

Spending on infrastructure and other capital outlays rose by 6.7% to P60.9 billion, though this was lower than P71.2 billion a month earlier, when expenditures surged by 25% year on year.

“The increase is accounted by the implementation of various infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH),” the Budget department said in a report on Thursday.

The government is under pressure to revive an economy that shrank by 9.6% last year — one of the worst in Asia and the Philippines’ deepest recession since World War II — after enforcing one of the strictest and longest coronavirus lockdowns in the world.

Economic managers last week said infrastructure spending this year could hit P1.095 trillion, higher than the P1.019 trillion it had programmed and accounting for 5.6% of economic output.

DPWH projects in October included construction, maintenance and repair work on roads, bridges, flood control and drainage systems, along with the construction of multi-purpose buildings, the Budget department said.

“The direct payments made by development partners for the various foreign-assisted road network and flood control projects of the DPWH and the foreign-assisted rail transport sector projects of the Department of Transportation also contributed to the said increase,” it added.

The slower year-on-year growth was likely due to the higher base in 2020, when the economy started to reopen in the second half after lockdowns were enforced to contain the pandemic, said Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

“Wider budget deficits that resulted in more borrowings and overall debt after the lockdowns earlier this year could have also slowed down the growth in infrastructure spending,” he said in a Viber message.

“Nevertheless, the year-on-year growth in infrastructure spending remains decent and similar to the latest gross domestic product growth of 7.1% in the third quarter.”

Infrastructure and capital outlay spending in the 10 months to October increased by 38.1% to P702.4 billion.

“Government spending especially on infrastructure could still pick up in the coming months in preparation for the May 2022 elections especially in view of the election ban on some public works,” Mr. Ricafort said.

“The timely approval of the 2022 national budget and the carry-over of unused funds for 2021 up to end-2022 would also fundamentally lead to continued growth in infrastructure spending,” he added.

The ban on public works starts 45 days before general elections, or from March 25 to May 8, 2022. The law, which also prohibits social welfare dole-outs during the period, seeks to prevent politicians from using state resources for their election campaign.

Lechon, kare-kare, galantina, ham, and roast beef are the stars of these celebrity chefs’ Noche Buena

December 24, 2021 | 12:07 am

Chef Myke 'Tatung' Sarthou's Chicken Galantina — CHEF Myke ‘Tatung’ Sarthou’s Chicken Galantina

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By Dolly Dy-Zulueta

CHEFS are among the busiest people during Christmastime. Not only do they cater to the edible gift-giving needs of their clientele, they also go the extra mile to make sure that their own families get to sample their specialties.

So most of them, even celebrity chefs, work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Some are lucky if they are still be able to make it home early enough to celebrate with their loved ones. For others, the celebration takes place on an earlier — or later — date via the annual family reunion.

Besides the company of family and relatives they have not seen for a long time, these chefs actually look forward to the food that sparks many happy memories of past Christmases — when times were better and life was simpler.

Have you ever wondered what they look forward to eating during family reunions? Read on as these celebrity chefs share the stars of their Noche Buena feasts:

MYKE ‘TATUNG’ SARTHOU
Cookbook author, and owner of Pandan Asian Café

“I haven’t been home for Christmas for many years because of work commitments, and I am doubly sad this year because my hometown Cebu is badly hit by Typhoon Odette. This means that my fellow Cebuanos won’t have a very merry Christmas this year.

“Growing up, I spent Christmas Eve with my father’s side of the family, opening gifts and sharing Noche Buena. On Christmas Day, we would celebrate it with my mother’s side because it was also the birthday of my lola (grandmother), Natividad Atillo. We would hold the Christmas Day party at home, where I shared kitchen duties with my mom. It’s how I learned to prepare all my favorite Christmas dishes. My mom generously entrusted me with some family recipes which I mastered through the years. I learned to debone a chicken for galantina (stuffed deboned chicken) at 12.

“What I miss most is my Lola Juanita Sarthou’s kare-kare (a stew in a peanut-based sauce). I have never been able to recreate it, as it required practically the hide of an entire cow — trotters, tail, and face. She fed a lot of people, and she told me that you needed to complete the set of trotters to achieve the best kare-kare. In my opinion, yes, she made the best kare-kare.”

CLAUDE TAYAG
Artist, chef, owner of Bale Dutung

“Our Tayag family reunion is usually held during Christmas Day lunch, in our parents’ house in Pampanga. Ten of my siblings and their respective families (which could easily be around 60 persons) would come for a traditional Kapampangan Christmas lunch. Our menu had just lechon (two big ones) and Nilagang Pasko (similar to Cocido Madrileño, short of the morcilla). I learned at a young age that this menu was started by our grandfather, Dr. Jose Tayag, with his growing family (16 children) in the 1950s. But when I grew older and met other Pampangos from San Fernando, Bacolor, Guagua and Sta. Rita, I found out that they had the same menu for Christmas Day.

“I really looked forward to the lechon, lechon and more lechon (whole roast pig). Even the fourth generation always look forward to that. They get excited with the mere mention of it. It’s a free-for-all thing, serving themselves the crispy skin up to sawa (satiation). Then they move on to the main meal, Nilagang Pasko (Christmas stew). Trying to replicate this experience is what I’ve been doing by serving 5-Ways Lechon in Bale Dutung.”

JESSIE SINCIOCO
Owner, Chef Jessie Rockwell Club

“Christmas has always been a yearly get-together of the Sincioco family in Bulacan. My lola Maria wanted her nine children and her apos (grandchildren) gathered on Christmas Eve for the Paawagan done before the Christmas Mass at 5 a.m.

“I always looked forward to the family’s pork barbecue, arroz caldo (rice porridge) and some kakanins (rice cakes) that we had after the Mass. But the main dish of the day was a whole lechon, roasted in the backyard, for lunch.

“Our Christmas was not complete if we didn’t experience picking at the crunchy skin of the lechon. Today, we still continue the tradition even if lola is not with us anymore, and the palaro (games) among cousins, that she told me to start, has now become the palaro for the whole barrio, with hundreds of children attending from the neighboring barrios.

“For the food, everybody would bring something, but my aunts, my mom and my lola always made sure there were more than enough food for the family and the many guests and inaanaks (godchildren) who come to visit.

SAU DEL ROSARIO
Owner, Café Fleur and 25 Seeds

“We have our Christmas family reunion a day before Christmas, which so happens to be the birthday of my lolo (grandfather) as well. Lolo serves as Santa Claus, and everyone in the Del Rosario clan brings their potluck dish. It’s quite a huge clan, almost 70 people in one reunion.

“I’m now based in Manila, while most of my siblings live in the US. Our parents passed away already.

“For potluck, my mother used to cook lengua (ox tongue) with crema or white sauce. I would also look forward to my aunt’s chicken galantina. She knew it’s my favorite, so she would always set aside some for me to take home. On Christmas Day, I would eat it with hot pan de sal (a bread bun). The galantina recipe is in my cookbook.

JACKIE ANG PO
Owner, Fleur de Lys Patisserie

“The Christmas family reunion usually takes place during the New Year. On Christmas Day, it’s just me and my husband Mitch Po and our kids Kylie and Joaquin, plus my brothers. I take care of the food on Christmas, and since there’s just a few of us, I prepare less complicated food. It differs from year to year. This year, I’m thinking of throwing a seafood party because my family likes seafood. Seafood Hofan (a noodle dish) is going to be part of the menu. My friend, chef Vincent Tan, who works as an executive chef in the Maldives, taught me how to make Seafood Hofan from scratch. So I am definitely going to make that for Christmas.

“For the family reunion on New Year’s, it is usually potluck. Generally, though, my Tita Millie, Tita Dina, and I bring the main dishes. What I bring differs from year to year. It depends on what challenges me — lechon belly roll, whole lechon, Korean themed food. This year, it’s going to be prime rib with the whole set of sides.”

GENE GONZALEZ
Owner, Café Ysabel

Noche Buena is still celebrated in my parents’ house, where we serve very traditional items — from turkey, Chinese Hoc Chiu Ham, smoked glazed ham, lengua, Pato al Caparas (a duck dish), roast beef, and grilled prawns. Most of these dishes are prepared in the Café Ysabel kitchen, while lechon is ordered. Cousins and aunts come to visit and dine.

“Christmas evenings are my tapas night, highlighted by a leg of acorn-fed Jamon Salamanca or Guijuelo, salami, and chorizos, with various tapas. These tapas include our Calderetta de Cabrito (goat stew) and a huge cheese grazing table of dried and fresh fruits, nuts, and other food gifts. I take out wines from my collection, which I age. And because my birthday also happens to fall on Dec. 25, my closest friends, a handful of Café Ysabel regulars, my siblings and cousins all attend this get-together.”

KALEL CHAN
Corporate chef, Raintree Restaurants

“When the world was normal, we usually had our family reunions on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Dec. 24 was for family, and Dec. 25 was for the whole Avila clan.

“When I had more time, I was the one who did most of the cooking, but when I became busier and busier, it became potluck, and I ended up purchasing food instead of cooking my own contribution to the potluck party.

“When I was younger, though, what I usually looked forward to was sopas (soup) for breakfast on the 24^th. It was so special because my lola, Emilia Avila, was the one in charge of waking up the entire barangay (neighborhood). She sponsored a whole marching band that would play and wake up people to attend the last Simbang Gabi (dawn mass). After that, she would feed the band with sopas, suman and puto (glutinous rice cake and steamed rice cake). When my lola moved to the US, my mom kept that tradition. But when my mom herself migrated, the tradition ended. I will try to continue that simple food tradition in the morning so my son can also have that food memory.”

ROLANDO LAUDICO
Owner, Chef Laudico’s Guevarra’s

“My wife Jackie, our kids Orlando and Keona, and I usually went to my dad’s place to celebrate Christmas Eve in the company of my siblings and sometimes cousins. I’m usually in charge of the food, but my siblings also bring some cold cuts and cheeses.

“I always get excited to eat whole hams, such as Chinese-style ham or the whole glazed baked ham, which my dad always gets and, of course, the lechon. We still buy the whole ham we have for Christmas these days, but we make our own glaze. As for the lechon, we roast our own lechon belly or whole shoulder of pork.”

HIM UY DE BARON
Owner and chef instructor, Himpossible Recipes

“We usually have our Christmas family reunion on the 24^th, Christmas Eve. I used to cook for this when I was still single and they’d ask for Beef Wellington or paella. Now, I would just potluck a dish. But on the 25^th, it’s my mom, Mercy Uy de Baron, who cooks all of our favorites such as kare-kare, menudo (pork stew), and crab.

“Truth is that we already have a menu for Christmas Day lunch: Mamita’s Chicken Mushroom Soup, skinless oxtail kare-kare, traditional menudo, pork barbecue by Florabel, pork leg bihon (a noodle dish), and Farmacy Ice Cream selection.”

JAYME NATIVIDAD
Executive chef, Taal Vista Hotel

“Back when I was a kid, we would have Noche Buena at my lola Thelma and lolo Jing’s house (my mother’s side) with all my mom’s siblings and their respective families. Christmas is usually spent with the Natividad side. It’s usually a potluck party, but bulk of the dishes are made by the host. Then it’s Christmas dinner again at my mom’s side, in the company of other relatives who were not able to attend Noche Buena.

“Since most of my uncles and aunts live abroad with their families, only those who are left here get together for Christmas lunch or dinner. It’s still a potluck affair.

“What I miss the most are my lola’s kare-kare, Chicken ala Roco, lengua, roast beef, and my mom’s baked lapu-lapu (grouper).”

Figaro slashes IPO size by 57% to P767 million

December 24, 2021 | 12:06 am

By Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte, Reporter

FIGARO Coffee Group, Inc. cut the size of its initial public offering (IPO) by over half to P767.39 million from P1.77 billion.

In a listing notice on Thursday, the Liu-led food holding company said it will be selling 930,166,000 primary common shares for 75 centavos each, with an overallotment option of up to 93,016,000 primary common shares.

“The pricing was arrived after discussion with the underwriters as would reflect the fair value of the company and at the same time, in the view of the company, allows a reasonable return to investors,” Figaro said in a statement.

Figaro is behind brands such as Figaro Coffee, Angel’s Pizza, Tien Ma’s Taiwanese Cuisine, TFG Express, and Café Portofino.

“The final IPO price is at 75 centavos apiece, a 41.41% discount to its max offer price of P1.28 per share,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message.

The company tapped Abacus Capital & Investment Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., and PNB Capital and Investment Corp. to be the joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters, and joint bookrunners of the offer.

Figaro was eyeing to offer 1.26 billion primary shares for up to P1.28 each, while it had an overallotment option of up to 126 million common shares. At this IPO size, the company may have raised up to P1.77 billion.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said the company’s lowered IPO size may have been affected by recent market conditions that priced in recent events, such as concerns over the coronavirus disease 2019’s (COVID-19) new Omicron variant, “more hawkish Fed signals,” as well as proposed regulatory changes.

“Adjustments could have also been a function of recent supply and shares sold and the pipeline of upcoming new share sales on the market,” Mr. Ricafort said in a separate Viber message.

The company previously delayed its IPO to January next year, instead of listing at the PSE on Dec. 31. Its offer period was tentatively set to Jan. 10 to 14.

According to its preliminary prospectus dated Dec. 10, the company had planned to use net proceeds from the offer for store launches and branch renovations, commissary expansion, debt repayment, information technology infrastructure developments, and for potential acquisitions.

Figaro has yet to publish its final prospectus as of press time.