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PSE taps top execs in bid to boost market listings

THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has tapped top executives of listed firms to share their successful initial public offering (IPO) experiences in a bid to encourage more companies to list at the local bourse.

“What better way to embolden companies to conduct an IPO than to hear meaningful insights from those who have successfully gone through the IPO route, and continue to reap the benefits of being a listed company,” Ramon S. Monzon, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the PSE, said in a statement on Thursday.

The PSE said it wants business leaders to realize that an IPO listing is “a catalyst to propel their companies to a higher level of growth and maturity.”

“We are opening more avenues for entrepreneurs to learn more about the process of going public, as well as introduce reforms in our listing requirements in order to encourage more businesses to consider capital raising through the stock market,” Mr. Monzon said.

The PSE is organizing a virtual round table discussion called “The Road to IPO,” which will be held at 2:00 p.m. on May 25.

The move comes as the operator of the local bourse steps up its efforts to encourage companies to raise capital at the stock market through an IPO.

Recently, the PSE has relaxed listing requirements both for the main and the small, medium, emerging (SME) boards and has applied “a measure that will gauge a company’s suitability for listing despite the challenges it is facing due to the pandemic.”

“The Philippine stock market lags behind when it comes to the number of companies going public,” Mr. Monzon said in a statement issued in April.

The PSE has eased prerequisites such as the track record and the operating history requirements and the amended listing rules now include guidelines for sponsor models for those who wish to list at the SME board through a sponsor company.

For the first quarter of the year, the PSE saw one IPO, one follow-on offering, two stock rights offerings, and two private placements.

The total capital raised for both primary and secondary offer shares for the period amounted to P41.63 billion.

DoubleDragon Properties Corp.’s real estate investment trust (REIT) made its “challenging” IPO debut at the local bourse in March, making it only the second REIT listing in the country so far.

Shares of DDMPR were listed at P2.25 each and as of Wednesday, its market close was at P1.95 apiece.

Just last month, the PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have greenlighted Monde Nissin, Corp.’s IPO, which is slated to be listed at the main board by June 7.

Monde Nissin stocks are priced at P13.50 per common share, around 23% lower than the P17.50-price declared in its registration statement after being advised by banking partners.

The PSE also approved the follow-on offering of AC Energy Corp. after its stocks right offering in January to raise up to P16.48 billion. The tentative listing date of which is set on May 14.

For the PSE’s virtual event this month, key speakers are the following: SM Investment Corp. Chairman Jose T. Sio, Bank of the Philippine Islands President and CEO Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco, Puregold Price Club, Inc. Director and Cosco Capital, Inc. President Leonardo B. Dayao, and Wilcon Depot, Inc. President and CEO Lorraine Belo-Cincochan.

Finance Secretary Carlos B. Dominguez III and SEC Chairman Emilio B. Aquino will also be delivering messages of support during the event.

Companies that wish to join the discussion may reach out to the PSE’s marketing services department via marketingservices@pse.com.ph. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

Singer Billie Eilish gives intimate account of her life in new book

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POP STAR Billie Eilish is giving fans an intimate look at her journey to stardom in a new book and separate audiobook, Billie Eilish: In Her Own Words.

The book includes never-before-seen photos of Ms. Eilish from childhood, including one of her at the piano singing into a child’s tape recorder. The audiobook features Ms. Eilish telling stories about her first release, “Ocean Eyes,” and talking about the special relationship she has with fans.

“It’s funny like, I think a lot of people think that when ‘Ocean Eyes’ came out, suddenly I was a superstar and quit everything and just became like famous… and it did not work like that at all.

“Yeah, my life stayed the same for a while. I was still dancing hours and hours and hours a day. And I was in choir still and I was doing all the same things I did. I was in circus class,” she told Reuters.

“But to me it was huge and it was like the biggest moment of my life.”

In 2020 Eilish became the youngest artist ever to write and record a James Bond theme song, following in the footsteps of such stars as Adele, Madonna, and Paul McCartney.

The 19-year-old’s debut album topped the Billboard 200 charts in 2015 and was the most streamed of 2019. This year Ms. Eilish won the Grammy for Record of the Year for “Everything I Wanted.” — Reuters

Robinsons Land eyes 14 office assets in possible REIT listing

ROBINSONSLANDCORP.COM

By Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

GOKONGWEI-LED Robinsons Land Corp. intends to list a real estate investment trust (REIT) with 14 properties by the second half this year “to create further opportunities for growth” and “to crystalize the value of some of its high-quality office assets.”

The company said the listing will include a gross leasable area (GLA) of 400,000 square meters (sq.m.) from its portfolio.

“We have made several announcements in this regard. It is our intention to have [a] REIT or real estate investment trust IPO (initial public offering) this year, we plan to list 14 out of our 25 office assets into this REIT,” Frederick D. Go, president and chief executive officer of Robinsons Land, said during the company’s stockholders’ meeting on Thursday.

However, the plans are still subject to regulatory approvals.

The company’s office buildings division aims to complete the development of Cybergate Iloilo 1, Cybergate Galleria Cebu, Cybergate Bacolod 2, Cyber Omega, and Bridgetowne East Campus 1 this year, which it had previously called “ideal” for business process outsourcing firms.

Robinsons Land said the completion of these five projects will grow net leasable space by 18% to 721,000 sq.m. By 2022, the company aims to complete GBF 1 in its Bridgetowne Estate to bump up its net leasable space to 774,000 sq.m.

Meanwhile, the company also bared its plans of expanding its malls to the provinces this year by pushing through with the expansion of Robinsons Place Dumaguete, as well as the opening of a mall in La Union.

“Together with the Tacloban Mall, which we had just reopened, total leasable space will reach 1.58 million square meters by the end of this year,” Mr. Go said, referring to the company’s malls division.

For 2022, the company plans to open its Antipolo expansion mall, and Robinsons Place Gapan in Central Luzon to raise its mall GLA to 1.63 million sq.m.

Robinsons Land’s industrial and integrated developments segment is looking to complete three facilities to get a total of173,000 sq.m. of net leasable space.

The real estate firm’s hotels and resorts business will also open Go Hotels in Tuguegarao and Naga, and Summit Hotel in General Santos and Naga “in preparation for the anticipated resurgence of domestic tourism.” Westin Sonata and Fili Urban Resort Cebu are in the pipeline to launch in 2022.

For the first quarter of 2021, the company’s capital expenditure spending was at P4.98 billion.

Robinsons Land said it currently has 832 hectares in its land bank and continues to be “on the lookout for land bank opportunities nationwide.”

On Wednesday, Robinsons Land shares at the stock exchange went down by 1.64% or P0.28 to close at P16.84 apiece.

Tina Turner, Jay-Z, Go-Go’s selected for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

TINA TURNER— EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

LOS ANGELES — Singer Tina Turner, rapper Jay-Z and 1980s female pop group The Go-Go’s were among the newest performers selected for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the organization announced on Wednesday. Others in Cleveland-based Rock Hall’s Class of 2021 include the band Foo Fighters, singer-songwriter Carole King, and rocker Todd Rundgren. Ms. Turner will be inducted for her solo work. She previously had been honored for duo Ike and Tina Turner. Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters was inducted earlier as part of Nirvana. Ms. King also is a two-time honoree, this time as a performer. She was previously inducted as a songwriter with Gerry Coffin. Honorees were selected based on ballots sent by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to more than 1,200 artists, historians and members of the music industry. Members of the public also provided votes that counted as a single ballot. The honorees are scheduled to be inducted at an Oct. 30 ceremony in Cleveland. —  Reuters

URC targets healthier product lines

FOOD manufacturer Universal Robina Corp. (URC) said it is working on introducing healthier products by increasing its wellness criteria on top of its efforts to make its production process safer and more sustainable.

“We are also working on providing a lot of alternative materials, working on lower sodium, lower sugar formulations, and also increasing the wellness criteria of our product portfolio and introducing more and more healthy product lines into our portfolio,” President and Chief Executive Officer Irwin C. Lee said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Thursday.

URC also said that in the past year, it had developed products and brands that respond to “COVID-accentuated consumer trends of health, value for money, shift to in-home, and affordable indulgence.”

The company also shared its planned product supply chain transformation, which focuses on sustainability efforts to reduce costs and wastes. It is partnering up with various organizations to achieve sustainability in its production processes.

“Since 2018, we have made considerable progress and we now use less energy, less water, less packaging material per kilo of product we make,” Mr. Lee said.

On Wednesday, URC stocks at the local bourse went up by 1.52% to close at P134 from P132. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

Napoleon’s shirt worn in exile and English letter go on display

BATTLE of Waterloo memorial museum — EMDEE /EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

WATERLOO, Belgium — A shirt worn by Napoleon during his exile on the island of Saint Helena in the south Atlantic and a letter he wrote there to practice his English have gone on display at a museum in Belgium ahead of an auction later this year in Britain. A silk scarf he wore around his head on the windswept British outpost is also on show, along with a walking stick made from a narwhal tooth, a rare and precious object from the exiled former French emperor’s daily life on Saint Helena. The exhibition at the Battle of Waterloo memorial museum, near Brussels, is part of commemorations of the bicentenary of Napoleon’s death aged 51 on May 5, 1821. The letter is one of only a few texts written by Napoleon in English that have survived. It does not have an address and is believed to have been dictated to him by his secretary as part of exercises to improve his English. The letter is expected to fetch the highest price out of all the items that will be sold at auction at Bonhams in London on Oct. 27. The Waterloo curators and auctioneers in London say the objects shed light on Napoleon’s latter days in exile, a time when he was writing his memoirs to try and enshrine a legacy as a military genius and visionary leader. — Reuters

Jollibee sets up 49th US store in Maryland

JOLLIBEE.COM.PH

JOLLIBEE Foods Corp. has opened its first Jollibee store in the United States’ Maryland state at the Westfield Wheaton Mall, around 30 minutes away from Washington DC.

The fastfood brand aims to market itself to tourists and so-called “Gen Pop” customers who do not know about it, but are open to trying out new food.

“We are happy to welcome our fans who have patiently waited for Jollibee’s arrival in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area, as well as introduce the brand to curious new customers,” Maribeth D. Dela Cruz, president of the Jollibee group for North America, Philippine brands, said in a statement on Thursday.

Jollibee has opened five new branches in the region since the start of the year.

The fastfood chain is now serving in 12 US states through 49 stores.

“Jollibee fans can look forward to more locations popping up in major cities throughout the year, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City,” the company said.

It is aiming to put up 300 stores in North America by 2024.

Jollibee generated a net income of P153 million in the first quarter of the year, a reversal of the P1.68-billion loss it generated in the same period last year. Its topline declined by 12% to P34.68 billion from P39.43 billion.

Sales from its international business accounted for 41.1% of its global system-wide sales for the period, as sales from the segment improved by 1.3%.

The company said North America was one of the regions wherein sales levels for Philippine brands were already equal or slightly higher compared with March 2019 sales.

Jollibee stocks at the local bourse went down by 2.63% or P4.60 on Wednesday to close at P170.40 apiece. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

Ellen DeGeneres to end TV show, says she needs ‘break from talking’

Ellen DeGeneres — BW FILE PHOTO

LOS ANGELES —  Ellen DeGeneres, one of America’s best-known talk show hosts, said on Wednesday she will end her daytime show in 2022, saying that after 19 years it was time to do something different. DeGeneres, 63, told her virtual audience that the show had been “the greatest experience of my life” and thanked her fans for watching. But she said she needed “to take a break from talking.” The Ellen DeGeneres Show, produced by AT&T, Inc.’s Warner Bros and syndicated to TV stations, has won more than 60 Emmy awards. But audiences have fallen in the past six months following an internal inquiry into media reports of a toxic work environment behind the scenes. Three top producers exited the production in 2020, and DeGeneres apologized, promising “a new chapter.” She told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday that public attacks during that time “destroyed me” but did not influence her decision to end the show. That choice, she said, was made when she extended her contract for three years in 2019. — Reuters

NLEX Corp. pilots automatic plate recognition to spot erring motorists

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

NLEX Corp. said it is testing an automatic license plate recognition system at its 25 toll lanes in Valenzuela City, partly to identify erring motorists who use cashless lanes without radio-frequency identification (RFID) stickers or with insufficient load balance.

“The system uses smart cameras which are capable of reading vehicle license plates and are useful for matching transactions, improving safety, and enforcing traffic laws,” the tollway company said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday.

The system is designed to facilitate easier matching of motorists’ entry and exit transactions, it noted.

“It also helps in identifying vehicles passing the RFID lanes without RFID stickers, as well as those with insufficient balance, and vehicles that pose potential safety issues.”

The company is keeping its toll barriers up at Mindanao, Karuhatan, and Paso de Blas toll plazas.

To recall, the Valenzuela City government suspended the business permit of the tollway company in December last year over the heavy traffic caused by the implementation of its cashless toll payment system.

Valenzuela City Mayor Rex T. Gatchalian lifted the suspension after both parties agreed to keep the toll barriers up on all lanes for vehicles with RFID stickers.

Data transmission between the toll collection and Easytrip systems has been reduced from an average of 45 minutes to less than five minutes after “upgrades,” according to the tollway company.

“Aside from infrastructure building, we are also persistently working on digitizing and automating our business processes. We are continually adjusting our systems so we can provide a more efficient service to our motorists and afford them ease of travel,” NLEX President and General Manager J. Luigi L. Bautista said.

NLEX Corp. is under Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.

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

Mattel turning old Barbies, Matchbox cars and MEGA Bloks into new toys

MATTEL.COM

TOY MAKER Mattel is encouraging kids to return Barbies, Matchbox cars, and MEGA Bloks they no longer play with to the company for recycling into new toys. The goal of the company’s new “Playback” program is to recover and reuse materials across all products and packaging by 2030, Mattel said as it announced the program this week. “Mattel’s Playback program is a great step,” said Jim Silver, CEO of TTPM, a toy industry research firm. “The consumer is becoming more and more concerned about the future and becoming more eco-friendly; manufacturers are starting to step up and start to try and make the environment better.” The company is encouraging consumers to ship their old toys back to Mattel, where they are sorted and separated by material type, processed, and recycled. Materials that cannot be recycled will be either “downcycled” or “converted to energy.” Last month, Mattel unveiled the Matchbox Tesla Roadster, its first vehicle made from 99% recycled materials and carbon. Mattel is aiming to make all Matchbox die-cast cars, playsets and packaging with 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials by 2030. To participate in the program, consumers can visit Mattel.com/PlayBack, print a free shipping label, and pack and mail their outgrown Mattel toys back to Mattel. — Reuters

EDC nets P3.3 billion in first quarter, expects ‘relatively flat’ financial year

By Angelica Y. Yang, Reporter

LOPEZ-LED Energy Development Corp. (EDC) ended the first quarter with a 2.1% increase in net income to P3.3 billion mainly due to higher sales, but its financial showing for the year may turn out to be flat, its finance chief said.

“The increase was mainly due to higher revenues by P532.0 million from P9.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020 to P10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2021, partly offset by higher costs of sale and general and expenses of P643.3 million,” EDC’s Chief Financial Officer Erwin O. Avante told BusinessWorld in an e-mail on Wednesday.

He said EDC had a lower net financial expense of P92.6 million, which was primarily driven by the repayment of its outstanding $181-million bonds in January.

For the firm’s financial prospects for the year, he said: “I think this early, we’re still looking at a relatively flat financial performance for 2021 in terms of our attributable recurring net income.”

“Given the lockdown, electricity demand is still tepid and we are prudent as we ramp up our activities moving forward,” Mr. Avante said.

Speaking for the firm, he said that the country’s economic recovery is hinged on the successful rollout of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines and the achievement of herd immunity.

For updates on the company’s capital expenditure (capex) this year, the official said EDC was tracking at around P2.1 billion as of end-March.

While he did not disclose which specific projects cornered the budget, he said they “covered several items.”

“We expect to catch up later this year. Some of the bigger projects are ongoing including the 29-megawatt (MW) Palayan Bayan binary project and the 3.6-MW Mindanao 3 project,” he said, referring to the firm’s geothermal projects that are underway.

Mr. Avante earlier said that EDC had allotted a capex of P17 billion to secure its growth in the long term.

Based on the annual report of its parent firm First Gen Corp., EDC targets to complete its Mindanao 3 binary plant in the first half of 2022, and its Palayan Bayan project by the second half next year.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, EDC President Richard B. Tantoco said that the firm had noted a recurring attributable net income to parent equity holders of P9.85 billion for 2020 despite a significant decrease in power demand.

Last year, EDC sold a total of 9,111.8 gigawatt-hours of power generation volume across its geothermal, wind, solar and hydro operations.

Renewable energy producer EDC has an installed capacity of more than 1,476 MW, accounting for almost 20% of the country’s installed renewables capacity.

YouTube to launch $100-M creator fund for Shorts video feature 

NATANAELGINTING/FREEPIK.COM

ALPHABET, Inc.’s YouTube on Tuesday announced a $100-million fund to pay content creators who make hit videos on its new short-form video feature Shorts, as YouTube aims to court more influencers. The fund will launch in the coming months and pay creators this year and 2022, YouTube said. The investment comes as platforms are racing to attract young creators who are building huge fan followings — and big earning potential — by filming short comedy skits and dance routines. Viral app TikTok jump-started the trend of short-form video clips and was quickly copied by other apps such as Facebook-owned Instagram’s Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, and YouTube Shorts. YouTube said the new fund will pay thousands of creators each month whose videos on Shorts receive the most engagement from viewers. The streaming video site added it will begin to test ads on Shorts. — Reuters

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