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Cebu Landmasters books P256-million profit in Q2

CEBU Landmasters, Inc. (CLI) booked a 6% decline in attributable profit for the second quarter of 2019, as most of the projects completed for the period were part of joint ventures.

In a regulatory filing, the Cebu-based property developer reported a net income attributable to the parent of P255.8 million in the April to June period. This came on the back of a 20% increase in revenues to P1.63 billion.

“That’s a result of the percentage of completion. Most that have been completed in the first half is mostly for joint ventures, that’s why it’s slower,” CLI Chief Finance Officer Beuregard Grant L. Cheng said in a media and analysts’ briefing in Taguig yesterday.

For the first half, net income attributable to the parent climbed 13% to P854.34 million following a 34% uptick in revenues to P3.495 billion.

The listed company said it remains on track to hit an attributable profit of P2 billion for full year 2019, as unrecognized revenues totaled P12.9 billion by end-June.

“Internally, we’re pretty much on track and we’re pretty confident of hitting our guidance numbers,” Mr. Cheng said.

The company attributed its growth in the first half to high-end projects such as 38 Park Avenue in Cebu City, as well as the on-time construction of its projects that allows it to quickly turn over the units.

Reservation sales for the period stood at P5.26 billion, driven by the sales of its newly launched residential project called One Paragon Place in Davao City which is now 78% sold out.

CLI also benefited from its growing leasable portfolio, as it generated a 16% increase in revenues to P27.7 million. The company ended the first half with 11,815.15 square meters (sq.m.) in gross leasable area, with another 69,234 sq.m. under construction. It targets to have 200,000 sq.m under its network by 2023. — Arra B. Francia

Titas are the focus of new TV show

ACTRESSES Joanna Ampil, Angelica Panganiban, Cherry Pie Picache, Lorna Tolentino, Agot Isidro, and Mylene Dizon all agree that there is more to being a tita (aunt) — in this case referring to middle class, middle-aged, urban aunts — than work meetings, yoga sessions, salon appointments, tea time. The actresses star in the new iWant original series, Call Me Tita.

The show looks into the lives of five spirited life-long friends who seek new experiences as they mature and find a deeper purpose in life.

Through his friendship and interactions with the actresses, director Andoy Ranay thought of producing a story about titas. “We pitched it last December (2018) to Dreamscape. We got the go signal during the Christmas break. We created a concept and story and starting shooting this April,” Mr. Ranay said in a mixture of English and Filipino, at the press launch at the ELJ Communications Center on Aug. 6.

According to Mr. Ranay, the biggest challenge was how to schedule the actresses’ shooting dates. “This is a very ambitious [project] but I guess we pulled it off,” the director said, adding that the scenes were shot separately with the different leads.

Ms. Picache plays Ruth, a bakery owner who finds herself interested with a chef despite a solid 25 years of marriage; Ms. Dizon plays the demure Frida who has just ended her 15-year-marriage to her American husband and unexpectedly finds solace with a lesbian artist; Ms. Isidro takes the role of Celine, a retired beauty queen and social media savvy mother of a grown-up son who comes out as gay; Ms. Ampil plays Maya, human rights lawyer who falls in love with her friend’s husband; the youngest of the five friends is Gabbi — played by Ms. Panganiban — who slowly matures as she and her friends scramble to search for her missing mother — played by Ms. Tolentino — who is involved in a drug ring.

Co-produced by Dreamscape Digital and Heaven’s Best Entertainment, Call Me Tita is the first series to simultaneously premiere on ABS-CBN and iWant on Aug. 18.

All episodes will drop on the streaming service on that date while new episodes will be shown on ABS-CBN every Sunday night at 9 p.m.

The lead actors reveal that they are cool with being a tita in real life.

“A lot of us actually embrace it,” Ms. Ampil said. For Ms. Panganiban, titas are not boring because they are “mature and responsible.” For the other actresses, being a tita is an opportunity to explore new things. “We have choices and we are able to do whatever it is we want to do,” Ms. Dizon said.

The misconception about titas that Mr. Ranay hopes to debunk is that actors of their age can only play mother and supporting roles.

“After 45 years of your life, you will discover na may kaya ka pang gawin (you will discover that you are still capable of other things). There’s another facet of your life that you want to pursue,” he said. “Mas rich ’yung mga pwede pang ma-experience at pwede pang maikwento (There will be richer experiences and stories).”

Call Me Tita premieres on Aug. 18 at ABS-CBN and all episodes will be available on the iWant app (iOs and Android) or oniwant.ph. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/iWant. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Media giants ABS-CBN, GMA report mixed results

LISTED television networks reported mixed financial conditions in the second quarter, as ABS-CBN Corp.’s profit soared 75% while earnings of GMA Network, Inc. fell 22%.

In a regulatory filing, ABS-CBN reported its attributable net income stood at P695.8 million at the end of the second quarter, driven by the 10% growth in revenues to P10.44 billion.

For the first half, the Lopez-led media giant’s attributable net income increased by 83% to P1.55 billion. Consolidated revenues jumped 10% to P20.8 billion, 54% of which were from advertising sales.

Revenues from ad placements grew 18% to P11.29 billion, “attributable to both political placements and growth in regular advertising.” ABS-CBN said excluding political ads, regular advertising went up 3.2% year on year.

Consumer sales, which make up the remaining 46% of ABS-CBN’s revenues, also increased 1.7% to P9.52 billion, “mainly resulting from higher TVPlus Boxes sold, theatrical receipts from ABS-CBN Films and higher subscription revenues from Sky Cable.”

The company’s total costs and expenses increased by 2% to P18.87 billion, as production costs rose from original iWant content and election coverage expenses.

Meanwhile, GMA recorded a 21% drop in attributable net income of P627.33 million in the second quarter. A 2% uptick in revenues to P4.12 billion was not enough to offset the 14% rise in its production costs to P1.7 billion during the April to June period.

For the first half, GMA’s attributable net income grew 10% to P1.34 billion, as consolidated revenues went up 7% to P7.91 billion.

Election-related placements drove advertising revenues 8% higher to P7.26 billion, outpacing the 2% decline in subscriptions and other revenues to P653.1 million.

“Political advocacies and advertisements during the period propelled the revenue upswing. Without the impact of this non-recurring revenue, consolidated top line of the company slightly dipped by 3%,” GMA said.

GMA’s total operating expenses in the first half grew at a slightly slower pace than revenues, increasing 6% to end at P6.01 billion. — Denise A. Valdez

BPI eyeing fresh dollar bond issuance this year

BANK OF the Philippine Islands said it is looking at another dollar bond issue.

AYALA-LED Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) will remain “opportunistic” in tapping the dollar bond market this year for its funding requirements, a senior bank official said on Thursday.

“We remain opportunistic in tapping the debt capital markets to supplement our funding requirements. This is still really just as an addition to our core source of funding, which is our strong deposit bases,” BPI Chief Financial Officer Maria Theresa Marcial Javier told reporters on Thursday.

“We will announce the details in due course,” the official said.

“What might be forthcoming is a potential US dollar issue. Most likely this year. We are actually talking to potential arrangers and underwriters so we have not really finalized. So, soon,” Ms. Javier said.

“The size that we are looking at is probably smaller than what we had issued in 2018 — it’s a $600 [million] issue. It’s probably smaller… We’re just looking at some finer points and we will definitely be coming up with the specifics soon,” she said.

In August last year, BPI raised $600 million via five-year senior unsecured fixed-rate debt to maximize its offshore funding flexibility and to broaden its liquidity sources. Those bonds were quoted at 4.25%.

It marked the lender’s maiden issue from its $2-billion medium-term note program unveiled in June last year, as well as its first offshore bond offering.

Meanwhile, BPI hopes to end the year with a net income higher than the P23.33 billion it made last year as it benefits from the low interest rate environment.

“Banks benefitted from lower interest rates in the first semester and we see that we will be sustained in the second semester,” Ms. Javier said. “Second half remains to be promising and hopefully sustain the first half results.”

BPI’s bottom line jumped 24.6% to P13.863 billion in the first semester.

Shares in the bank dropped 0.33% or 30 centavos to end at P90 apiece on Thursday. — Mark T. Amoguis

Mayonnaise ready to spread its music with 2nd concert

AFTER a sold-out concert in June, Filipino rock band Mayonnaise is reprising its Akalain Mo ’Yun concert in September due to insistent public demand, according to the band’s frontman.

“A repeat concert was a no-brainer when we realized that we sold out the first one… we were surprised with the demand of the tickets,” Monty Macalino, the band’s frontman and songwriter, told reporters during an Aug. 7 press conference at the El Calle Food and Music Hall in Resorts World Manila, Pasay City.

He explained that during their first major concert in June — also at the Music Museum at the Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan — many of their fans went to the theater’s box office thinking they could get tickets on-site not knowing that the tickets had sold out days before. Mr. Macalino said that this reprise is for the fans who weren’t able to attend the first one and for those who want to see it all again.

“This event is for our fans and for music enthusiasts that were influenced by us,” he said.

Mayonnaise first burst into the music scene in 2002 and took their name from the song “Mayonnaise” (1993) by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. Two years later they became a mainstream act after winning the 2004 Red Horse Muziklaban, a “battle of the bands.”

In the same year, they launched their self-titled debut album under independent label, VAMP Records, distributed by Sony Music. The album spawned hits like “Jopay,” which remains the band’s most popular song in their discography.

Other songs the band is known for are “Bakit Part 2,” “Tayo na lang Dalawa,” “Paraan,” and “Kathryn.”

More than a decade and several lineup changes later, Mayonnaise remains as a fixture in the Philippine music scene as Mr. Macalino said that “we’re staying no matter if Mayonnaise becomes successful or not because I will keep writing songs.”

The current band lineup includes Mr. Macalino, Shan Regalado (percussion and drums), Carlo Servano (lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Nikki Tirona (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Keano Swing (rhythm guitar, backing vocals).

The concert will feature their greatest hits and songs that their fans requested them to sing.

“We have a Viber group with our fans and they asked us why we didn’t sing certain songs during the first concert,” Mr. Macalino said.

They will once again be collaborating with the Manila String Machine, a stringed musical ensemble, that Mr. Macalino praised for their arrangement of Mayonnaise songs.

They will also be joined onstage by Barbie Almalbis, Champ Lui Pio of Hale, and I Belong to the Zoo.

“Expect a good show. We did mix up the set list to make things different this time around,” he said.

Akalain Mo ’Yun Part 2 will be on Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m., at the Music Museum. Tickets are available via bit.ly/AkalainMoYun2019 and ktx.abs-cbn.com or by contacting Music Museum at 721-0635 or 721-6726. — Zsarlene B. Chua

Anne Curtis Smith goes sexy again in Just a Stranger

ANNE CURTIS Smith-Heussaff is returning to her roots as a sexy, romantic drama actress in Jason Paul Laxamana’s Just a Stranger, a film about infidelity and its consequences. The film hits theaters nationwide on Aug. 21.

“I’m very excited to be back to sexy-drama. It’s a beautiful story,” Ms. Smith-Heussaff said during a press conference on July 31 at the La Reve Events Place in Quezon City.

Ms. Smith-Heusaff plays Mae, a woman in her mid-30s who lives her life on her own terms and is married to a wealthy businessman played by Edu Manzano. Such is her life that she can jetset to anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice and she chose to go to Lisbon, Portugal for a vacation.

In the city she meets Jericho (played by Marco Gumabao), the 19-year-old son of a Philippine Ambassador who is forced by his father to earn his keep to teach him about responsibility. The two embark on an affair that Mae thinks would end after her vacation but then the two meet again in the Philippines where they continue the affair.

Also included in the cast are Isay Alvarez, Robert Seña, and Jas Rodriguez.

“They know it’s wrong but they can’t help it… [it shows] how far they can hide [their affair,] Mr. Laxamana said during the press conference.

The director said that they initially submitted the film for consideration for this year’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino in September but it wasn’t chosen. This is the first time that Mr. Laxamana does not have an entry in the festival organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

He entered the festival with The Day After Valentine’s in 2018, and 100 Tula Para Kay Stella in 2017.

Ms. Smith-Heusaff is no stranger to sexy dramas, with films like No Other Woman (2011) by Ruel S. Bayani and A Secret Affair (2012) by Nuel Naval, but she admitted that this is the first time she is doing a film focused on a May-December love affair.

Ms. Smith-Heussaff’s most recent film projects have been in varied genres including the action film Buy Bust by Erik Matti, Yam Laranas’ mystery-thrillers Aurora, and Irene Villamor’s romantic drama Sid & Aya: Not a Love Story, all of which came out in 2018.

This year, she is part of the cast of the 2019 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry Momalland by Barry Gonzalez, a comedy where she co-stars with MMFF veteran Jose Marie “Vice Ganda” Viceral.

Just A Stranger opens in cinemas nationwide on Aug. 21. — ZB Chua

Healthy sales push SSI’s Q2 earnings 17% higher

SSI GROUP, Inc. (SSI) reported its second-quarter earnings increased by 16.6% to P175.3 million, thanks to “healthy” top-line growth from its luxury and casual brands.

In a regulatory filing, SSI said net sales went up 5.5% to P4.92 billion in the April to June period.

For the first half, the company saw net income jump 22% to P345.9 million, on the back of a 6.3% increase in net sales to P9.9 billion.

“The Group continued to post healthy topline growth during the period driven mainly by performance in its luxury and bridge, and casual brands, and the others category, which include food, personal care, and home brands,” SSI said, adding that same-store sales grew by 7%.

SSI said it had 593 stores covering 116,345 square meters (sq.m.) as of end-June. This was lower than the 616 stores with 124,333 sq.m. it had during the same period in 2018.

During the second quarter, the company opened 16 new stores with a floor area of 1,494 sq.m., but closed 17 stores with 4,903 sq.m.

SSI’s total operating expenses rose 4.2% to P3.6 billion, reflecting its store rationalization program and its focus on maximizing scale and improving cost efficiency.

Philippine Bank of Communications posts higher Q2 net income

PHILIPPINE BANK of Communications (PBCom) and its subsidiaries booked higher earnings in the second quarter on higher income from service charges, fees and commissions and a recovery in trading gains.

In its quarterly report released Thursday, PBCom said it posted a consolidated net income of P210.37 million in the three months ended June, 55% higher than the P135.57 million it earned in the same period last year.

Net interest income grew to P789.46 million from P789.68 million in the same period last year amid an increase in trading gains, as well as earnings from service charges, fees and commissions and its trust operations, among others.

PBCom’s trading gains surged to P118.7 million in the second quarter from the P9.141 million recorded a year ago.

Income from service charges, fees and commissions grew to P104.62 million from P87.793 million last year. Earnings from its trust operations likewise increased to P4.89 million in the second quarter from P3.75 million in 2018.

Meanwhile, its foreign exchange gains declined to P7.64 million from P9.8 million last year.

“Interest income from loans and receivables is higher by 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year as the bank continued in focusing its efforts in expanding its corporate and consumer loan portfolios and increasing loan yields,” it said.

The bank’s total operating income climbed to P1.25 million in the second quarter from P1.09 million in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, its total operating expenses also went up to P987.59 million from P910.44 million the previous year.

For the first half, PBCom’s net income climbed 89.8% to P593 million from the P312.4 million earned in the same period last year.

“Low-cost deposit volume has improved as the bank grew its demand and savings deposit base to P32.5 billion from P29.1 billion in June of the previous year while time deposits and bills payable declined by 18.7% and 28.2%, respectively.”

Assets of the PBCom Group stood at P93.8 billion at end-June, down from the P103.7 billion booked as of December 2018. PBCom attributed the decline to lower loans and receivables due to the sale of a portion of the bank’s auto loan portfolio.

Its gross nonperforming loan ratio increased to 5.7% at end-June from 5% in the same period last year.

PBCom and its subsidiaries’ net profit margin was at 23.43% at end-June from 14.25% last year. Meanwhile, net interest margin stood at 1.94%, lower than last year’s 2.04%, its quarterly report showed.

Return on equity stood at 5.58%, up from 3.16% the previous year.

The bank’s capital adequacy ratio stood at 16.48% at end-June, an improvement from the 15.12% logged last year.

As of June 30, PBCom had a total network of 89 regular branches, three branch-lite units and a total of 151 automated teller machines. — B.M. Laforga

DoubleDragon income surges in April-June

DOUBLEDRAGON Properties Corp. reported a 240% increase in its attributable net income in the second quarter, driven by rising rental revenues from its office towers, warehouse hubs and community malls.

In a regulatory filing, the listed property developer said its attributable net income stood at P750.17 million in the April to June period, compared to P220.44 million it booked in the same period last year.

Revenues surged 75% to P3.15 billion in the second quarter, as rental revenues went up 21% to P907.77 million. Real estate sales rose 6% to P239.96 million, while an unrealized gain from a change in fair values of investment property increased by 215% to P1.71 billion.

For the first half, DoubleDragon’s attributable income doubled to P1.51 billion from P745 million during the same period a year ago.

Revenues jumped 54% to P5.6 billion during the six-month period, driven by a 32% rise in rental income to P1.53 billion and a 113% surge in unrealized gain from a change in fair values of investment property. Real estate sales fell by 10% to P418.96 million.

DoubleDragon noted its recurring revenues have grown 29.1% to P1.83 billion for the first half. Recurring revenues now account for 33% of total revenues. The company aims to grow the share of recurring revenues to 90%.

“DoubleDragon’s four pillars of growth in retail leasing, office leasing, industrial warehouse leasing and hotels will give the company a well-diversified real estate portfolio essential to successfully navigate the current fast-changing global business environment,” DoubleDragon Chairman Edgar “Injap” J. Sia II said in a statement. — VMPG

Moonshine

Moonrise
Directed by Frank Borzage
Criterion Channel and Criterion DVD

THE FILM starts out as a fevered dream: oddly warped feet walking across the screen, their steps spreading outwards like a malignancy; the camera shifts and we realize we’re looking at water reflections of three men’s legs crossing a concrete floor. For some reason your eye focus on the leading man’s hands: they hang down from limp heavily resigned arms. Why?

Things — as they do in noir — happen faster than our ability to understand: the feet walk past others gathered in what appears to be a standing crowd, mount a wooden scaffold; the camera reluctantly turns aside to gaze at the scaffold’s shadow (catching a glimpse along the way of the viewers — it is a crowd, all holding up umbrellas, a single grim expression on every face) in time to see a man being fitted with mask and noose round his neck; another man pushing a lever and…

Cut to the man’s shadow swinging from its rope and a baby shrieking. The camera moves in on the baby’s face, eyes averted, reflecting the camera’s reluctance to watch the horror; the camera pulls back and we realize it’s not the man but a doll, swinging over the baby’s crib.

The opening hits like a blow to the gut (A tug to the throat?) but what lingers is the mocking cruelty of that doll. Who does that to a child? What does that do to the child?

Frank Borzage’s adaptation of Theodore Strauss’ novel Moonrise sets out to answer the second question: a man — Danny Hawkins — does wrong and is relentlessly hunted, most relentlessly by his own conscience. The camera followed his father’s footsteps (hung for killing a man), would follow him through the school playground into adulthood with the obsessiveness of a bully — in this case Jerry Sykes, played with smiling sneering infuriating arrogance by Lloyd Bridges. At one point as children Jerry’s friends hold Danny still while Jerry smears mud (at least we hope it’s mud) all over Danny’s face, and you’re struck by the emotional tone of the gesture: if you’re familiar with Borzage’s films you’d know he often gets his characters dirty (they’re likely poor folk struggling to rise above their circumstances) but this dirt is applied with a will and viciousness rarely found in his films. Something has happened over the years and you can’t help but wonder what.

The production started as a $2 million prestige independent production with William Wellman directing and John Garfield as Danny; it ended up in Republic Pictures with less than half the budget ($849,452 — still “prestige,” only as defined by the habitually lowballing Republic) with Dane Clark as Danny and Borzage, his career waning, as director.

One wonders what Garfield, perhaps the most charismatic underdog in Hollywood, might have made of the role; I’ve read the opinion that Clark doesn’t measure up but I think it’s that sense of having been assigned leftovers, of filling star-sized shoes, that drives Clark’s performance — as Danny he’s been told and believes that thanks to his father he has “bad blood,” and that belief (in the form of Borzage’s camera and Jerry Sykes) has hounded him all his life. When he’s had his fill and finally strikes back he’s horrified (and at some level, you sense, satisfied) to learn that he and everyone else was right all along.

Borzage also had something to prove: he was a handsome man, and made an early career of acting; he was in his early 20s when he directed his first feature, in his early 30s when he did some of his best work (7th Heaven, Street Angel, A Farewell to Arms). You might say Borzage was born not long before silent cinema was born, and was appreciated most when his sensibility expressed silent cinema’s (and early sound cinema’s) idealistic romanticism.

All that changed with World War 2, and the cinematic expression of that darker tone was film noir — a genre obsessed with German Expressionist lighting, and a darker vision of man’s depravity. In noir’s view the hero is a mere rat caught in a vast trap; the rest of the film is him struggling — vainly — to escape.

Borzage resisted this pessimism the way he resisted encroaching Nazism in the 1930s and ’40s (Little Man, What Now?, The Mortal Storm); he fell out of step with then-current Hollywood and public sentiment, and his films struggled at the box office. Arguably Moonrise was his response to the sea-change, and grapples with the interpretation on its terms — Danny, like any proper noir protagonist, believes in man’s flawed nature and inevitable fall, and flees accordingly; through one extraordinary setpiece after another, Borzage plunges Danny deeper and deeper into the genre’s psychic quagmire.

Hence the coon hunt, the men in boots the baying hounds, ending in Danny scaling up a tree to go after the trapped animal. In a series of giant closeups we see Danny and raccoon facing each other, Danny identifying with the animal’s desperation, Danny looking yet not looking (the way the camera looks/doesn’t look in the film’s opening) while he shakes the doomed creature’s branch.

Much later Danny enters the tiny shack of deaf-mute Billy Scripture (Harry Morgan) in search of a pocketknife he had dropped while fighting Jerry Sykes, his fear and paranoia touching such a crescendo that he reaches out in the frenzied light of a swinging lamp to wrap his hands round Billy’s throat.

But here’s the crazy thing — no one’s chasing him, at least not at first. Perhaps the only one with any idea Danny might be involved in Jerry’s disappearance is Sheriff Otis (Allyn Joslyn). The sheriff’s suspicions are first aroused when he sees Danny riding a Ferris Wheel with Jeffrey Syke’s fiancé Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell). Danny looks down at Otis’ upturned face — the threat seems ominous if distant. But a Ferris Wheel turns, and Danny finds himself under the gaze of Otis’ increasingly curious stare, finds himself above the sheriff, high and exposed, finds himself spinning over and over with no end in sight. It’s not so much the scrutiny as the uncertainty (Does the sheriff know or doesn’t he?); Danny’s agitation escalates to the point where he has to do something and — spectacularly — he does.

The key to Borzage’s view of Danny’s predicament lies, I think, in a scene midway through the film, when Danny meets Gilly in an abandoned plantation house. They feel free here in these darkened rooms, lost among the Gothic bric-a-brac; Gail address a full-sized portrait of a Southern belle and turns the occasion into a ball; she invites him to waltz. While the lovers move to unheard music, the camera rises up past the chandelier, swoops down onto the lovers as they move together in darkened profile for a kiss. It’s as if Gilly had sussed out Danny’s self-manufactured desperation and herself fabricated an alternative scenario, gently mocking his gloom; Danny gives in, and for a moment forgets that he’s being hunted — or at least forgets the idea that he’s being hunted.

Two figures flank Danny like warning signs on his self-made road to perdition: Sheriff Otis, who possesses more empathy and compassion than any law enforcer has any right to have (“Sometimes murder is like love. It takes two to commit it: The man who hates and the man who’s hated”) — if he pursues Danny it’s the pursuit of a man who fully understands what the fugitive is going through, a disturbing yet strangely comforting thought. Then there’s Danny’s best friend Mose Jackson, perhaps the first to uncover Danny’s secret; early in the film he responds to Danny’s “bad blood” theory thusly: “Blood is red. It doesn’t tell you what you have to do.” Earlier than that Mose sums up his situation and philosophy: “What I did was resign from the human race — and I guess that’s about the worst crime there is.” The two point out to Danny the right way to go, the right thing to do; it’s up to Danny however to realize it.

Deutsche Bank chair searches for successor

DEUTSCHE BANK AG’s supervisory board chairman is looking for his successor. — REUTERS

DEUTSCHE BANK AG Supervisory Board Chairman Paul Achleitner is searching for his successor after overseeing a tumultuous period marked by multiple restructurings, top management changes and a slumping share price.

The search is partly in response to shareholder criticism about succession planning, though Achleitner intends to complete his term expiring in 2022, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.

Achleitner, 62, has drawn investor ire after overseeing a series of unsuccessful turnaround efforts that have caused the stock to lose three-quarters of its value under his watch. The Austrian, elected to the role with almost 99% of shareholder votes in 2012, has seen his backing slide to less than 72% at the last meeting in May, a low result by historic comparison.

“Mr. Achleitner’s term as chairman runs until 2022. Beyond that, there are clear rules governing succession issues on the supervisory board; the nomination committee prepares them,” a Deutsche Bank spokesman said by email. Achleitner, who heads that committee, declined to comment through a spokesman.

A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alum and ex-finance chief at insurer Allianz SE, Achleitner took the job at a pivotal moment for the bank. An aggressive expansion into investment banking had saddled it with a slew of misconduct cases, while new regulations and negative interest rates sapped profitability. As chairman, he shook up the supervisory board and won key investors to stabilize the bank as it paid billions in fines and sought to strengthen internal controls.

But the former dealmaker, who advised Deutsche Bank on its Wall Street expansion in the 1990s, struggled to right-size the costly trading operations. Halfhearted cuts aimed at preserving the core of the securities unit left the bank in a downward spiral of declining revenue, rising funding costs and sticky expenses.

His latest appointee as CEO, Christian Sewing, in July unveiled the largest restructuring in the bank’s recent history, including an exit from almost all equities trading and some 18,000 job cuts, about a fifth of the workforce. But the lender’s share price has continued to slide since the restructuring announcement amid a worsening economic outlook.

At the supervisory board level, Deutsche Bank is said to be considering former UBS Group AG wealth management head Juerg Zeltner as a new member, according to people with knowledge of the matter. A former supervisory board member, Stefan Simon, has been appointed chief administrative officer of the lender and been replaced by Dagmar Valcarel, a legal expert and former Barclays executive. — Bloomberg

DTI seeking to add pension portability to anti-endo bill

THE TRADE DEPARTMENT is seeking to add provisions to the Security of Tenure (SoT) bill making workers’ pensions portable when they transfer jobs, Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said.

Mr. Lopez told BusinessWorld he will propose as part of the SoT Bill the portability of pensions should workers transfer jobs, keeping their built-up contributions intact even when they seek other employment.

“For example, mag-resign ka ngayon tapos ang retirement fund nandu’n pa rin kaya paglipat mo sa isang kompanya, itutuloy mo pa rin ‘yun (you can resign now then the retirement funds will still be there for you to continue contributing to even if you move to a different company),” he said.

Mr. Lopez added that providing workers’ security is not just prioritizing the regular status of workers but also addressing their retirement security as well.

The SoT Bill was vetoed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte on July 26, citing the bill’s failure to grant employers sufficient flexibility in determining which jobs can be outsourced to contract workers. Mr. Duterte added the bill should not sacrifice the viability of companies in order to safeguard investments.

The SoT bill was re-filed at the Senate and House recently while the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) is set to submit its own version to Congress by the end of this month. — Gillian M. Cortez