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SEC extends annual report filing date

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is once again giving companies more time to submit their annual reports and general information sheets amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Corporations with fiscal years ending Nov. 30 to Dec. 31, 2019 must file their annual financial statements by Sept. 30, regardless of their SEC registration or license numbers, the SEC said in a statement on Thursday.

The SEC last month asked publicly listed companies and those with registered securities to notify the commission of their inability to file their annual and quarterly reports after the lapse of the deadline that was extended to June 30.

The regulator had previously given the companies a 60-day deadline extension after noting that companies were unable to submit reports during the lockdown.

Corporations whose fiscal years ended between Jan. 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020 now have another 30 days from their previously adjusted deadline to file their reports.

The new deadline for fiscal year ending Jan. 31 , 2020 is on Aug. 28. Companies with fiscal years ending Feb. 29, March 31, and April 30 will have filing deadlines on Sept. 28, Oct. 27 and Nov. 11, respectively.

Firms with fiscal years ending on May 31 and June 30 will submit on Nov. 11 and Oct. 28, respectively.

Corporations that held their annual stockholders meetings during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila have until Sept. 30 to submit copies of their general information sheets. They must submit the printed copies to the SEC main or extension offices.

Submissions must be done through courier services, including express delivery services or through the Philippine Postal Corp.

In the meantime, the corporations may submit scanned copies of signed and notarized reports through e-mail.

The SEC in March issued a memorandum circular extending the deadlines for the filing of annual reports for companies that were unable to submit due to quarantine restrictions.

Companies that operate domestically were given until June 30 to submit their documents, while those that have foreign operations had until 60 days to submit from the day travel restrictions are lifted. — Jenina P. Ibañez

Disney’s CEO is scrapping once-sacred businesses

WHEN Walt Disney Co. announced that it had closed more than 20 foreign TV channels last week, Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek looked like he was taking the knife to a big chunk of the company’s international audience.

The move would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But Mr. Chapek — less than six months after succeeding longtime CEO Bob Iger — is using the COVID-19 crisis to transform Disney much faster than expected, all with an eye toward making the company an online juggernaut that reaches far more people worldwide.

Besides scrapping the networks, he shut down a musical version of the animated film Frozen that opened with much fanfare on Broadway two years ago, closed a chain of English-language schools in China, and scaled back a $1-billion resort-technology project that has largely been replaced by a simple mobile-phone app.

“He’s going to be looking in every corner where they can save money,” said Dave Heger, an analyst who follows the company at Edward Jones and recommends buying Disney stock. “Considering what Disney is dealing with, he’s the right guy to have at the wheel.”

With the global pandemic crippling Disney’s theme-park, movie, and TV businesses, Mr.  Chapek’s first months atop the world’s largest entertainment company have been anything but a honeymoon.

The broad-shouldered, 61-year-old Indiana native jumped in with characteristic zeal, making big changes to cope with the crisis and the tectonic forces reshaping the company’s core businesses. The decisions came large and small. Disney shuttered its theme parks in March, anchored its cruise ships, and furloughed some 100,000 workers. Revenue slumped 42% last quarter, hurt by the closed businesses and loss of advertising sales at networks like ESPN and ABC.

But the biggest strategic shift is unquestionably Disney’s push into online video. Mr. Chapek provided a clue to what was coming in June, when the company said it was removing the Disney Channel TV networks from pay-TV systems operated by Virgin Media and Sky in the UK and putting the programming on the new Disney+ streaming service instead.

It turns out that was part of a much broader move announced last week — affecting many of the people who see the company’s programming outside the US.

The company shut down more than 20 international channels, took a $4.9-billion charge against earnings, and will instead expand its worldwide streaming operation. Mr. Chapek introduced a new online service using the Star brand internationally that will feature content from Disney networks like ABC and FX.

He also said he’d make Mulan, the live-action remake of the 1998 animated hit, available to purchase for $30 on the Disney+ service at the same time it’s released in theaters.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES
“Like many companies, we’ve had to find innovative ways to conduct our business during the pandemic,” Mr. Chapek said on an earnings call. “While we view this as a devastating situation for everyone affected, it’s also forced us to consider different approaches and look for new opportunities.”

Disney shares plunged in February and March as the pandemic hit business after business, but they’ve staged a comeback. After hitting a low on March 23, the stock is up more than 50%.

Since joining Disney in 1993, Mr. Chapek has risen up the ranks, finding new ways to squeeze additional profit from the company’s many businesses. At the home-video division in the 1990s, he worked on the “vault” strategy, where classic Disney films were released only occasionally on videocassette and later DVD, often with extra features that enticed customers to buy them over and over.

As head of consumer products, he let go dozens of workers and restructured the operation around big franchises, just in time to see the explosion in demand for Frozen dresses and related merchandise. Given command of the theme parks in 2015, Chapek introduced variable ticket pricing, lifting admission to as much $159 a day, and brought alcoholic beverages to Disneyland, along with the new Star Wars-themed lands that opened last year.

Walmart, Inc. CEO Doug McMillon said he can remember touring stores with Mr. Chapek and coming away impressed by his customer focus and creativity. “He’s someone who invests the kind of time and energy it takes to get into the details of a business and really understand it,” Mr. McMillon said in an e-mail.

Mr. Chapek pushed hard for new projects in Disney resorts, such as a totally immersive Star Wars-themed hotel in Florida and an Avengers-inspired area that was supposed to open in California this summer. With the pandemic, he’s reduced capital spending by $700 million this year.

In his rise to the top, Mr. Chapek bested other contenders, including the likable former chief financial officer and parks chief Tom Staggs and the hard-charging dealmaker and former corporate strategist Kevin Mayer.

In an interview in February, Mr. Iger, 69, said he thought the time was right for a transition, with the company completing its $71.3-billion acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets and launching its big family-focused streaming service. Having assembled that massive collection of entertainment properties, he wanted someone to make sure it ran efficiently.

“I really needed to turn over the reins to Bob, to someone else so that they can essentially run the company from day to day and free me up to do what I think should be the priority at this point,” Mr. Iger told Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang.

Mr. Iger’s official role as executive chairman is to oversee creative endeavors at Burbank, California-based Disney. He’s done some of that, helping get a filmed version of the Broadway show Hamilton on Disney+ on an accelerated timetable and negotiating with the National Basketball Association to host the rest of its season at a Disney facility in Florida.

But Mr. Chapek is beginning to get out from beneath Mr. Iger’s shadow. The ex-CEO wasn’t even on Disney’s last earnings call with analysts — a surprise to some who expected Mr. Iger to keep a tight hold on the company.

With the pandemic still raging — and film and TV production only starting to come back — it’s still too early to say what the Chapek era will look like. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a management professor at Yale University who has followed Disney for years, noted that Mr. Iger was dismissed early in his 15-year tenure as a suit without any creative chops. Disney’s new CEO may yet overcome a similar image today, he said.

“You get a sense they really know what they’re doing, that they’ve got a plan,” Mr. Sonnenfeld said. “There’s just an infectious enthusiasm from a guy who’s not a backslapper. It’s the classic tough act to follow and he’s doing a magnificent job.” — Bloomberg

Bloomberry incurs loss on gaming suspension

BLOOMBERRY RESORTS CORP. posted a P4.7-billion loss in the second quarter, reversing its P2.46-billion net profit attributable to equity holders a year ago, as its gaming operations remained suspended.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday, the listed operator of Solaire Resort & Casino recorded a 92% decline in consolidated revenues to P940.9 million, compared with the P11.6 billion it earned in the same quarter in 2019. This brought its first-semester net revenues down by more than half to P10.4 billion.

It shed P3.3 billion between January and June, compared with a profit of P4.7 billion in the same period a year ago.

The Razon-led firm recorded a 97% decline year on year in consolidated gaming revenues to P327.7 million in the April-June period, or 96% lower compared with the previous quarter. This brought its earnings in the first six months of the year down 57% to P8 billion.

Solaire’s gross gaming revenues decreased by 95% in the second quarter to P686.6 million. It earned P121.7 million from its VIP gaming tables, lower by 98%, while its mass tables and slot machines booked P303.7 million and P261.1 million in revenues, respectively.

The government allowed limited dry-run gaming operations at Solaire starting June 15 when Metro Manila was placed under general community quarantine. Select invited guests were accommodated during the period. Still, the integrated resort is still not open to the public.

Solaire Korea’s Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino did not earn from gaming operations in the quarter as its business remained suspended since March 21. Its first-half earnings plunged by 76% to 93.1 million.

Bloomberry’s other business segments, including food and retail, recorded a 69% drop in combined revenues to P613.2 million in the April-June period, pulling down its first-semester figure to P2.3 billion.

Solaire’s non-gaming revenue went down 69% to P610.6 million in the quarter. It noted a hotel occupancy rate of 14.5%, compared with 89.4% a year ago and 67.4% in the first three months of 2020.

Non-gaming business at Jeju Sun earned P2.6 million or a decrease of 89%.

Limited operations in both Solaire and Jeju Sun led the company to further cut its cash expenses in the second quarter to P2.7 billion, or lower by 54% compared with P5.8 billion in the first quarter.

Weathering the pandemic’s impact and securing the health and safety of its employees and guests remained as the company’s top priorities around this time, said Bloomberry Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Enrique K. Razon, Jr.

The company official said the Solaire North project, which is set to be its second integrated resort in the Philippines, is still pushing through, believing that its launch “will coincide with a meaningful upcycle that is typical after a period of economic weakness.”

“We look to emerge from this crisis as a much stronger company,” Mr. Razon added.

On Thursday, shares in Bloomberry decreased by 2.38% to close at P6.15 each. Adam J. Ang

Princess Diana musical to debut on Netflix before hitting Broadway

LOS ANGELES — A new musical about Britain’s Princess Diana will be filmed without an audience and air on Netflix, Inc. in early 2021 before it debuts on Broadway, producers announced on Wednesday.

The unusual arrangement for Diana was made as Broadway remains closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We couldn’t be more excited to finally be able to share our show with theater lovers everywhere,” the producers said in a statement. “Though there is no substitute for the live theater, we are honored to be a part of the quality entertainment that Netflix provides its subscribers worldwide.”

Diana had been set to open on March 31, 2020, but the debut was delayed as Broadway closed its theaters to help prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading. The show had started previews in early March.

The production, which chronicles Diana’s courtship and marriage to Prince Charles and eventual divorce, now is scheduled to open on May 25, 2021.

The Actors’ Equity Association, a labor union representing stage actors, said it had approved a safety plan for rehearsals and recording of the musical. The plan includes regular coronavirus testing, isolating actors and stage managers, and changes to ventilation in backstage areas, the group said in a statement. — Reuters

Security Bank posts higher profit in 2nd quarter

SECURITY BANK Corp. posted a higher net profit in the second quarter on the back of improved net interest income and higher trading gains.

The lender’s net income increased 8% year on year to P2.8 billion in the April to June period, it said in a disclosure to the local bourse on Thursday.

Revenues surged 61% to P12.6 billion in the quarter. Excluding trading gains, total revenues increased 20% to P8.9 billion.

This brought the bank’s first semester net income to P5.7 billion, up by 14% year on year, the statement said.

“The bank set aside P11 billion as provisions for credit losses in H1 2020, a significant increase versus P639 million in H1 2019, which reflects the bank’s proactive provisioning and anticipates a challenging economic environment brought about by the pandemic,” Security Bank said in its statement.

Net interest income in the second quarter climbed 27% year on year to P7.8 billion. Meanwhile, non-interest income surged 183% to P4.9 billion.

Gains from securities trading also ballooned to P3.7 billion from P376 million a year ago.

Security Bank’s net interest margin increased 103 basis points year on year to 4.64% in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, operating expenses slipped 3% in the three months ended June compared to the first quarter as the bank controlled its spending even while growing its digitization, contact center and collection infrastructure.

Security Bank’s total deposits stood at P511 billion at end-June, a 14% increase from the year-ago level. This, as low-cost savings and demand deposits grew 27% to comprise 48% of the total.

Meanwhile, loans without SB Finance’s portfolio rose 7% to P450 billion. Retail loans, which made up 27% of the bank’s portfolio, grew 25%, while wholesale loans rose 4%.

“As we expect the impact of the pandemic on our loan portfolio will continue to unfold over the coming quarters, we have adopted a proactive stance on our provisions,” Security Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Sanjiv Vohra was quoted as saying.

Total assets slipped 5% year on year to P740 billion while shareholders’ capital jumped 11% to P127 billion.

Capital adequacy ratio and common equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 19.7% and 18.8%, respectively, both higher than the required levels.

The bank had 309 branches and 820 automated teller machines as of June 30.

Security Bank’s shares closed at P95.90 per piece on Thursday, gaining P3.10 or 3.34% from its previous finish. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Cebu Landmasters income slips despite record reservation sales

By Adam J. Ang

CEBU LANDMASTERS, INC. (CLI) said its net attributable profit in the first semester slid by 7% to P792 million despite posting record reservation sales.

The listed property developer on Thursday said its consolidated revenues at P3.5 billion were closely matching its 2019 first-half figure.

CLI saw “record” reservation sales of P4.61 billion in the second quarter, 65% of which came from its economic housing brand, despite some construction halts and generally low sales in the mid-income and economic housing sectors.

Its recurring business ballooned more than twice or 137% to P91.3 million.

Bookings by business process outsourcing (BPO) firms for their employees operating during the strict lockdown lifted CLI’s hotel business revenues of P38.2 million. Particularly, the 180-room Citadines Cebu City maintained an occupancy rate of 70% during the lockdown months.

Rental income also increased by 16% to P32.3 million.

“In the breakdown of our revenues, it’s still mostly driven by our projects in Cebu but [there are] very good, very healthy contributions as well from all other major markets, showing you the fruits and the wisdom of diversifying our presence in all these geographies,” CLI Chief Finance Officer Beauregard Grant L. Cheng said in a virtual briefing.

The property developer completed four out of 14 affordable housing projects in the Visayas and Mindanao in the first half. It is geared to launch more projects for the rest of the year “as our markets have remained committed to their purchases,” CLI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jose R. Soberano III said in a separate statement.

“The pandemic has made many see that owning a home in a safe and secure community is a good way to secure their family’s future,” he added.

“We were bracing for the possibility that there [would be fewer] buyers this year for houses,” Mr. Cheng said.

According to Mr. Soberano, most of the buyers during the period were local residents that were enticed by “stretched” payment terms and grace periods to invest in a home. The company touted its second-quarter sales performance as its best to date.

“We ourselves were surprised by how local demand compensated for the decreased share from OFWs (overseas Filipino workers). Home ownership will provide the best security during these times,” he said.

Overseas workers usually make up four in 10 of house buyers, but their share went down to 20% in the quarter.

CLI is still pursuing planned and ongoing construction activities for mixed-use development and hotel projects with target completions in two to four years.

It is “on track” to meet its yearend revenue target, expecting project constructions to catch up in the next two quarters, according to Mr. Soberano. It is eyeing to match its 2019 financial record of P8.5 billion in revenues and P2.5 billion in net profit.

“Construction sites continue to progress despite the quarantine since Cebu Landmasters’ projects are mostly in cities with minimal quarantine restrictions…. We look forward to handing over units to many of our buyers in the next few months,” CLI’s chairman said.

CLI’s shares slightly increased by 1% to close at P5.05 each on Thursday.

Martin Scorsese joins Apple’s Hollywood roster for new films, TV shows

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

LOS ANGELES — Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese will produce film and TV projects for Apple, Inc.’s streaming service under a multi-year deal, the company said on Tuesday, as digital video platforms battle for Hollywood’s top talent.

Scorsese, director of Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and other cinema classics, will produce the projects through his company, Sikelia Productions.

He joins Oprah Winfrey, Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuaron, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and others who have reached agreements to make programming for Apple TV+, the iPhone maker’s $5-a-month subscription streaming service.

Apple had previously announced it would produce Scorsese’s upcoming drama Killers of the Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The movie will appear on Apple TV+ after it is distributed in theaters by Paramount Pictures, a unit of ViacomCBS, Inc.

Scorsese’s most recent feature film, The Irishman, was released by Netflix, Inc. — Reuters

PSBank income slips in Q2

PHILIPPINE SAVINGS Bank (PSBank) booked a lower net profit in the second quarter amid higher loss provisions due to the crisis.

PSBank’s net income stood at P647.6 million in the second quarter, down from the unaudited P681.38 million seen in the same quarter of 2019, it said in a statement on Thursday.

In the first semester, the lender’s net earnings stood at P1.3 billion, down 5% from the same period last year, it said.

The thrift banking arm of the Metrobank Group more than doubled its loan loss reserves to P2.8 billion in the first six months of the year from P1.1 billion in the comparable year-ago period, it said.

“PSBank is likewise taking the conservative stance of building up its loan provisions in anticipation of potential risks due to the pandemic,” PSBank President Jose Vicente L. Alde was quoted as saying.

Net interest income surged 37.2% to P7.2 billion in the first half on the back of improved margins from lower interest expense on deposits.

Meanwhile, other operating income increased by P310.2 million, supported by its sale of securities.

Excluding provisions for impairment and credit losses, operating expenses also rose by 6.2% year on year.

PSBank’s loans and receivables inched up by 0.2% to P161.1 billion. Its gross nonperforming loans ratio stood at 3.7%.

On the other hand, deposits were “almost flat” at P178.1 billion as low-cost deposits rose 13.4% to P63.4 billion.

Total resources increased by P1.7 billion to P233.2 billion.

The bank’s capital stood at P35.2 billion. Its capital adequacy ratio and common equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 18.1% and 17.2%, respectively, well beyond the required minimum.

Return on equity was at 7.43% as of June, down from 9.37% a year ago, the financial statement of its parent company showed. Meanwhile, return on assets stood at 1.13%, also lower than the 1.15% seen in the same period last year.

PSBank’s shares closed trading at P47.70 apiece on Thursday, slipping by 10 centavos or by 0.21% from its previous close. — LWTN

DMCI unit expects sustained business via infrastructure deals 

CONSTRUCTION FIRM D.M. Consunji, Inc. said its order books grew by more than twice in the first semester, with the bulk of contracts being infrastructure projects.

In a statement on Thursday, the company under DMCI Holdings, Inc. said it booked contracts worth P65.8 million between January and June, up 152% over the same months in 2019, boosted by the P958-million contract to build a warehouse complex in Batangas which it bagged in January.

The “strong” order book will sustain the company for the next three years, according to D.M. Consunji President and Chief Executive Officer Jorge A. Consunji.

Infrastructure projects make up P18.3 billion of the order book, while joint-venture contracts form P24.9 billion. About P13.3 billion are plant and utilities construction jobs, P7.5 billion are building contracts, and the remaining P1.8 billion are energy projects.

D.M. Consunji said it had P21.3 billion in balance of work at end-June from its joint-venture contract to develop the first package of North-South Commuter Railway project of the Department of Transportation.

The company is also participating in building the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, Cavite-Laguna Expressway, LRT-2 (Light Rail Transit 2) East Extension, and NLEx-SLEx (North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway) Connector Road.

The construction unit’s net profit dwindled by 83% to P79 million between January and June mainly due to lower construction accomplishments and higher operating costs amid the quarantine restrictions to contain the global coronavirus pandemic. — Adam J. Ang

Sumner Redstone, Viacom head who built empire, 97

SUMNER REDSTONE, the New England cinema operator who became a billionaire media mogul late in life after buying Viacom, Inc., Paramount Pictures, and CBS Corp., has died. He was 97.

Redstone died Tuesday afternoon at his home in Los Angeles. His holding company, National Amusements, Inc., confirmed the death in a statement Wednesday. No cause was provided.

Even in a business known for larger-than-life personalities, the six-foot-tall, redheaded Redstone stood out. His swashbuckling, billion-dollar takeover battles garnered headlines in the financial press. And his power struggles, love life, and seemingly mercurial decisions, such as publicly firing action star Tom Cruise, made him the subject of endless industry gossip and tabloid stories.

“Sumner Redstone was a brilliant visionary, operator and dealmaker, who single-handedly transformed a family owned drive-in theater company into a global media portfolio,” ViacomCBS, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish said in a statement.

He leaves an empire that includes media giant ViacomCBS and its library of pop-culture titles stretching from Rugrats to Titanic. Redstone had a net worth of $1.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He controlled his assets through the closely held National Amusements.

In May 2015, Redstone said that upon his death his ownership in that company will pass to a family trust, whose trustees include his daughter Shari Redstone and her son, Tyler Korff.

LEADERSHIP TRANSITION
Shari Redstone has been playing an increasingly active role for the past few years. She engineered the ouster of longtime Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and gained the upper hand at CBS after CEO Les Moonves resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct. Her strategy led to the December 2019 merger of the two companies, a deal she pushed for to help them compete in the digital-media age.

“My father led an extraordinary life that not only shaped entertainment as we know it today, but created an incredible family legacy,” Redstone said in a statement Wednesday. “Through it all, we shared a great love for one another and he was a wonderful father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. I am so proud to be his daughter and I will miss him always.”

Sumner Murray Rothstein was born in Boston on May 27, 1923, to Michael and Belle Ostrovsky Rothstein. His father changed the family name to Redstone in 1939, three years after he built the first drive-in movie theater in New York State.

CODE CRACKER
After graduating first in his class at the Boston Latin School, Redstone earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and joined a military-intelligence unit to crack Japanese codes during World War II. He received a law degree from Harvard in 1947, the year he married the former Phyllis Raphael, the daughter of a local department-store owner.

Redstone worked as a law clerk for the US Court of Appeals in San Francisco before moving to Washington, where he argued tax cases at the appellate level for the US attorney general. He then joined a private law firm as a partner.

“I thought I was going to practice law to make the world better,” Redstone said in a 1999 interview. “When I found out that the law — and we had a great law practice — was just another business, I decided to go into business for myself.”

He returned to Boston in 1954 to join his father and younger brother Edward in their drive-in theater venture. Eventually, he bought full control.

BUILDING MULTIPLEXES
Redstone bucked the trend of leasing space in shopping malls, preferring to buy real estate. When drive-ins waned, he used the same properties in the 1960s and ’70s to build multiplexes.

As the theaters prospered, Redstone began to invest in movie companies. He bought and sold stakes in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Columbia Pictures, and MGM.

He had accumulated about 8.7% of Viacom, owner of MTV and Nickelodeon. In 1986, an investment group that included members of Viacom’s board proposed to take the company private at a price Redstone deemed “entirely too low,” as he wrote in his 2001 autobiography, A Passion to Win.

Redstone mounted a counteroffer and ultimately persuaded banks to lend two-thirds of the $3.2-billion purchase price, allowing him to win a bidding war against financier Carl Icahn and a Viacom management group. When the deal was done, National Amusements owned 83% of Viacom’s voting stock. At the age of 63, he became a full-fledged media mogul.

Paramount Battle

By late 1989, Redstone had pared enough debt to shed the bankers’ restrictions on new acquisitions.

As chairman, Redstone achieved much of his success through Viacom’s cable-television unit, which ultimately included the channels Comedy Central and Black Entertainment Television and produced The Daily Show and SpongeBob SquarePants among many other programs. He bought Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. in 1994 to help him finance a deal for Paramount Communications, Inc.

In 1993, Redstone struck a deal with the chairman of Paramount, Martin S. Davis, to merge their companies. The move was consummated after a five-month battle with his one-time friend Barry Diller.

“Sumner kept coming,” Brian Roberts, the Comcast Corp. CEO who had supported Diller’s bid, told the Los Angeles Times after Redstone won. “Every time you could taste victory, he came back.”

BLOCKBUSTER PURCHASE
Redstone sweetened his offer five times, and in the process, agreed to buy Blockbuster because the video-rental chain pledged an additional $1.25 billion to keep Viacom in the bidding. Viacom sold 18% of Blockbuster to the public in 1999 and the rest in 2004.

His $37.3-billion purchase of CBS in 1999, five years after buying Paramount for $10 billion, created what was for a time the second-largest media company in the world after Time Warner, Inc.

“I saw the creation of an advertising juggernaut, No. 1 in the world,” he wrote of the Viacom and CBS merger. “I also saw that we would be the No. 1 creator and purveyor of television programming to the networks, cable, and syndication — a syndication giant. I saw explosive growth.”

Redstone often said he would never retire and joked he would live forever. He followed a diet packed with antioxidants and exercised daily while enjoying a vodka in the evening. In 1979, he survived a Boston hotel fire by hanging on to a third-floor windowsill, suffering burns to 45% of his body. He also beat prostate cancer.

With his first wife, Redstone had a daughter, Shari, chairwoman of the merged entity ViacomCBS, and a son, Brent. The marriage ended in divorce. In 2003, Redstone wed Paula Fortunato, a 40-year-old schoolteacher. After about five years, they filed for divorce.

In 2005, Redstone announced that he was splitting his media empire into Viacom and CBS, naming Tom Freston and Moonves as the respective CEOs. Redstone later fired Freston, whom he had praised for overseeing growth in Viacom’s cable networks, and replaced him with Dauman, a lawyer and Viacom director.

Redstone’s later years were marred by a public dispute over his mental competency, triggered when a former girlfriend sued after being ejected from his house and replaced as his healthcare proxy. Testimony in related court cases revealed that Redstone could barely move or speak.

His reign as a media executive officially ended in February 2016, at age 92, when he resigned as chairman at both CBS and Viacom. Still, even in his diminished state, Redstone, and his equally strong-willed daughter Shari showed they remained in charge.

The Redstone family will hold a private funeral, with a larger memorial to be determined once the coronavirus pandemic wanes. Redstone had requested that “My Way” be played at his service, and that he be buried in a family plot near Boston.

To contact the reporters on this story:

Kathryn Harris in New York at cstevens@bloomberg.net;

Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:

Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net;

Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net

Rob Golum, John J. Edwards III

EastWest Bank not looking to tap bond market soon

East West Banking Corp. (EastWest Bank) is not planning to return to the local bond market anytime soon as it remains liquid, with deposit levels high and lending activity weak.

The bank does not see the need to tap the capital market at the moment but will continue to observe market conditions and will remain open to the option, EastWest Bank President Antonio C. Moncupa, Jr. said in an online briefing on Thursday.

“At the rate that it is headed, you don’t need additional funds and at the rate that the market is flooded with liquidity, I don’t think there is much pressure to get to the bond market. There are just too much deposits. There’s so much money floating around,” Mr. Moncupa said. 

“We don’t see it (tapping the bond market) at this time — I always say at this time, because we don’t know what will happen two to three months from now,” he added.

The bank tapped the bond market in February, raising P3.7 billion in three-year bonds. This was the first issuance out of its P10-billion program launched in June 2019.

The Gotianun-led lender saw its deposits pick up by four percent to P300.4 billion at end-June. Meanwhile, its loan portfolio stood at P255.6 billion, with its net non-performing loan ratio at 1.8%.

Mr. Moncupa said lending activities have been tempered as consumers remain cautious amid the ongoing pandemic. 

For instance, credit card usage has gone down significantly as consumers limit their spending given economic uncertainties, he said.

“In terms of restructuring (loans), we’re not seeing much at this time because I think the deferral that Bayanihan (to Heal as One Act) gave a lot of people some room to maneuver — but it is starting to trickle in,” he said. 

The bank estimates it will set aside P10 billion in loan loss provisions this year, which is about four percent of its loan book, in anticipation of potential credit losses. 

Currently, the lender “can handle the bad loans,” Mr. Moncupa said, and may not need to access a special purpose vehicle that has been proposed by policymakers to help banks unload soured debt.

“We’re trying to focus on assisting our borrowers because their cash flows are distorted, both on the business side and on the household side. So we have expanded our collection efforts and we have created a loan advisory group that could tailor-fit the less standard packages that we can offer our customers to help them manage their cash flow and avoid them going into default,” he said.

EastWest Bank saw its first-half net income surge 65% to P4.5 billion on the back of improved margins from its core lending and deposit-taking business.

The bank’s shares inched up 0.51% to P7.84 each on Thursday from the Wednesday’s close of P7.80 apiece. — B.M. Laforga

Exams for foreign medical personnel get IATF go-ahead

QUALIFYING EXAMS for foreign medical professionals will go ahead next month in areas under more relaxed forms of quarantine following clearance from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

In IATF-EID Resolution No. 62 approved on Wednesday, the task force said it allowed the Qualifying Assessment for Foreign Medical Professionals to go through next month.

“The resumption of the Part II of the testing activities for the Qualifying Assessment for Foreign Medical Professionals tentatively scheduled on 19 September 2020 by the Professional Regulation Commission is ratified,” according to the resolution.

Both the Physician Licensure Examinations and the QA will only be done in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified general community quarantine (MGCQ)

In July, the IATF-EID allowed the Physician Licensure Exams to go ahead in September.

In a briefing, Thursday, IATF-EID Spokesperson Herminio L. Roque said, “Kung saan gagawin ang exam ay sa mga lugar na nasa ilalim ng GCQ or MGCQ. Kailangan din mag-observe ng strict health protocols during the exams (Wherever the exam takes place, the area should be under GCQ or MGCQ. Strict health protocols must also be observed).” — Gillian M. Cortez