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FHC wins bid for 25-year lease to develop hotel in Baguio City

FILINVEST HOSPITALITY Corp. (FHC) won a bid for a 25-year lease to develop a 200-room hotel in Baguio City under an agreement with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the John Hay Management Corp.

The Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) subsidiary will develop the 5,700-square meter property at Camp John Hay, which will be managed by Chroma Hospitality Inc., Filinvest said in a press release on Wednesday.

The agreement was signed by BCDA President and Chief Executive Officer Vivencio B. Dizon, JHMC  President and Chief Executive Officer Allan Garcia, and FHC Senior Vice President Francis Gotianun on Wednesday.

Mr. Gotianun said the hotel will be ready for guests in three to four years, which he said is in line with anticipated tourism recovery and the company’s expectation that Baguio will remain a top tourist destination.

“As early as now, since the loosening of the lockdown and implementation of more efficient health and safety protocols, we are beginning to see signs of that recovery,” he said.

Baguio City last week raised its tourist cap to 1000 people, which was set at 500 in October. Travellers must submit a negative result of an RT-PCR or rapid test done 72 hours before the planned travel.

Tourism revenue this year fell almost 80% to P81 billion in the first 10 months, the Department of Tourism said last month, adding that it recorded no tourism spending from April to October.

BCDA in March published the bid invitation for the Sheridan Drive Center in the John Hay Special Economic Zone for a hotel with commercial and retail components.

The minimum bid was P5.1 million or the equivalent starting annual lease payment on the fifth year of the 25-year renewable contract.

The Filinvest hotel will be the first dual property under both the Grafik Hotels and Resorts and Quest Hotels and Resorts brands. Quest operates in Cebu, Clark and Tagaytay, while a Grafik resort is being developed in Cebu.

Chroma Hospitality is a joint venture  hotel management company between FDC and Archipelago International of Singapore. FHC is a wholly owned hospitality development and asset management subsidiary of FDC.

Shares in FDC went up two cents or 0.21% to P9.54 apiece on Wednesday. — Jenina P. Ibañez

Cebu Pacific offers ‘piso sale’ as it seeks to boost air travel

CEBU PACIFIC said on Wednesday it would have to continue its efforts to boost air travel as the budget carrier cannot afford to wait for a coronavirus vaccine.

“I think we cannot afford to wait for the vaccine to get here before we start to confidently fly again because of the impact of travel and tourism on the economy,” Candice A. Iyog, Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and customer service, said at a virtual forum on Wednesday.

She said the low-cost carrier, operated by Cebu Air, Inc., is “finding the right balance based on the information it has, based on the technology, and based on what it has in place today so that it can already start calibrating and moving closer towards where its peers are.”

On Monday, Cebu Air President and Chief Executive Officer Lance Y. Gokongwei said at a Palace briefing that the “airline sector is really under severe stress.”

“This year, we will lose almost P25 billion. But I think that’s part of doing business,” he added.

Mr. Gokongwei said the company’s main priority for now is to operate the airline “in a very safe and secure manner for both its passengers and employees” in order to regain people’s confidence in flying amid the pandemic.

The low-cost carrier also announced on Wednesday that it will be offering its trademark “piso” seat sale from Dec. 10 to 12 for travels from Aug. 1 to Nov. 30 next year.

“A lot of us are looking forward to experiencing the wonders of travel again, especially now that we are seeing more domestic destinations reopen its doors for tourists. We firmly believe the holiday season is the perfect time to share this gift with everyJuan,” Ms. Iyog said.

Cebu Air’s net loss for the third quarter of the year widened to P5.54 billion from the P375.67 million loss it incurred a year earlier, mainly as a result of low passenger traffic.

Its revenues for the third quarter dropped 89.4% to P2.01 billion.

Cebu Air’s shares closed at P51.35 each on Wednesday, gaining five centavos or 0.10%. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Solar Philippines targets 1 GW in projects next year

SOLAR PHILIPPINES plans to build over 1 gigawatt (GW) of projects in Batangas, Cavite, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac next year, in a bid to boost the country’s installed solar capacity, the company said on Wednesday.

These ventures would represent the first, second and third largest solar projects in the Philippines, the company said, citing data from the Energy department.

These projects will “nearly double the country’s total installed solar capacity as of 2020, and answer the power demand of around 10 million Filipinos,” Solar Philippines said.

“The 1 GW of solar projects are planned to create over 20,000 jobs during construction, which will last until 2022, and support government efforts to boost investments in the countryside,” the firm added.

Solar Philippines said it is currently on-boarding partners and professionals to help out in its projects in line with its new strategic direction, as seen in its Batangas and Tarlac solar farms.  Angelica Y. Yang

Century Pacific extends contract with Vita Coco

FOOD manufacturer Century Pacific Food, Inc. (CNPF) has extended its long-term agreement with coconut water brand Vita Coco.

In a stock exchange disclosure on Wednesday, the company said its $165-million multi-year contract as the original equipment manufacturer for Vita Coco will strengthen its position as a top coconut water exporter.

“The extension of our long term agreement with the global leader in packaged coconut water is proof positive that both parties are fully confident that, together, we will continue on the growth trajectory we have seen over the last few years into the foreseeable future,” CNPF Vice President and general manager for coconut business Noel M. Tempongko, Jr. said.

CNPF Executive Chairman Christopher T. Po added that the long-term agreement with Vita Coco will bode well for the company as it assists in creating value for the said fruit.

“For CNPF, our growing presence in the global coconut market is in line with our long-term vision of a diversified portfolio of shelf-stable food and beverage products,” Mr. Po said.

“We will continue to leverage on our manufacturing expertise to capitalize on emerging global trends, particularly towards health and wellness products,” he added.

The company said its extended deal with Vita Coco is projected to benefit coconut farmers in Mindanao as they are assured of market access for their produce over the next few years, thus increasing their income.

CNPF recently partnered with non-profit organization Friends for Hope for the annual donation of 100,000 coconut seedlings in the next five to eight years to smallholder coconut farmers that will replace senile trees in Mindanao.

“In addition to supporting farmer incomes and expanding long-term coconut supply in the region, planting the coconut trees will sequester about 416,680 metric tons (MT) of greenhouse gas emissions over the next eight years, allowing the company’s coconut subsidiary aims to be ‘carbon-neutral’ by 2028,” the company said.

The company earlier invested P300 million for the improvement of its coconut manufacturing capacity in order to keep up with international demand for high-value coconut products.

Shares of CNPF rose 2.17% or 38 centavos to end at P17.90 apiece on Wednesday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

LIMA Estate to be expanded

ABOITIZ GROUP’S Lima Land, Inc. will expand its Batangas estate to bring in more industrial locators and create around 20,000 jobs.

Lima Land plans to develop over 100 hectares of its 700-hectare LIMA Estate for new locators and redevelop its 30-hectare business district to house new commercial lots, outsourcing companies, and office buildings, Aboitiz said in a press release on Wednesday.

The developer also plans to accommodate dormitories, schools, hospitals, hotels, and civic centers in the business district.

Lima Land plans to complete the expansion by the third quarter of 2022.

Aboitiz Integrated Economic Centers First Vice President Rafael Fernandez De Mesa said the company is developing the area into a smart city with digital infrastructure.

“A smart city in Calabarzon opens up a new wave of opportunities, with data at the forefront of improved operations across the city,” he said.

The LIMA Technology Center economic zone has 124 domestic and international locators employing 55,000 people. Aboitiz Group developed the area into a mixed-use estate after acquiring it in 2014.

The company added that metal processing business Philippines TRC Incorporated will be expanding its LIMA-based facilities next year, and Japanese wire harness manufacturer Leading Co. Ltd. will start building facilities in December 2021 to start operating by March of the next year.

“We have been speaking to several potential locators for all of our Integrated Economic Centers throughout the lockdown, and what makes LIMA a great investment is its existing, fully established ecosystem already in place,” Aboitiz Integrated Economic Centers Vice President for Business Development Eduardo Aboitiz said.

Aboitiz Group’s listed holding company, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV), posted a 55% income decline to P4 billion in the first semester.

Shares in AEV went up P1 or 2.23% to end at P45.75 apiece on Wednesday. — Jenina P. Ibañez

US cybersecurity firm FireEye discloses breach, theft of tools

FIREEYE, one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the United States (US), said on Tuesday that it had been hacked, likely by a government, and that an arsenal of hacking tools used to test the defenses of its clients had been stolen.

The hack of FireEye, a company with an array of contracts across the national security space both in the United States and its allies, is among the most significant breaches in recent memory. The company’s shares dropped 8% in after-hours trading.

The FireEye breach was disclosed in a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission citing CEO Kevin Mandia. A blog post by the company said “red team tools” were stolen as part of a highly sophisticated, likely government-backed hacking operation that used previously unseen techniques.

It is not clear exactly when the hack initially took place, but a person familiar with the events said the company has been resetting user passwords over the past two weeks.

Beyond the tool theft, the hackers also appeared to be interested in a subset of FireEye customers: government agencies.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, said he would ask for more information. “We have asked the relevant intelligence agencies to brief the Committee in the coming days about this attack, any vulnerabilities that may arise from it, and actions to mitigate the impacts.”

There is no evidence that FireEye’s hacking tools have been used or that client data was stolen. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Microsoft Corp are helping to look.

“The FBI is investigating the incident and preliminary indications show an actor with a high level of sophistication consistent with a nation state,” said Matt Gorham, assistant FBI director for the Cyber Division.

A former Defense Department official familiar with the case said that Russia was high on the early list of suspects. In the run-up to the US elections, where Russian interference was a prime concern, US officials exposed some Russian hacking techniques.

Other security companies have been successfully hacked before, including Bit9, Kaspersky Lab, and RSA, underscoring the difficulty in keeping anything digital away from the most sophisticated hackers.

“Plenty of similar companies have also been popped like this,” said a Western security official who asked not to be named.

“The goal of these operations is typically to collect valuable intelligence that can help them defeat security countermeasures and enable hacking of organizations all over the world,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and former chief technology officer at top rival CrowdStrike.

FireEye disclosing what happened and which tools were taken is “helping to minimize the chances of others getting compromised as a result of this breach.”

FireEye said it has been working to shore up defenses against its own tools with different software makers, and it released countermeasures publicly.

Those showed that the tools uses modified versions of public programs, said Vincent Liu, chief executive of security firm Bishop Fox and a former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst.

The stolen computer kit targets a myriad of different vulnerabilities in popular software products.

FireEye CEO Mandia wrote that none of the red team tools exploited so-called “zero-day vulnerabilities,” meaning the relevant flaws should already be public.

Past hacking attacks on government agencies and contractors have captured such higher-value hacking tools, and some of those tools have been published, wrecking their effectiveness as defenses are put in place.

Both the NSA and CIA have been burned this way in the past decade, with Russia a key suspect. Russian and Iranian tools have been hacked and published more recently. Private surveillance software makers have also been targeted.

Experts said it is hard to estimate the impact of a tool leak that focuses on known software vulnerabilities, but it could make attackers’ jobs easier.

“Exploitation tools in the wrong hands will lead to more victimization of people who don’t see it coming, and there’s already enough problems like that,” said Paul Ferguson, threat intelligence principal at security company Gigamon. “We don’t really need more exploitation tools floating around making it easier — look at ransomware.”

Whenever private companies learn of a vulnerability in their software products, they often offer a “patch” or upgrade that nullifies the issue. But many users do not install these patches at once, and some do not for months or longer. — Reuters

Keeping things simpol

Chef Tatung Sarthou’s new cookbook asserts anyone can cook

CELEBRITY chef and YouTuber Michael Glovan “Tatung” Sarthou is bringing to book form his simpol (“simple”) recipes which are meant to show that anyone can cook.

Titled Simpol, the cookbook takes its name from Mr. Sarthou’s online cooking show on YouTube which currently has over 1 million subscribers.

The book has over 101 recipes that are said to be “easily executed using simple, familiar ingredients,” and are a combination of Filipino recipes alongside international recipes such as Swedish meatballs and Taiwanese-style breaded porkchop.

A cursory look at the cookbook shows an organized table of contents categorized by the main ingredient: chicken, pork, beef, vegetable, seafood, and rice and noodle.

What it offers are “simple, practical, and doable recipes that will empower one to cook with confidence,” said the book’s foreword.

And indeed, while there are some recipes intended for someone who has a bit of experience in the kitchen, there are recipes that can easily be done by someone who might not have even know how to cook — like the Simpol Crispy Pork Belly that, in a nutshell, only requires the cook to marinade a pork belly slab in vinegar and salt and put the meat in a pot of cold cooking oil and letting it cook at medium heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

Each recipe has a QR link for a video version for people who want to see how it’s done.

Ingredients for each recipe are categorized into sets (Set A, Set B, etc.) to show which ingredients are needed for prep and which for actual active cooking.

Owing to Mr. Sarthou’s Cebuano roots, several recipes are Cebuano in origin such as Pork humba though there are also regional Filipino dishes such as the Ilocano poqui-poqui (a vegetable dish that includes tomatoes and eggplant) and the Visayas and Mindanao favorite Sinuglaw (a combination of grilled meat and ceviche or kinilaw).

The recipes are said to have been “perfected and catalogued” by Mr. Sarthou over the years.

Simpol: The Cookbook is available on the ABS-CBN Books’ Lazada and Shopee stores for P350. The book was made in partnership with NutriAsia. — Zsarlene B. Chua    

Jollibee opens third store in the United Kingdom

JOLLIBEE FOODS Corp. (JFC) has opened its third store in the United Kingdom as part of the company’s plans to expand its global footprint.

In a statement on Wednesday, JFC said the new store is located at Leicester City and is the second branch opening in the United Kingdom in a span of two months.

“Everywhere, our world-famous Chickenjoy has always been met with excitement and we’re happy to see that Leicester City is no exception,” Dennis Flores, JFC President for Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia said in the statement.

“What is amazing with this opening is that 40% of the customers were locals from Leicester when usually almost all of the customers during the first weeks are Filipinos as they are already familiar with Jollibee,” he added.

JFC has two other stores in the United Kingdom, one in Liverpool and another in Kensington, London.

Mr. Flores said the initial sales of the Leicester City branch has exceeded the company’s projections by double digits and even surpassed sales during its Liverpool store’s opening.

“This is a good indication that our strategy to make Jollibee appeal to the mainstream market is working — allowing us to widen our customer base,” Mr. Flores said.

As of date, JFC said it has over 1,400 stores around the world, adding it plans to open 50 stores in Europe within the next five years.

The company posted a P1.58 billion net loss in the third quarter due to weaker sales resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Its revenues during the July to September period fell 31% year on year to P29.97 billion

On Wednesday, shares of JFC rose 0.77% or P1.60 to end at P210.60 apiece. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Term deposit yields slip on RRR cut bets

YIELDS ON term deposits offered by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday inched down amid higher bids and expectations of a possible reduction in banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR).

Demand for the central bank’s term deposit facility (TDF) hit P644.806 billion on Wednesday, surpassing the P490 billion up for grabs as well as the P608.416 billion in tenders seen in the previous auction.

Broken down, bids for the seven-day papers reached P243.555 billion, beyond the P170-billion offering as well as the P208.985 billion in tenders recorded a week ago.

The one-week deposits fetched rates ranging from 1.65% to 1.75%, a narrower band than the 1.615% to 1.78% logged on Dec. 2. This caused the tenor’s average to settle at 1.7218%, lower by 0.74 basis point (bp) from the 1.7292% seen in the previous offering.

Meanwhile, bids for the 14-day papers hit amounted to P401.251 billion, going beyond the P320 billion up for grabs as well as the P399.431 billion in demand logged last week.

Accepted yields fell within 1.65% to 1.7468%, a thinner margin compared with the 1.625% to 1.7625% range seen last week, bringing the two-week paper’s average rate to 1.7191%, down by 0.7 bp from the 1.7261% fetched previously.

The central bank did not offer the 28-day term deposits for the ninth consecutive week. This follows the start of the central bank’s weekly offering of its own bills with the same tenor.

The TDF and the BSP’s securities are part of tools used by the central bank to mop up excess liquidity in the financial system and to better guide market interest rates.

Yields on the term deposits declined as the market is pricing in a possible cut in big banks’ RRR, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said.

The BSP cut big banks’ reserve requirements by 200 bps to 12% earlier this year. The RRR of thrift and rural lenders were likewise lowered by 100 bps to three percent and two percent, respectively.

The Monetary Board authorized RRR cuts of up to 400 bps this year.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno has said he wants to cut banks’ RRR further and eventually bring it down to the single-digit level by the end of his term in mid-2023.

The central bank last month resumed its easing cycle, cutting benchmark interest rates anew to support the economy amid continued uncertainty due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and following recent typhoons.

The Monetary Board trimmed the rates on the BSP’s overnight reverse repurchase, lending, and deposit facilities by 25 bps to 2%, 2.5%, and 1.5%, respectively.

The central bank has already cumulatively lowered interest rates by 200 bps this year.

The Monetary Board will have its last policy meeting for the year on Dec. 17. — L.W.T. Noble

Apple launches $549 new AirPods Max to boost holiday sales

APPLE, INC. on Tuesday unveiled its new AirPods Max, a set of wireless over-ear headphones, at $549 apiece, pricier than some of its other popular phone and tablet products, in a measure aimed at boosting sales over the December holiday period.

The new AirPods, which will have up to 20 hours battery life, will be shipped starting next Tuesday, Apple said. But less than 12 hours after Apple announced the products, shipping times for US customers had stretched past a dozen weeks, according to review of Apple’s website, pushing arrival times well into 2021.

Because over-ear headphones create a seal around the ear, they are capable of delivering higher audio quality than in-ear devices and remain the standard form factor in professional studios. The AirPods Max model will compete with high-end headphones such as Bose’s Noise Cancelling 700 units, which retail for $340 with holiday discounts.

At $549, AirPods Max headphones are more expensive than Apple’s entry-level iPhone, iPad and Watch models. The company also said Tuesday that pricing for its base, in-ear AirPods model and AirPods Pro model would remain the same at $159 and $249, respectively.

The company said the AirPods Max contains nine microphones and two of its H1 chips, Apple’s custom-designed audio processor. The microphones help reduce wind noise on phone calls, provide noise cancellation and also adjust audio levels in real time using microphones inside the ear cups.

The company’s last quarter results showed a rise in sales in its accessories unit, even as revenue from its flagship iPhones dropped 20.7%, the steepest quarterly drop in two years. For the company’s fiscal 2020, accessories sales were up 16% at $53.8 billion, while iPhone sales were down 3% at $137.8 billion.

Apple had launched its newest iPhone range with faster 5G connectivity in October, a month later than its usual September release, due to pandemic-linked delays.

The company also said Apple Fitness+, its $10 per month fitness subscription service, will be launched on Dec. 14. Shares of Peloton Interactive, Inc, which also offers virtual fitness classes, were down 2% in before-market trading. — Reuters

A taste of the South

THE NEGROS region, from where Don Papa gets its sugarcane, always reminded me of the American South: there’s the hot sun, the slower pace of life, an agricultural base, and fanciful stories hidden in every home, at least for some people.

This makes the marriage of rye whiskey and Don Papa Rum make sense for its latest variation, launched on Nov. 20: the Don Papa Rye Aged Rum. This drink is aged in rye barrels, while Don Papa is usually aged in barrels that once held rye’s gentler cousin, bourbon. This expression comes on the heels of previous ones: Rare Cask, Sherry Cask, and Don Papa Sevillana (which was finished in casks that held vino de naranja, Spanish orange liqueur).

A kit containing three bottles was delivered, sealed with a coded padlock. It contained a bottle of Don Papa Rye Aged Rum, as well as two cocktails, the Rum Manhattan (with sweet vermouth, maraschino, and bitters), and Don Creole (absinthe and bitters).

The rum by itself had an aggressive scent with notes of grass, honey, and wildflowers under a hot Southern sun. The first note did have that throaty rye kick as expected, but mellowed down into that ladylike honey and floral note hinted at in the scent. The heat was present as well, reminding one of sunbeams in the way it makes the eyes narrow. It’s like meeting a brash, swearing, smoking, but well-dressed Southern belle in her garden at the height of summer. That’s funny when you consider the masculine elements in its promotion, accompanied by bluegrass musicians during the Zoom press conference. It does go very well with hardwood-smoked beef jerky; perhaps due to their shared woody origins. While it doesn’t sound like I like her, but as I poured a third jigger in a glass, she proved to be good company. The Manhattan tasted like it should — cigar-smoky and cool — but my my, that Don Creole. It had a flirty but clean scent, a bit like jasmine, thanks to the absinthe and bitters, and was sweetly sophisticated. This wouldn’t have been out of place in the hand of a woman like Blanche Dubois.

AJ Garcia, Bleeding Heart Rum Co.’s co-founder discussed the different expressions that they’ve created. “One of the reasons why we do this is because when we started the brand, we started with one product. I think you could easily say that we could’ve sat on that one product, and just focused on that, and be very monolithic,” he said during the launch. “I think it’s always important, especially with the rum industry… to always kind of find different ways to improve the product; find different ways to offer people different experiences.”

Adding a flourish to a product that is already quite good comes from a different place: home. “When you think about rum, through the years, people think of the Carribean, Central America, South America; and then maybe India. But what we want people to know is that the rum-making tradition has been in the Philippines for about 200 years. It’s really been part of our DNA. It’s born out of the sugarcane industry, and this is a sugar-producing country.

“We should be making great rum. That alone motivates us to explore more and more.”

Don Papa Rye Aged Rum is currently available online for delivery through Boozy.ph for P3,399 and Boozeshop.ph for P3,250 and will soon be available in different brick and mortar shops. — Joseph L. Garcia

Phoenix Petroleum to settle P3 billion in commercial papers

Dennis A. Uy-led Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc. approved on Wednesday the settlement of P3 billion in outstanding commercial papers issued last year, the firm told the local bourse.

Series C of the firm’s commercial paper program had a tenor of 360 days from its issue date of Dec. 5, 2019. Phoenix Petroleum issued P3 billion in commercial papers at a discount to a face value of 4.6657% per annum.

The firm earlier said it aimed to raise P2.82 billion from the offer to “refinance existing short-term loans in the regulation (and) importation of fuels and lubricants.”

Phoenix Petroleum made the disclosure to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s revised disclosure rules and the Securities Regulation Code.

The company reported a net income of P296 million in the third quarter, reversing its P5-million loss in the second quarter. Overall volume sales climbed by 42% from July to September with the recovery of its local business and relaxed quarantine measures.

Phoenix Petroleum’s shares inched up by 0.47% to close at P12.80 apiece on Wednesday. — Angelica Y. Yang