Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 7486

Axelum extends P500-M share buyback to end-2020

COCONUT products manufacturer Axelum Resources Corp. is extending its P500-million share buyback program until the end of the year.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Wednesday, the company said its board of directors has approved moving the deadline of the program to Dec. 31, extending it over three months from its original Sept. 16 deadline.

The company started buying its common shares from the open market on March 16. It has so far bought back P135.82-million worth of shares from the P500-million allocation.

When the program was launched six months ago, Axelum said its goal in repurchasing shares was to enhance shareholder value.

The company did its maiden listing at the exchange in October last year. It offered the shares at P5 apiece, but they now trade within the P2.23-P2.60 range. Shares in Axelum closed at P2.54 apiece on Wednesday, unchanged from its close in the previous day.

The company has not identified the exact number of shares it will be buying from the extended program, as this will be determined by the total buyback price of the shares.

Axelum currently has an authorized capital stock of 5 billion shares. It has 3.95 billion issued and outstanding common shares, and 54.36 million treasury shares.

“The company cannot accurately determine at this point its capital structure after the buy-back program,” it said.

Axelum will be buying back its shares in the open market using the trading facilities of the Philippine Stock Exchange. It will use cash and book the shares as treasury shares.

The company recorded an attributable net income of P202.94 million in the first semester, down 47% from a year ago, due to obstruction in its access to coconut supply when the government imposed coronavirus-related restrictions. — Denise A. Valdez

Add some schmaltz to your chicken salad

By Kate Krader, Bloomberg

CHICKEN SALAD is one of the harder-working dishes out there, but it doesn’t receive much fanfare. Adjacent meals such as roast chicken and chicken noodle soup have passionate advocates who claim the best versions of their dishes. You rarely hear people shout out the “ultimate” chicken salad.

It is, however, a dish worth caring about. Multiple variables go into it, from the shape of the chicken — chunks vs. shredded meat — to how much it gets accessorized with ingredients such as dried fruit and herbs.

Chicken salad should be considered a secret weapon, especially around the Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashanah, says Jeffrey Yoskowitz. (The Jewish New Year started on Sept. 18.) He’s co-founder of Gefilteria in Brooklyn. Pronounced ge-filte-ria — “like a taqueria but with gefilte fish instead of tacos” — the company promotes Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern European Jewish) foods and offers classes on subjects such as pickling.

His recipe first appeared in the cookbook he and partner Liz Alpern co-authored: The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Food (Flatiron Books; $35). Instructions for the “greatest hits of Jewish cooking” such as brisket and matzo ball soup got the most attention, says Yoskowitz, but he adores this chicken salad and for good reason.

The dish makes use of the best part of many Jewish holiday meals — the chicken soup — by transforming the cooked bird into an all-purpose food that has more personality than people give it credit for. “Chicken salad is the bridge between the holiday and every day,” he says.

Yoskowitz has several recipes that co-star in “A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food,” an online class from YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The free series offers over 100 hours of digital content, including lessons on how to build a better sandwich from Katz Deli owner Jake Dell and lox slicing tutorials, courtesy of Josh Ross Tupper, co-owner of Russ & Daughters. More than 10,000 people have signed up for it so far.

The original chicken salad recipe comes from Yoskowitz’s grandfather, who became locally famous for the version he made at Michael’s Deli in Marblehead, Mass. (It’s since moved to Brookline, Mass.) What made it special to Yoskowitz’s grandmother was a healthy sprinkling of white pepper instead of black pepper — a more fragrant, less aggressive spice. But what makes it addictive is the genius addition of a couple of tablespoons of chicken fat, or schmaltz, stirred in with the mayonnaise.

The result is a salad, studded with a modest amount of chopped celery and peppers, that’s quietly decadent. If you’re making soup, of course you’ll have some schmaltz on hand. If you’re starting with leftover cooked meat, you can buy rendered chicken fat from most grocery stores; if it’s sold out, you can do as I did and substitute rendered duck fat.

“Rendered duck fat makes it even more special,” says Yoskowitz. “In fact, in Old World Jewish cooking, there was a hierarchy of fat. Goose fat is at the top, then duck fat, then chicken fat.” He adds: “We know our fats.”

The following recipe is adapted from The Gefilte Manifesto, by Jeffrey Yoskowitz & Liz Alpern.

ULTIMATE CHICKEN SALAD

Serves 4

1-¾ cup (packed) shredded cooked chicken meat (about 1⁄2 lb.)

3 tbsp. mayonnaise, plus more if needed

2 tbsp. Schmaltz (chicken fat) or grapeseed oil, plus more if needed

1/3 cup minced celery

1⁄4 cup minced red bell pepper

1⁄4 cup minced green bell pepper

1⁄2 tsp. freshly ground white pepper, or to taste

1⁄4 tsp. celery seed

1⁄4 to 1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt, plus more as needed

8 slices of rye bread (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir with a large spoon to break the chicken into smaller pieces, and evenly distribute the vegetables and spices throughout. If it seems a bit dry, add further mayonnaise and/or schmaltz. Make sandwiches with the rye bread and serve. — Bloomberg

Beijing unlikely to approve Oracle, Walmart’s TikTok deal — Global Times

SHANGHAI — China is unlikely to approve an “unfair” deal from Oracle Corp., and Walmart Inc said they have struck with ByteDance over the future of video-streaming app TikTok, the state-backed Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

The US majors have said they would buy into a new mainly US-owned company, TikTok Global, with a board of directors comprised mainly of Americans, as the parties work to pacify the administration of US President Donald Trump, which had planned to ban TikTok in the United States on security grounds.

In contrast, ByteDance has said TikTok Global would be its US subsidiary with 80% ownership.

“It is clear that these articles (terms) extensively show Washington’s bullying style and hooligan logic. They hurt China’s national security, interests and dignity,” the newspaper said in an editorial in its English edition published late on Monday. It was also carried in its Chinese edition.

“From the information provided by the US, the deal was unfair. It caters to the unreasonable demands of Washington. It’s hard for us to believe that Beijing will approve such an agreement,” it said, echoing comments on Twitter the same evening from its editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin.

Mr. Hu on Tuesday, responding to comments Trump made to Fox News about how TikTok Global was going to be “totally controlled” by Oracle, said on Twitter: “Stop extorting. You think TikTok is a company from a small country?”

“There’s no way the Chinese government will accept your demand. You can ruin TikTok’s US business, if US users do not object, but you can’t rob it and turn it into a US baby.”

The Global Times is a tabloid published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, but does not speak on behalf of the party and government unlike its parent publication.

China’s government has largely refrained from directly commenting on the deal’s details, though the foreign ministry has said the United States should offer a fair and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies.

Reuters reported this month, citing sources, that Beijing opposed a forced sale of TikTok’s US operations by ByteDance, and would prefer to see the short video app shut down in the United States.

The deal requires approval from regulators in both Beijing and Washington, ByteDance has said. China’s Ministry of Commerce, in late August, revised a tech export control list that experts said would give it regulatory oversight over any TikTok deal.

ByteDance and the commerce ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

MAIN OBJECTIONS
Over the weekend, ByteDance, Oracle and Walmart said they had reached a deal that would satisfy Trump’s call for TikTok to be sold to an American firm or be shut down in the United States.

However, the sides have framed the deal differently in public statements.

Whereas ByteDance said it will majority-own TikTok Global, Oracle and Walmart together said ByteDance’s ownership would be distributed to its investors — many of which are US-based — and that ByteDance itself would have no direct stake. They also said four of TikTok Global’s five-member board would be American.

The unidentified author of the Global Times editorial objected to there being only one board seat reserved for a Chinese national, as well as the stipulated inclusion on the board of a US-approved “national security director”.

It also denounced the need for ByteDance to reveal source code to Oracle as part of the latter’s role of “trusted technology partner” and criticised the likelihood of TikTok Global blocking Chinese access to its app.

TikTok has never been available in China. It has said it has more than 100 million monthly active US users, compared with 600 million daily users at mainland equivalent Douyin.

“As TikTok and Douyin should have the same source code, this means the US can get to know the operations of Douyin,” the Global Times said.

“If the reorganization of TikTok under US manipulation becomes a model, it means once any successful Chinese company expands its business to the US and becomes competitive, it will be targeted by the US and turned into a US-controlled company via trickery and coercion, which eventually serves only US interests.”

Beijing-based ByteDance has only two Chinese nationals on its five-member board, with the other three being foreigners running US-based companies.

ByteDance has also said Oracle’s ability to inspect TikTok’s source code before investing is akin to previous instances of US companies such as Microsoft Corp. sharing source code with Chinese technology experts. — Reuters

Globe, Smart among ‘most improved’ telcos globally

UK-BASED Opensignal Ltd. said Smart Communications, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc. had been identified as among the top 30 mobile network operators globally where users have seen “the greatest improvement” in 4G availability and video experience, respectively.

The two telco companies’ scores were “comfortably above the global average,” Opensignal, a wireless coverage mapping company, said in an e-mailed statement.

The report covers users’ mobile network experience in the last year, between the first six months of 2019 and the first half of this year, Opensignal said.

There are four identified critical measures of mobile network experience, namely: video experience, download speed experience, upload speed experience, and 4G availability.

Opensignal noted that the average proportion of time that users spent on the 4G network of PLDT Inc.’s wireless arm Smart grew by 17.9% between the first half of 2019 and first half of 2020.

Globe’s score for the video experience increased by 32.7%.

Globe users also “saw their average download speeds improve by 24.5%, “ Opensignal noted. 

Opensignal’s video experience metric “measures the average video experience of its users on 3G and 4G networks for each operator, while the download speed experience metric measures the average download speed experienced by the users across an operator’s 3G, 4G and 5G networks.

“This citation is a testament to our commitment to improving the experience of our customers. As the country’s largest and only fully integrated telco, we will continue to invest in improving our network and our services, and we will benchmark our performance against countries like Vietnam and Thailand to be better. I think every Filipino deserves that kind of service,” Smart President and Chief Executive Officer and PLDT Chief Revenue Officer Alfredo S. Panlilio said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Gil B. Genio, chief technology and information officer of Globe, said: “Expect more of these remarkable improvements as we continue with our aggressive efforts to upgrade the network for better connectivity and service.”

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

Flour facts

IT SEEMS like ever since the lockdowns since March, everyone has decided to start baking. Photos of loaves of sourdough, banana bread, and focaccia flood social media feeds, while people are swapping cookies with friends or donating treats. And most of these are made with flour.

What many newbie or home bakers may not know is that the quality and type of flour can affect the outcome of their baked goods, from the texture and crew, to flavor.

The strength of flour is measured by the quality and amount of its gluten content. It’s what gives baked goods its structure and makes the dough elastic and firm, so it’s best to choose the best type for a particular recipe. All-purpose and whole wheat flours are made with harder wheat which is higher in gluten and therefore good for breads and loaves. Meanwhile, cake flour is made with soft, finer wheat, and therefore is good for more delicate pastries like cakes and crepes. Different types also affect the texture and tastiness of bread.

Another key point of flour is its absorption ability (usually between 55% and 65%), which affects the consistency of the dough. It holds together all that sugar, eggs, and milk, making for a nice, gooey mixture. Other than that, flour is also a binding and thickening agent, used for more than just baking.

The term “all-purpose flour” is used for flour made with a mix of refined hard and soft wheat, which means it can be used for almost any recipe, making it a good choice for those starting out, or who want to try a variety of recipes. It is a reliable choice for both beginner bakers and more seasoned ones.

It is best to keep all-purpose flour in the freezer for 48 hours after you buy it. Then, transfer to an airtight container and store in a dry pantry away from direct sunlight. This way, the flour will last as long as a year.

One of the most familiar is Maya All-Purpose Flour, which has been a staple in Filipino homes for generations. The fact that it is fortified with vitamin A and iron, and enriched with vitamin B (riboflavin, niacin and thiamin) means one gets more nutrition with every bite.

Follow and like MayaHotcakesandMore on Facebook, and @MayaHotcakesandMore on Instagram and Twitter.

More efforts needed to fight cyber crimes as countries move to 5G

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES Co., Ltd. said the global community needs to step up efforts to stop cyber crimes as countries starting to adopt the fifth generation (5G) of cellular technology may become more vulnerable to attacks.

“Too few people are prosecuted for cyber offenses. The global community needs to work together better to shut them down, because as we move to the 5G , the global community is going to be much more dependent on information and communications technologies,” Andy Purdy, chief security officer at Huawei Technologies USA, said in an online forum last week.

“Because if the bad guys decide, they can shut things down… We’re going to be vulnerable if we don’t step up and do what is necessary now,” he added.

He said emerging technologies are driving digital growth while bringing new challenges to cyber security and privacy protection. New technologies such as the cloud, 5G, IoT (Internet of Things), and AI (artificial intelligence), among others, bring new opportunities, he added.

“Cloudification enables resource sharing and service platforms transform from closed platforms to open platforms, while AI and big data power the in-depth mining of information,” Mr. Purdy said.

He said mobile networks and sensors also help users achieve “high-density interconnection.”

Among the challenges Mr. Purdy cited were the “traditional boundaries for protection,” which he described as becoming “increasingly blurred”; more complex data processing and the increasing risk of data leaks; and the larger “attack surface” and the increasing vulnerabilities.

He added the mobile industry also requires a global and mutually recognized security evaluation framework.

“We have to reduce the frequency, impact, and risk of malicious activities… Governments will need to work with telecoms, mobile operators, and internet services providers to drain the swamp of malicious activities,” Mr. Purdy said.

Internet security firm Kaspersky said recently that ransomware attacks against small and medium businesses in the Philippines had dropped by 49% or 9,701 in the first six months of the year, from 18,997 attempts detected in the same period last year.

Kaspersky said ransomware attacks in Southeast Asia have actually declined to 1 million in the first half from last year’s 1.4 million.

However, businesses should remain vigilant, as “prolific attacks may always fly under our radar and we need to continue to watch out for them,” Yeo Siang Tiong, Kaspersky’s general manager for Southeast Asia, said in a recent statement. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Crown Asia Chemicals stays Shariah-compliant

CROWN ASIA CHEMICALS Corp. has retained its status as a Shariah-compliant publicly listed company for the third straight year, the company said on Wednesday.

“A quarterly evaluation is made of Shariah-listed companies to ensure conformity to the Islamic Law and Finance standards aimed to encourage trade and investments,” it said in a statement.

It said Crown Asia Chemicals joins the latest list of 53 firms disclosed by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) as of June 25, 2020. The company manufactures plastic compounds, plastic pipes and other related products such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pellets.

In April this year, the PSE issued a memorandum aimed at adjusting the standards for the evaluation of business conformity with Shariah principles and eliminating certain previously imposed restrictions.

“Such measures have been taken to align Shariah guidelines with the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions Shariah Rulebook,” the company said.

Facebook removes fake accounts spreading propaganda

FACEBOOK INC. said it detected and removed a small scale network of fake accounts aimed at distributing Chinese propaganda and disinformation across Southeast Asia and the US.

Disguised as local operators, the accounts sought to amplify pro-China messaging over its control of the South China Sea and surrounding area, while promoting political leaders deemed to be sympathetic to China’s influence in the region, according to Graphika Inc., which seeks to uncover disinformation operations and released a report on the China-based activity. Facebook said the fake accounts also pushed messages for and against US President Donald Trump, his Democratic opponent Joe Biden and former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

Although researchers could not attribute the operation to the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party, the propaganda campaign was the second squashed by Facebook in a month over fake content related to the November election. Weeks ago, Facebook removed a small network of accounts linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-linked troll farm that used social media accounts to deepen divisions in the US and help Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The China-based operation appeared likely to be leveraging the US election — a hotly discussed topic on social media — to build its own audience rather than attempting to influence voters to tip the outcome, said Ben Nimmo, who leads investigations at Graphika.

The campaign’s US operations were deemed to be weak in both sophistication and scale, and did not indicate preferential treatment for either presidential candidate, Mr. Nimmo said.

“On the grand scale of the American internet, it’s not even a feather on the scale. It’s really small,” said Nimmo. “They got caught early, but overall, it didn’t feel like a sophisticated operation.”

The operation began in late 2016 by targeting Taiwan, as some of its posts attacked President Tsai Ing-Wen. In early 2018, fake users posted about the Philippines with content that supported President Rodrigo Duterte and argued in favor of Chinese regional influence. Concurrently, they also created a collection of pages that focused more broadly on the South China Sea and defended China’s contested policies there, Graphika said in the report.

It wasn’t until late 2019 and early 2020 that the disinformation operation shifted its attention to the US. But even those accounts and groups often brought the conversation back to China’s maritime security, according to Graphika.

“Many of the accounts in this phase of the operation were barely active,” according Graphika’s report.

In total, Facebook said it removed 155 Facebook accounts, 11 pages, 9 groups and 6 Instagram accounts. The campaign attracted more than 130,000 followers, but less than 3,000 were based in the US. The accounts were removed because they violated Facebook’s policies against coordinated campaigns with false identities, the Menlo Park, California-based company said. — Bloomberg

Term deposit yields inch higher on wider August budget deficit

YIELDS ON term deposits auctioned off by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) mostly inched up on Wednesday following the release of data showing a budget deficit in August.

Demand for the BSP’s term deposit facility (TDF) hit P575.31 billion on Wednesday, above the P390 billion on the auction block. This was also higher than last week’s P527.984 billion in bids for the P350-billion offering.

Broken down, the seven-day papers attracted tenders amounting to P262.56 billion, higher than the P170 billion auctioned off by the central bank as well as the P212.569 billion in bids logged last week.

Lenders asked for yields from 1.8% to 1.87%, a narrower band compared with the 1.785% to 1.89% seen a week ago. This caused the one-week paper’s average rate to drop to 1.8346%, down by 0.31 basis point (bp) from the 1.8377% logged on Sept. 16.

For the 14-day papers, demand totaled P253.87 billion, surpassing the P190 billion on offer and the P265.685 billion in bids logged the previous week for the P170-billion offering.

Accepted yields fell within the 1.8015% to 1.87% range, a tad narrower than the 1.8% to 1.87% recorded in the previous auction. This brought the average rate of the 14-day term deposits to 1.852%, rising by 0.6 bp from the 1.846% seen a week ago.

Meanwhile, tenders for the one-month term deposits totaled P58.88 billion, beating the P30-billion offer volume and the P49.73 billion in bids logged for the P20 billion up for grabs last week.

Rates for the 28-day ranged from 1.818% to 1.8522%, a thinner margin compared to the 1.783% to 1.8522% seen on Sept. 16. This caused the tenor’s average rate to settle at 1.8416%, inching up by 0.07 bp from the 1.8409% seen last week.

The TDF is one of the central bank’s tools to shore up excess liquidity in the financial system to better guide market interest rates. Last week, the BSP made its maiden offering of securities, which are also meant to mop up cash. It fully awarded P20 billion in 28-day bills.

TDF yields inched up after the release of the August budget deficit data, said Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort.

“Most TDF auction allowed to be marginally higher after the recent upward correction, especially after the continued widening of the latest budget data from a year ago due to COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), Mr. Ricafort said in a text message on Wednesday.

The budget deficit reached P40.1 billion in August, ballooning from the P2.5-billion gap seen in the same month last year, Treasury data released on Wednesday showed. However, last month’s level was lower than the P140.2-billion deficit seen in July.

The August figure brought the eight-month deficit to P740.7 billion, surging by 515% from the P120.4 billion seen in the comparable year-ago period. This has already exceeded the record P660.2-billion gap seen last year. — L.W.T. Noble

Is it criminal to like this wine?

THE NAME “19 Crimes” sounds more like a book or movie title than a wine brand from Australia. Its wine labels also look like mug shots of “creepy” criminals — and the weird thing is, the photos on the labels actually are of real British criminals from the 18th century. So, instead of going with cute and relevant names and labels, usually featuring critters, castles, village or street names, 19 Crimes went the opposite way with the morbid and murky. And this is absolutely ingenuous, as 19 Crimes stands out from the zillions of wine labels competing for space in consumer’s minds and in cluttered retail shelf spaces.

THE BRAND NAME EXPLAINED
The 19 Crimes name came from the British Empire during the 18th century. These refer to the 19 specific crimes of that period that could force convicted offenders into what was called “penal transportation.”

The convicts were basically punished by being banished from society through relocation to an overseas British penal colony. Penal transportation was considered more humane than the usual capital punishment, and had been used not only on criminals, but also on military and political prisoners. Some of the 19 crimes included: grand larceny (theft of items above the value of one shilling); petty larceny (theft of items under the value of one shilling); buying or receiving of stolen goods, jewelry and plate; and even some unheard of in modern times — acts like impersonating an Egyptian, clandestine marriage, and stealing a shroud out of a grave.

Initially penal transportation saw prisoners brought to the Americas until this practice ended following the American Revolution, so the under-colonized Australia (then inhabited by the Torres Strait island people and the Aboriginal Australians) was the next destination. In January 1788, the first fleet arrived in Botany Bay but immediately moved to Port Jackson because of better conditions, landing eventually in Sydney Cove on Jan. 26 — now celebrated as Australia Day. The convicts-turned-colonists were vastly credited for building a new country, civilization, and culture, and the rest ,as they say, is history.

Crimes wines is a celebration of the emancipation of the transported convicts who contributed to what is Australia today.

WATCH LABELS COME ALIVE
The 19 Crimes wines feature actual criminals convicted of these listed 19 crimes in their mug shot-like labels. And perhaps a first of its kind, at least for wine labels, the criminals come alive when you use an augmented reality app, the Living Wine Labels. Download this Living Wine Labels app from either Google Play or Apple Store, and then point your phone at the front label and watch the criminal on the label “come alive” and tell his story. Admittedly this experience can be freaky at first, but the brilliant gimmick works and resonates.

Aside from the cool augmented reality experience, under each screw cap of 19 Crimes wines, you will see printed text about one of the 19 crimes. I do not know if any consumer wants to collect all 19 Crimes caps but it surely is another novelty to talk about.

Recently, 19 Crimes made headlines in the wine industry when it partnered with rap and hip-hop icon Snoop Doggy Dog to collaborate on its first non-Australian wine, the Cali Red, featuring Snoop Dog himself on the label. Snoop Dog has had his share of brushes with the law and may have been approached to collaborate because of this. Just as the other labels, Snoop Dog comes alive talking when you use the Living Wine Labels app. The Cali Red should be available in the Philippines next year.

MY CUSTOMARY TASTING NOTES:
19 Crimes Red Blend 2018, Southeastern Australia – “Lusciously ripe nose, jammy, rich, supple texture, with so much lavish red cherry and black berry flavors, semi-sweet, very round and sweet delicious finish”; while there is no information on the varietal blend, I suspect the mix to be a Shiraz-Cabernet blend given its taste profile.

19 Crimes Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Southeastern Australia – “smell of menthol cigarette, ripe black berries, cinnamon, velvety texture, sweet and round, pure fruit power on the finish.”

19 Crimes Shiraz 2019, Southeastern Australia – “alluring nose like spiced rum cake, rhubarb, very plummy and juicy on the palate, super yummy from first quaff, nicely round, no frills type of wine that can immediately be enjoyed with or without food.”

19 Crimes is another fast-growing wine brand from the giant Treasury Estate Wines group. Launched initially in 2012, distribution in the Philippines started only by May of 2018. 19 Crimes is already making an impact in the tough P600-P700/bottle price range category. This year 19 Crimes ranked No. 4 in The World’s Most Admired Wine Brands by Drinks International. It is an easy wine for both novice and regular Filipino wine drinkers to appreciate because of its straight-forward fruit power, ripeness and almost candied sweetness. 19 Crimes wines are available in leading supermarkets nationwide.

Erratum: In my last column on “Defying Odds in Bordeaux,” I misspelled a few times the name of JCP Maltus’ Regional Export Manager. The correct name is Xiao Qi not Xiao Li. Also, I want to add that JCP Maltus wines, from its top brand Le Dome, Chateau Teyssier, to their other Bordeaux wines, are already available in the country via Wine Story.

The author is a member of the UK-based Circle of Wine Writers. For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, wine consultancy and other wine related concerns, e-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com or via Twitter at www.twitter.com/sherwinlao.

Seaoil ‘closer’ to network expansion target

SEAOIL PHILIPPINES, Inc. continues to expand its retail network, saying it is “on-track” to meet its target number of operating fuel stations.

The independent oil retailer on Wednesday unveiled its 500th fuel station along Meralco Avenue in Pasig City.

“This milestone brings us closer to our goal of having 600 stations nationwide by the end of this year,” Seaoil Chief Executive Officer Glenn L. Yu said in a statement.

Before this, it opened fuel retail stations across 11 provinces in the country.

The company claimed its efforts to widen its footprint contributes to the Philippines’ recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

“With the opening of more stations, Seaoil aims to generate local jobs, provide business for new franchise partners, and offer specialized promotions to serve the communities they operate in,” it said.

Seaoil has set aside P10 million to aid the country’s pandemic response through offering free fuel and discounts for medical workers, local government personnel, and the transport sector. — Adam J. Ang

BSP allows UITF distribution via third parties

TRUST CORPORATIONS will now be allowed to sell unit investment trust funds (UITFs) through individual and institutional agents to level their playing field with banks that have broad distribution networks, the central bank said.

In Circular No. 1097 signed by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno, the central bank outlined the role of branches and marketing officers of trust corporations for the sale of UITFs.

It said individual agents and institutional agents will be allowed to sell trust corporations’ UITFs provided they can comply with the requirements and classifications set out by the central bank.

Currently, trust corporations distribute their UITFs through their main offices.

BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said they have been looking into allowing trust corporations to offer their products via individual and institutional agents even before the coronavirus pandemic.

“This will in a way level the playing field as far the as distribution channel is concerned. Trust departments of banks have branches as their distribution channel,” Ms. Fonacier said in a text message.

According to the circular, trust corporations need to be prudent in selecting third-party distributors and make sure they meet qualificatory requirements.

Among these requirements are training programs that were conducted by respective trust entities, the Trust Officers Association of the Philippines or other training providers acceptable by the BSP.

Meanwhile, institutional agents are required to be registered as a corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission; actively operating; in good financial standing; and need to have secured authority from the appropriate regulatory agency to engage in the distribution of UITFs.

“Consistent with the expectation for the board and senior management to maintain an effective and efficient internal control framework, the trust corporation shall adopt appropriate control mechanisms to ensure the protection of client funds,” the circular said.

The responsibility of knowing customers still lies with the trust corporations, the BSP said, although both individual and institutional agents can conduct client suitability assessment processes and customer identification under existing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. — LWTN

1...7,4857,4867,487...12,688Page 7,486 of 12,688
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube