Prime Infra, Metro Clark look to generate fuel, energy from waste

May 20, 2021 | 12:04 am

TWO companies hope to address Luzon’s waste management problem by building facilities that turn waste into crude oil and power, based on press releases they separately issued on Wednesday.

These are businessman Enrique K. Razon, Jr.’s infrastructure firm Prime Infrastructure Holdings Corp. (Prime Infra) and Metro Clark Waste Management Corp.

Prime Infra said it had created a new subsidiary with US-based company WasteFuel Global for a planned biorefinery in Luzon.

The new unit, WasteFuel Philippines, will look at building a refinery that will convert over 1 million tons of municipal waste into 30 million gallons of low-carbon synthetic crude oil per year.

The biorefinery plant is targeted to begin operations by 2025.

“The Philippines’ capital region alone generates around 10,000 tons of municipal solid waste per day, equivalent to the weight of approximately 17 Airbus A380 planes. At WasteFuel Philippines, our goal is to turn waste into a valuable source of clean energy, thus improving waste management processes and reducing carbon emissions from transportation,” Prime Infra President Guillaume Lucci said.

Prime Infra owns infrastructure assets covering renewable and sustainable energy, water, and construction.

In a separate press release, waste management system developer Metro Clark said that it’s gearing up to begin the construction of a $200-million “Secondary Fuel Power Plant,” which it hopes to improve waste disposal capacity in Central Luzon.

The plant is a joint venture between Metro Clark and Plambeck-Emirates Global Renewable Energy LLC, a partnership between a German technology firm and the Royal family of Abu Dhabi.

The facility will be built on the company’s 100-hectare site in the Clark Economic Zone, which is under the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA).

“The system will serve the entire Region 3, providing municipal solid waste transfer, treatment, and disposal services to LGU’s (local government units) and industrial clients in the entire area, and produce up to 35 megawatts of power that can be fed back into the region’s distribution grid,” Metro Clark said.

It told BusinessWorld on Wednesday that it was awaiting the project’s approval from the BCDA.

“Once the proposal is approved, groundbreaking can happen shortly after,” it said in an e-mail, adding that it will take three to four years to complete the project.

Metro Clark is the developer of the solid waste management system of Clark Freeport and the Special Economic Zone, including New Clark City.

According to a report released by the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment last year, the Philippines was tagged as the world’s third-biggest polluter, as it generates 2.7 million metric tons of plastic wastes annually. — Angelica Y. Yang

AUB partners with Singapore’s Liquid Group on QR payments

May 20, 2021 | 12:03 am

ASIA UNITED Bank Corp. (AUB) expanded its e-wallet partnerships to include Thai QR and PayNow Singapore, with its collaboration with the Liquid Group.

Through this partnership, inbound tourists from Thailand and Singapore will be able to use their mobile banking app or e-wallets to scan the Thai QR and PayNow QR codes presented by more than 15,000 AUB PayMate merchants in various sectors such as retail, food and beverages, electronics, supermarkets, services, entertainment, and attractions, the local listed bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

This will also allow Filipino consumers to access mobile banking applications that support QR payments for easier transactions abroad at participating merchants under Liquid Group and its overseas partners.

“We will continue to work with our partners to increase the accessibility and promote the adoption of real-time and seamless global payment services to end users so as to lower cost for businesses and improve the user experience,” CEO of Liquid Group and co-founder of XNAP Network Jeremy Tan was quoted in the statement as saying.

Both companies said they expect increased use of digital payments by tourists when the world begins to recover from the pandemic.

Being able to simply scan a merchant-displayed QR PH code using their mobile devices gives customers “faster, easier, secure and more convenient payment option,” AUB said.

“We have seen a significant increase in the shift towards digital payments as a result of the events that transpired globally. Since we have positioned ourselves earlier, this made it easier for new merchant partners to adapt to the New Normal,” AUB First Vice-President and Business Group Head for Credit Cards & Acquiring, Mags V. Surtida, was quoted as saying.

AUB has already rolled out QR Ph to its customers under its HelloMoney and AUB PayMate digital payment acceptance platform and can already use and accept the national QR code starting this month.

This is ahead of the full rollout of the QR Ph, which is expected in September or the deadline set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for all payment service providers to adopt the national QR code standard.

Shares in AUB closed unchanged at P43.20 apiece on Wednesday. — Isabel B. Celis

Paris wax museum removes Trump, adds Biden

May 20, 2021 | 12:03 am

joe-biden-wax — FACEBOOK.COM/GREVINPARIS

PARIS — Closed since late October for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Paris wax museum will reopen on Wednesday with a new guest: US President Joseph R. Biden, posing with his arms crossed and flashing a toothy grin. A little further down the museum’s halls, President Barack Obama’s statue still stands, smiling serenely, but that of Donald Trump has been dismantled and put into storage. The Grevin Wax Museum, opened in 1882, has featured US presidents since James Garfield, but when their term ends, their statue is taken down and the heads and bodies are kept in separate crates in the museum’s cellars. “We have kept Obama, as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize; the others are in storage,” Grevin museum spokeswoman Veronique Berecz said. Some celebrities may disappear from the museum and then come back, as is the case with Elvis Presley whose new statue will be displayed from Wednesday. Among the museum’s 250 or so celebrities and historical figures, political leaders are relatively rare. — Reuters

Apple preparing MacBook Pro, MacBook Air revamps

May 20, 2021 | 12:03 am

APPLE, INC. is preparing to release several new Mac laptops and desktops with faster processors, new designs and improved connectivity to external devices, accelerating the company’s effort to replace Intel Corp. chips and leapfrog rival PC makers.

The overhaul encompasses a broad range of Macs, including Apple’s higher-end laptop, the MacBook Pro; the laptop aimed at the mass market, the MacBook Air; and its desktop computers, the Mac Pro, iMac and Mac mini, according to people familiar with the matter.

Redesigned MacBook Pros are expected to debut as soon as early this summer, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter, followed by a revamped MacBook Air, a new low-end MacBook Pro and an all-new Mac Pro workstation. The company is also working on a higher-end Mac mini desktop and larger iMac. The machines will feature processors designed in-house that will greatly outpace the performance and capabilities of the current M1 chips, the people said.

Apple plans to launch the redesigned MacBook Pros in 14-inch (code name J314) and 16-inch screen (J316) sizes. They’ll have a redesigned chassis, magnetic MagSafe charger and more ports for connecting external drives and devices. Apple is also bringing back the HDMI port and SD card slot, which it nixed in previous versions, sparking criticism from photographers and the like.

Apple on Tuesday said the new 24-inch iMac will be available in stores on May 21. The shares were mostly unchanged.

PC shipments jumped 32% in the first quarter, Gartner, Inc. said last month, the fastest year-over-year growth since the firm began tracking the market in 2000. Apple was the fourth-leading seller with 15% of the US market, an increase from 12% in the quarter a year earlier, and 8% globally.

The Mac line of products has been a growing contributor to the company’s revenue, generating $9.1 billion in Apple’s January-March quarter or 10% of total sales.

Apple last fall started replacing Intel processors with M1 chips, based on the same technology in the iPhone and iPad. Those eat less power and let the Mac run the same apps as the mobile devices. Now, more powerful iterations of the company’s silicon are coming to the Mac line. They’ll have more graphics and computing cores, boosting speeds for everyday tasks and such intensive work as video editing and programming.

For the new MacBook Pros, Apple is planning two different chips, codenamed Jade C-Chop and Jade C-Die: both include eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores for a total of 10, but will be offered in either 16 or 32 graphics core variations.

The high-performance cores kick in for more complex jobs, while the energy-efficient cores operate at slower speeds for more basic needs like web browsing, preserving battery life. The new chips differ from the M1’s design, which has four high-performance cores, four energy-efficient cores and eight graphics cores in the current 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The chips also include up to 64 gigabytes of memory versus a maximum of 16 on the M1. They’ll have an improved Neural Engine, which processes machine-learning tasks, and enable the addition of more Thunderbolt ports, which let users sync data and connect to external devices, than the two on the current M1 MacBook Pro.

This will be the first time professional Macs get in-house main processors; eventually, the company will stop selling the high-end Intel MacBook Pros.

Apple has also been working on a more powerful version of the Mac mini (code name J374) with the same chip as the next MacBook Pro. It’s expected to have four ports versus the pair available on the current low-end version and to sit above the current entry-level M1 Mac Mini. Apple could delay or cancel the new mini’s launch — as it has in the past — but eventually the company will likely replace the Intel-equipped version it now sells.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Buyers of the high-end Mac Pro desktop planned for next year will likely have a choice of two processors that are either twice or four times as powerful as the new high-end MacBook Pro chip.

Codenamed Jade 2C-Die and Jade 4C-Die, a redesigned Mac Pro is planned to come in 20 or 40 computing core variations, made up of 16 high-performance or 32 high-performance cores and four or eight high-efficiency cores. The chips would also include either 64 core or 128 core options for graphics. The computing core counts top the 28 core maximum offered by today’s Intel Mac Pro chips, while the higher-end graphics chips would replace parts now made by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

The new Mac Pro has been in the works for several months and is expected to look like a smaller version of the current design, which was launched in 2019, Bloomberg News has reported. Apple has also been working on a larger iMac with in-house processors, but development of that version was paused months ago in part to let Apple focus on releasing the redesigned 24-inch model this month.

For a redesigned, higher-end MacBook Air planned for as early as the end of the year, Apple is planning a direct successor to the M1 processor. That chip, codenamed Staten, will include the same number of computing cores as the M1 but run faster. It will also see the number of graphics cores increase from seven or eight to nine or 10. Apple is also planning an update to the low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro with that same chip.

As early as 2022, Apple plans to replace the last remaining Intel part with an in-house version. Apple’s current M1 Macs still use an Intel component known as a USB Retimer, which helps power the USB-C and Thunderbolt ports on its computers. — Bloomberg

Republic Cement rolls out data science in manufacturing sites

May 20, 2021 | 12:03 am

REPUBLIC Cement and Building Materials, Inc. plans to set up technology that would speed up quality control in all of its manufacturing sites in the country by the end of the year.

Data science would help the company determine cement compressive strength, or its ability to withstand pressure, immediately after manufacturing instead of after the usual 28 days of molding and curing, Republic Cement Vice-President of Manufacturing Lloyd Vicente said in an online event on Wednesday.

“Using the massive amount of information and data that we already have, we actually predict the 28-day compressive strength of our cement. With this information, our operations can make it quick and precise adjustments to our recipe and other operating parameters, therefore reducing our carbon dioxide emissions,” he said.

Republic Cement is already using data science in three of its sites.

“Our next steps now is to deploy these in all our sites by the end of the year. So we still have three plants to go,” Mr. Vicente said.

A batch of cement is usually tested after 28 days to ensure quality required by the Philippine government. Data science tools collect information about chemical compounds found in cement throughout the manufacturing process to predict quality.

The data science tools, the company noted, would help inform its quality managers about the raw ingredient concentrations they would need to use.

The company partnered with the Aboitiz Data Innovation team to develop data tools.

Republic Cement is a joint venture of Dublin-based building materials firm CRH Plc. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV).

Shares in AEV on Wednesday went up 0.43% or 15 centavos to close at P35 each. — Jenina P. Ibañez

Slate of Google updates boost its smartwatch, work collaboration efforts

May 20, 2021 | 12:02 am

ALPHABET, INC.’s Google on Tuesday unveiled updates across many services, including Maps, Photos and operating systems, as the company showcases its role in a world that has become more digitally connected during the pandemic.

The announcements during the virtually-held Google I/O developer conference add up to a boost for the company’s smartwatch efforts, which compete with Apple, Inc., and for its collaboration tools that rival offerings from Microsoft Corp.

They also show how Google is aiming to demonstrate that its advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) will keep users attracted to its ad-supported or paid services for shopping, communication and entertainment even as pandemic lockdowns ease and people resume in-person activities.

Google said its smartwatch operating system, Wear OS, would be adopted by its newly-acquired Fitbit unit and Samsung Electronics Co., both of which had used their own systems for years. Now working together, the companies could attract more app developers and better compete with Apple Watch.

The company also shared new editing and viewing options for Google Docs and other work software, including a simple tool that suggests using inclusive terms instead of gendered words.

Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has made advocating for social justice a priority across the company, and in another move, the company said by this fall its Pixel smartphones would better capture darker skin tones and curly and wavy hair in photos.

AI updates included a new effort to help drivers using Google Maps reduce sudden braking by navigating them on “safer” routes. Google Photos will offer users a reminder that they can search Google Images for specific objects in screenshots. Google also said a more powerful computer chip, TPU v4, important to AI development would be available this year to Google Cloud customers.

Android 12, the latest version of the mobile operating system active on over 3 billion devices globally, will arrive later this year packed with personalization features such as customizing apps’ color schemes. It will also enable devices to be used as a digital key for some cars.

In a tease of futuristic collaboration software, Pichai revealed Project Starline, videoconferencing booths that use so-called light-field displays to let people view a 3D representation of their counterparts. Health care and media companies would test the system, Pichai said. — Reuters

LANDBANK’s loans, grants for farmers hit P7.5B as of April

May 20, 2021 | 12:02 am

LAND BANK of the Philippines (LANDBANK) has disbursed P7.5 billion in loans and cash grants to rice farmers since the signing of Republic Act No. 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law in 2019.

In a statement on Wednesday, the state-led bank said it has lent P7.5 billion as of April 30, which benefited 962,126 rice farmers across the country.

Of the total, P1.03 billion in cumulative loans were granted to 6,218 eligible borrowers under the Expanded Rice Credit Assistance (ERCA), which is part of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

“Available until 2024, LANDBANK will lend up to P500 million in credit assistance annually under ERCA-RCEF to rice farmers in 38 rice-producing provinces at affordable interest rates, with minimum documentary requirements,” it said.

LANDBANK also released P2.52 billion worth of loans to 165,963 small rice farmers under the survival and recovery assistance (SURE Aid) lending program, which provides P15,000 in credit assistance per borrower at zero interest and no collateral to rice farmers tilling one hectare of land and below.

The state-led bank added that it gave P1.27 billion in cash assistance to 253,826 farmers under the Rice Farmer Financial Assistance (RFFA) program. This involves a P3-billion unconditional cash transfer program that gives P5,000 each in financial assistance to farmers tilling 0.5 to two hectares of land.

Meanwhile, LANDBANK said it likewise released P2.68 billion in cash grants to 536,119 farmer-beneficiaries under the Financial Subsidy to Rice Farmers (FSRF) program that offers P5,000 cash subsidy to those not covered by the RFFA program and are tilling one hectare or less.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed the Rice Tariffication Law on Feb. 14, 2019, which lifted the quantitative restrictions on the country’s rice imports. The law also created the RCEF which has a P10-billion annual budget sourced from the tariffs of rice imports that aims to help farmers increase their productivity and income amid the entry of imported rice. — R.M.D. Ochave

Happiness in a pill

May 20, 2021 | 12:02 am

wow-balance — *PHOTO FROM SHOPEE.PH/WOWHAPPYPH*

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IF there’s anything that the pandemic has taught us, it’s that time and health are this world’s most precious luxuries. WowHappy, a company that sells herbal supplements and essential oils makes sure that everybody can afford a little bit more of good health, but also have a better time.

The pills come in different blends. The company’s founder, Neeraj Peswani, told BusinessWorld about the Vitamin C supplements, which contain some zinc and also turmeric, ginger, and beetroot. “It offers complete nutrition,” he said during a phone call to BusinessWorld. “Very essential in these times of COVID-19.” He says that turmeric is effective in boosting the appetite and has anti-inflammatory effects, as well as being a strong antioxidant.

He then brought up their WowHappy Mood capsules, which he says reduces stress, boosts one’s mood, and “ncreases a positive frame of mind.” These contain vitamins, minerals, and several herbs, including St. John’s Wort. He says that the blends and ingredients his company uses are rooted in Ayurvedic medicine, a system of alternative medicine prevalent in India, from where he (as well as most of his ingredients) hails from. “These ingredients have been existing for centuries,” he says. “It’s only now that these ingredients are being recognized as being really effective.”

“I come from India,” he said, which he called “the world’s pharmacy.” “I have been exposed to these kinds of products from a very, very early age.”

To make their herbal supplements they use many parts of the herbs including roots, oils, seeds, and flowers.

The company also has a line of aromatherapy essential oils. Mr. Peswani said they can be used in creams and shampoos, in addition to inhaling or diffusing them, as is normally done.

Coming back to the WowHappy Mood supplements, they seem to be a contributing factor to the brand’s name. “Everybody in the nutrition company seems to have a very scientific name but cool-sounding name. We wanted our brand to be friendly, accessible, and simple,” he explained. “For me, my goal is to be happy — we thought of the word ‘happy,’ and we added ‘wow’ to it.”

While Mr. Peswani has other ventures in clothing and mobile accessories, he is concentrating on the WowHappy brand these days. Asked why, he said, “We are living through very hard and stressful times. Most of us forget that health is more than just the absence of illness.”

WowHappy is available through Shopee. — JLG

Philippine Infradev net loss widens as real estate sales fall

May 20, 2021 | 12:02 am

PHILIPPINE Infradev Holdings, Inc. incurred a first-quarter attributable net loss of P8.30 million, wider than P5.27 million previously, as real estate sales dropped amid a public health crisis.

The company’s total revenues stood at P1.37 million in the first three months of the year, an 88.7% decrease from P12.17 million in the same period last year, Philippine Infradev said in its quarterly report released on May 18.

Real estate sales dropped 89.5% to P1.25 million from P11.94 million previously. Cost and expenses declined 44.6% to P9.66 million from P17.44 million last year.

Philippine Infradev is primarily involved in the acquisition, reclamation, development, or exploitation of lands for the purpose of converting and developing them into integrated residential or commercial neighborhoods.

In 2020, it saw its attributable net income fall to P463.76 million from P3.14 billion in 2019.

The company takes charge of the Makati City subway project through its wholly owned subsidiary Makati City Subway, Inc.

On Friday, Philippine Infradev received its first tunnel boring machine for the subway project. It aims to finish underground civil works at the main site of the project in two years.

Philippine Infradev Holdings shares closed 2.17% lower at P1.35 apiece on Wednesday. — Arjay L. Balinbin

PLDT, Smart to utilize Nokia’s end-to-end solutions to enhance nationwide network

May 20, 2021 | 12:01 am

MULTINATIONAL telecommunications firm Nokia Corp. announced on Tuesday that it will deploy end-to-end service orchestration and assurance solutions across the nationwide network of PLDT, Inc. and its wireless arm Smart Communications, Inc.

The goal of the partnership is to enhance the nationwide network of PLDT and Smart, Nokia said in an e-mailed statement.

“As part of the agreement, Nokia [will] standardize PLDT and Smart’s network function virtualization infrastructure across the Philippines,” Nokia added.

The company also said it will supply PLDT and Smart with digital operations software, cloud infrastructure software and AirFrame servers.

“The suite of solutions will… standardize PLDT and Smart’s virtualization environment for multi-vendor applications. The deployment, which is already underway, will allow PLDT and Smart’s integrated network to increase agility, flexibility and reduce operating costs and time to market when deploying new consumer and enterprise services, with the primary focus of significantly improving customer experience, speed of delivery, and cost of production,” Nokia said.

Nokia will also deploy its digital operations software to automate the round-trip life cycle management of network operations.

PLDT and Smart Head of Technology Mario G. Tamayo said Nokia’s solutions allow the telcos to tap into “new levels of agility, flexibility, and efficiency.”

“By automating service, network and cloud operations, PLDT and Smart will not only be able to drive cost-savings, but also increase customer satisfaction — two business objectives that are typically challenging to do simultaneously but are possible with the help of Nokia’s solutions,” said Raghav Sahgal, president of Nokia’s Cloud and Network Services.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Metrobank upsizes bond issuance to P19 billion on strong investor demand

May 20, 2021 | 12:01 am

METROPOLITAN BANK & Trust Co. raised P19 billion from its offer of 5.25-year peso-denominated bonds. — BW FILE PHOTO

METROPOLITAN Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) has raised P19 billion from its offering of peso-denominated bonds, with strong investor appetite causing it to upsize the issue and close the offer period early.

The Ty-led bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange on Wednesday that the offering, which was originally scheduled to run from May 6 to May 24, was closed on May 18 “due to strong investor demand from both institutional and retail clients.”

“The strong demand prompted the bank to raise the initial offering from an aggregate principal of P10 billion to P19 billion, which also led to a 1.9 times oversubscription,” Metrobank Head of Investor Relations Minda Claver A. Olonan told reporters said via e-mail.

The lender earlier said the proceeds of the bond offer will be used for general working capital needs and diversification of its funding sources.

The bonds Metrobank offered have a tenor of 5.25 years and carry a coupon rate of 3.6% payable quarterly. The rate is 35 basis points higher than current benchmark rates, which reflects investor optimism.

The bonds will be listed on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. on June 4.

First Metro Investment Corp. and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. (HSBC) were the joint lead managers and joint bookrunners of the offering.

The issuance is the last tranche of the bank’s P100-billion bond and commercial paper program approved in 2018.

Meanwhile, in July 2020, Metrobank sold $500 million in 5.5-year dollar-denominated notes to finance its short-term borrowings.

The bank’s net income increased by 27.1% to P7.83 billion in the first quarter, backed by strong non-interest earnings and stable asset quality.

Metrobank’s shares ended trading at P45 apiece on Wednesday, down by 95 centavos or 2.07% from the previous day’s close. — IBC

STI Holdings swings to P83-M profit

May 20, 2021 | 12:01 am

STI Education Systems Holdings, Inc. registered an P82.6-million net income for the third quarter of its fiscal year ending on June 30, a reversal of P211.6-million loss incurred in the same period last year.

The group said it implemented work-from-home arrangements for employees amid the shift to online classes.

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, STI Holdings said it conducts online classes through the Online and Onsite Education STI Learning Model for the STI Education Services Group and STI WNU (West Negros University, Inc.)

iACADEMY, meanwhile, uses the Guided Online Autonomous Learning program.

“We have invested in online learning systems even before this crisis, so that with the power of technology and with just minimal adjustment, we can still facilitate classes even with the pandemic,” STI Holdings Chairman Eusebio H. Tanco said.

Total assets also increased to P15.1 billion in the first three months from P14.8 billion as of the end of June last year.

This is due to the 80% or P669.3-million increase in its cash and equivalents after it collected tuition and school fees from students, collected from the Department of Education senior high school vouchers, and tertiary education subsidies from the Commission on Higher Education.

Shares of STI Holdings at the stock market went up by 4.62% on Wednesday, closing at P0.34 each from P0.325. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte