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Save the World, One Bottle of Wine at a Time

By Elin McCoy, Bloomberg

WHATEVER YOU’RE concerned about — oceans, rhinos, cardiovascular research, hunger, oysters, injured dogs, salmon, veganism, art projects, politics, climate action — there’s a wine out there for you. (And no, not just to forget your woes.)

So-called “activist wines,” those that inspire drinkers to vote with their dollars, have created a “new road map for fine wine,” says sommelier Peter Weltman of Borderless Wine. As with the broader rise of ethical consumerism, wines that do good, as well as taste good, aren’t just a passing fashion. They represent a serious shift in the industry that’s gone from niche to mainstream over the past few years.

“There are countless research studies that show people today want to buy ethically and sustainably produced products from companies that share their values,” says Rob Symington, whose family owns the Portugal-based wine company Symington Family Estates. As of July 22, the nearly 140-year-old wine company achieved B Corporation status, joining a global movement of companies committed to social, environmental, and ethical business practices that are a force for good.

In an e-mail, Symington ticked off a couple of those studies. Unilever announced in June that its purpose-led Sustainable Living Brands are growing 69% faster than the rest of its business. A 2015 Nielsen poll of 30,000 consumers in 60 countries reported that 66% were willing to pay more for sustainable goods.

And I’ve just come across a report published last month by UK-based market research firm Wine Intelligence that found young consumers are increasingly paying attention to the impact of their behavior on the environment and extending that sense of responsibility to wine drinking choices.

Add to all that a new group of winemakers who want to do more than make great wine; they want to change the world, one bottle at a time.

Some wineries donate a percentage of profits or proceeds from a special cuvée to worthy causes. From Emmy Award-winning musician Dave Matthews, Dreaming Tree wines has given more than $1.5 million to environmental organizations such as the Wilderness Society. Profits from its brand-new rosé will go to the International Rhino Foundation. Every bottle of Proud Pour’s Mendocino sauvignon blanc restores 100 wild oysters to local waters.

Symington points out that we can’t talk about ethical wine without addressing climate change and the goal of ending carbon emissions. Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino was first US winery to switch to green power 20 years ago, and in 2016 became the country’s first certified carbon neutral wine company.

Equally important is social responsibility and how wineries treat workers. Several decades ago, wine drinkers avoided South African wine because of that country’s apartheid policies. Now, many have joined the Fair Trade movement that promotes good working conditions and invests in development projects such as improving drinking water. Stellenbosch’s Thandi wines was the first fair trade-certified winery in the world.

At the annual wine think tank event Fine Minds 4 Fine Wines, organized by the Areni Institute, that I attended in July in Bordeaux, France, social sustainability was a hot topic. Laura Catena, whose family pioneered modern wine in Argentina, started the Bodegas de Argentina Sustainability Protocol. It encompasses training in many skills and language classes for workers and vineyard classes for local rural high schools to give students a way to remain in the area.

Is all this just a version of greenwashing? Check labels for certifications such as organic, Fair Trade, vegan, and membership in the new International Wineries for Climate Action. One way to track down wines with a conscience is to look for like-minded importers such as Weltman, who is starting to bring in wines from war-torn regions through his Borderless Wine Alliance to encourage activist wine buying. Dar Richi, a Lebanese wine made by a Syrian refugee, will debut this fall. “I realized that with our wine purchases we can help advance regional peace and political and social values,” he says, “and make a difference in the world.”

Mika Bulmash, an international development specialist who started Wines For the World in 2013 after working a harvest in South Africa built a portfolio of producers that meet strict criteria, including taking positive action about social responsibility and environmental sustainability.

What do these ethically minded wines taste like? A great cause doesn’t mean they’ll be good in the glass. But with these below — I’m happy to report — you don’t have to compromise on taste.

WINES WITH A CONSCIENCE: SEVEN GREAT BOTTLES TO BUY
• 2017 Indaba Chenin Blanc ($10) — Cape Classics importer Andre Shearer brings in South African wines and started the Indaba label as a way to fund education in the Cape Winelands. This exuberant, floral-scented white made by famed winemaker Bruwer Raats is one of the best wine values I know.

• 2015 Quinta do Ataide DOC Vinho Tinto Douro Red ($25) — Last year, the Symington family introduced this dry, pure red with a suave velvety texture, made from the traditional blend of grapes that go into port. The vineyard is organic, and the family estates have just obtained B Corp. certification.

• 2016 Bosman Family Vineyards Twyfeling Cinsaut ($25) — This thirst-quenching red imported by Wines For the World smells of fresh berries and spice, with flavors to match. Bosman received official fair trade certification in 2009, and workers own a 26% share in the vineyards and business. It’s one of South Africa’s largest wine land reform projects. Money from the wines goes into a trust that supports dozens of social and empowerment projects.

• 2018 Ehler’s Estate Sauvignon Blanc ($32) — French philanthropists built up this organic Napa estate over several decades. After they died, it became part of their Leducq Foundation, which funds cardiovascular research. This silky textured white has lush citrusy aromas and rich, juicy grapefruit and lemon flavors.

• 2015 Iron Horse Ocean Reserve Blanc de Blancs ($44) — This winery pioneered sparkling wine in the cool Green Valley area of Sonoma. For every bottle sold of this all-chardonnay cuvée, it donates $4 to National Geographic’s Pristine Seas initiative for marine protected areas and sustainable fishing practices.

• 2015 Maysara Immigrant Pinot Noir ($45) — Moe Momtazi, who fled from Iran and was given political asylum in the US, founded an engineering company and eventually established this biodynamic Oregon wine estate. One-third of the proceeds from this lively cherry- and herb-scented pinot noir go to refugee and immigrant programs.

• 2017 Gorgona Bianco Toscana ($130) — The Tuscan Frescobaldi family, which owns Ornellaia, has been training inmates on Italy’s prison on Gorgona Island since 2012 in vineyard and winemaking skills they can use when they return to society. They produce a red and a white from the grapes. This expensive but serious white blend of vermentino and ansonica is chalky and lemony, with very long, complex flavors.

Downton Abbey opens its doors with Airbnb listing

TWO Downton Abbey fans will soon get the chance to live like a Crawley for a night when Highclere Castle, the main filming location for the Emmy Award-winning drama, lists on Airbnb.

As a promotion for the upcoming film Downton Abbey, which premieres Sept. 20 in the US, the estate in Hampshire, England, is opening its doors to two guests for a one-night stay on Nov. 26.

George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, and his wife, Countess Fiona, live at the castle when it is not open to the public. They will invite the guests for cocktails in the saloon, followed by dinner in the state dining room, where they will be served by the castle’s butler. Then they’ll receive coffee in the library before retiring to one of the principal bedrooms, with views of the rolling hills.

In the morning, the guests will receive a private tour of the castle grounds, which include gardens of roses and lavender, along with beech and oak woodlands.

“It’s an absolute privilege and pleasure to call Highclere Castle my home, and I am delighted to be able to share it on Airbnb for a truly unique stay,” Lady Carnarvon said in a statement announcing the listing.

Booking will open on Oct. 1 at 12 p.m. BST and will cost £150 ($186.40). It will be first come, first served, so… good luck.

The history of the Highclere dates to 749 A.D., when an Anglo-Saxon king gave the estate to the bishops of Winchester, who built a medieval palace and gardens. In 1679, the palace was rebuilt after being purchased by Robert Sawyer, a direct grandfather of the current earl, and then was transformed into Highclere Castle with renovations in 1842.

During the summer months, the castle opens its doors to about 1,200 visitors per day, five days a week, starting at £16.

While Downton Abbey aired from 2010 to 2015, the castle’s great hall, library, music room, drawing room, saloon, dining room, and bedrooms were used for filming.

The PBS Masterpiece series gained a fervent following during its six-season run; its finale drew 9.6 million viewers. The series followed Lord and Lady Grantham as they navigated Edwardian England with their family and servants, from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 until 1925. It was nominated for 69 Emmys and won 15.

Despite the castles’s 100,000 square feet and 300 rooms, there are still a few drawbacks to staying there. No pets are allowed (sorry, Isis), but there are nine dogs on the site. Only one butler is allowed per person, so manage your expectations accordingly. — Bloomberg

AGI to launch P2.5-billion share buyback program

ALLIANCE GLOBAL Group, Inc. (AGI) is embarking on a P2.5-billion share buyback program for the next 12 months.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the holding firm of tycoon Andrew L. Tan said its board of directors has approved the buyback exercise that will start on the 23rd and end on Sept. 23, 2020.

This will continue its P5-billion share buyback program expiring this month, or 24 months since it started on Sept. 20, 2017. AGI said it bought a total of 309 million shares worth about P4.28 billion during the period.

“We continue to pursue a share buyback because we believe in our stock’s underlying value, which is backed by our strong franchises across all our business segments, years of profitable operations, and continued expansion thrust,” AGI Chief Executive Officer Kevin Andrew L. Tan said in a statement.

The AGI shares will be bought in cash and will be booked as treasury shares.

“The share buyback is also EPS (earnings per share)-enhancing and should improve our share values moving forward,” Mr. Tan said.

Shares in AGI dropped 0.48% or six centavos to close at P12.50 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday.

AGI’s net income attributable to the parent dropped 11% to P3.75 billion in the second quarter of 2019, amid a 17% uptick in gross revenues to P40.93 billion. On a six-month basis, attributable profit was up 4% to P8.1 billion, while revenues climbed 15% to P82.8 billion.

The listed conglomerate has committed to spend P410 billion in capital expenditures over the next five years, about nine percent higher than its P377-billion spending from 2015 to 2019. This aims to support the expansion of AGI’s business units, which includes property, liquor, gaming, quick-service restaurants, and infrastructure.

About 73% of the capex will be poured into property unit, Megaworld Corp., as it continues the development of more townships across the country.

Megaworld recently launched its 25th township called Arden Botanical Estate, in partnership with leisure and tourism developer Global-Estate Resorts, Inc. The firms will spend P18 billion over a 15-year period for the project.

Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., which owns and operates Resorts World Manila, cornered 15% of the capex, as it will be developing Westside City Resorts World inside the state-owned Entertainment City complex in Parañaque. The total capex for the integrated resort has been set at P57 billion.

The rest of the capex will be split among Golden Arches Development Corp., Emperador, Inc., and Infracorp Development, Inc. — Arra B. Francia

Manulife readies new products

MANULIFE PHILIPPINES is preparing to roll out new products as it aims to improve efforts to assess their clients’ needs.

Manulife Philippines President and CEO Richard Bates told reporters in a briefing late Tuesday that the insurer is currently doing customer surveys and meet-ups with clients to assess their needs.

Mr. Bates assumed his post last Aug. 5, replacing Ryan Charland who has been assigned to Manulife’s Indonesia unit.

“We will be having exciting things coming down, nothing that I’m afraid I can announce today, but we are constantly looking that what we develop is what the client needs,” Mr. Bates said when asked if the market can expect additional products from the insurer.

Mr. Bates said the insurer has an “optimistic” view of the market, citing the economy’s continued growth in the past few years and increasing investments in the country.

“When you look at how well the market has grown in the Philippines over the last few years and the directions and investments that are coming in, you have to be optimistic about the future,” he said.

“Overall, I’m feeling very optimistic about the opportunity, I’m new to the post but very excited about the opportunity,” he added.

He said that in terms of digitalization in their back-end operations, sales and customer information, the insurance firm “still [has] some way to go,” although improvements are ongoing.

“As an organization, we still have some ways to go, but we have made incredibly fast ground in a very short period of time so I’m very pleased with where we are, very pleased where we’ve got to… The question is always making sure that we remain innovative and remain creative and that’s part of the reason why the office looks this way,” he explained.

Manulife on Tuesday inaugurated its new headquarters in NEX Tower on Ayala Avenue in Makati City.

The new office features an open layout, collaborative workspaces, including work cafés in every floor, training and meeting rooms, and its own event area, among others.

Mr. Bates said they’ve seen improved productivity among their employees with the new open-design office.

“As an organization, it helped to drive our engagement with our team and it helped to drive up their productivity and ultimately help to drive up customer satisfaction,” he said.

Manulife Philippines is the local unit of Canada-based giant Manulife Financial Corp. with 1,400 employees and more than 9,000 agents across the country.

As of end-2018, the insurance firm posted P2.59 billion in net earnings based on the unaudited statistics submitted by life insurers to the Insurance Commission. — BML

Order checks for Apple’s new iPhone bode well — analysts

PRE-ORDERS for Apple Inc.’s latest iPhones have gotten off to a better start than the last cycle a year ago, several Wall Street analysts said on Monday, citing their own research data.

The company last week unveiled three iPhone models featuring upgraded processors and new camera functionality, including iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, priced between $699 and $1,099.

CNBC quoted TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, known as a close follower of the Cupertino, California-based company’s supply chains, as saying that demand for new iPhones is beating his expectations — and that much of it was due to Chinese consumers.

Greater China was the third biggest region in terms of sales in 2018 and after raising alarms after slack sales growth earlier this year, Apple has seen bumps in demand driven by discounting by Chinese online retailers.

Chinese e-commerce site JD.com on Saturday said on its official Weibo account that day one pre-sales for the iPhone 11 series jumped 480% versus the previous year, with the top three most popular products being the iPhone 11 Pro in midnight green, and the standard iPhone 11 in black and purple.

Chinese media outlet Yicai also said on Monday that they jumped 335% on Alibaba’s Tmall platform on the first day of sales versus pre-sales for the iPhone XR last year, citing Tmall figures.

CNBC said that Kuo had boosted his forecast for iPhone 11 series shipments from between 65 million and 70 million units in 2019 to between 70 million and 75 million units.

While giving numbers that did not compare directly with Kuo’s, analysts at two other brokerages also said that the initial orders were looking good.

Instinet, owned by Japanese bank Nomura, cited “shipment” checks for its conclusions, while Wedbush’s Daniel Ives said he had conducted supplier checks throughout Asia including China.

“We are careful about extrapolating first weekend data, though it is fair to say it is ahead of last year’s launches,” Instinet analysts wrote in a note.

“Should the early shipment time data hold and translate to unit volumes, Apple may be able to offset this year’s average selling price reduction,” they added.

Apple shares were trading marginally higher around midday in New York compared to an almost half-percent fall for the tech-heavy Nasdaq index. — Reuters

South Korean pub takes down North Korean trappings after complaints

SEOUL — The owner of a North Korea-themed pub being renovated in South Korea took down a North Korean flag and portraits of the isolated country’s late leaders on Monday after complaints from neighbors who feared he was violating a Cold War-era law.

A North Korean flag and images of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the late grandfather and father of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, were hung on the outside wall of the pub in the South Korean capital, Seoul, media showed.

But residents of the neighborhood complained saying the pub may have violated South Korea’s National Security Act, a 1948 law banning the “praising, inciting or propagating the activities” of enemies, a city official said.

“The flag and photos were taken down as there was controversy,” Song In-soo, an official from the Mapo district office, told Reuters.

Song said the case has been referred to police. They declined to comment.

North and South Korea have been fierce rivals since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. They remain technically at war.

Numerous South Koreans have run afoul of the security law over the decades, most accused of spying for North Korea, or abetting it in some way.

But the atmosphere has become more relaxed in recent years, especially since President Moon Jae-in came to power in 2017 championing efforts to improve ties with the North.

Broadcaster KBS reported that the owner of the pub wanted to “change the atmosphere” after business slumped and had not intend to glorify North Korea. — Reuters

Cebu Landmasters to spend P2.4B for two Bacolod residential projects

CEBU Landmasters, Inc. (CLI) is spending about P2.4 billion to expand its footprint in Bacolod City with the launch of two residential projects and the construction of a serviced apartment in the area.

The listed property developer said in a statement Wednesday that it has launched Casa Mira Bacolod and Velmiro Plains Bacolod, its residential brands that cater to the affordable and mid-income market segments.

Located in Barangay Granada, the P400-million Casa Mira Bacolod will offer 431 townhouse units with floor areas sized from 40 to 78 square meters, standing on lot sizes from 48 to 60 sq.m.

The 4.5-hectare project will feature amenities such as a clubhouse, swimming pool, kiddie pool, basketball court, children’s play area, park areas, perimeter fence, and a 24-hour security system.

This marks CLI’s seventh project under its affordable housing brand Casa Mira, with the others located in Cebu, Sibulan, and Cagayan de Oro.

At the same time, CLI is investing P600 million for the development of Velmiro Plains Bacolod in Barangay Granada. The 8.35-hectare project consists of 342 single-detached house and lot units primarily for mid-income buyers.

CLI will offer five model houses for the project sized from 54 to 120 sq.m. in terms of floor area.

The project’s amenities include a swimming pool, clubhouse, fitness gym, basketball court, landscaped parks, and a river esplanade.

Velmiro Plains Bacolod is CLI’s third project under this brand, with the first two located in Minglanilla, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.

Meanwhile, CLI has also broken ground for Citadines Bacolod City, a joint venture project with Bacolod-based Capitaine, Inc. The company is spending P1.345 billion for the serviced apartments.

The 14-storey building along Lacson Street will house 200 rooms covering a gross floor area of 24,861 sq.m., as the company banks on the rising tourism industry in the area.

Citadines Bacolod forms part of CLI’s plans to further its investments in the hospitality sector, with 15 more hotels lined up in three to five years’ time.

Shares in CLI surged 3.97% or 19 centavos to close at P4.98 each on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

Bank of China Manila designated as Philippines’ RMB clearing bank

THE PEOPLE’S Bank of China and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas signed a memorandum of understanding. — REUTERS

BANK OF CHINA Manila has been named as the clearing bank for renminbi (RMB) business in the Philippines, the lender said in a statement on Wednesday.

Bank of China said under the memorandum of understanding between the People’s Bank of China and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the lender will be enable local financial institutions to transfer RMB funds and participate in China’s foreign exchange, security and bond markets.

“It will also help local banks expand their product scope and provide better convenience for clients and investors looking to enter the Chinese financial market, increase their RMB asset holdings, or diversify their investment portfolios,” the bank said.

Bank of China Manila however said its clearing facilities “will take time” to operationalize and its systems will need to be prepared.

“A clearing bank will not only make local RMB transactions easier in support of the already existing Philippine RMB Trading Community that was launched last year, it will also boost local investments and other financial activities, further strengthening the economic relationship between the Philippines and China,” said Bank of China Manila Country Head Deng Jun.

Mr. Deng said following the designation of a local RMB clearing bank, transactions using the currency are expected to grow.

“This new facility will help drive the currency’s use for payments and investments, further promoting cross-border settlements, trade financing, project investments, and loans. Ultimately, this projected surge in financial activity will foster the shared development of both countries,” Mr. Deng said.

Foreign direct investments may likewise rise with the increased international use of RMB through the clearing bank.

“We are keen on fully taking on our role as bridge between the Philippines and China by better facilitating RMB liquidity management and enhancing cross-border capital flows,” Mr. Deng said. “This in turn will attract quality Chinese direct investors who can contribute to the Philippines’ economic development by creating more job opportunities and raising the competitiveness of domestic firms.”

The bank said according to data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication or SWIFT, the total amount of RMB cleared in the Philippines in the first semester surged 45.3% year-on-year to RMB 127.4 billion.

In terms of transactions, RMB clearing activities climbed 73.9% year-on-year to 12,116 in the same period.

Bank of China Manila led the signing of an agreement with banks operating in the country to create the Philippine RMB Trading Community in October last year.

The local lenders were Asia United Bank Corp.; Bank of Commerce; BDO Unibank, Inc.; Bank of the Philippine Islands; China Banking Corp.; East West Banking Corp.; Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.; Philippine Bank of Communications; Philippine National Bank; Philippine Business Bank; Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.; Sterling Bank of Asia; Security Bank Corp.; and UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc.

With the peso-yuan exchange facility, companies and individuals trading with Chinese counterparts can directly convert payments and remittances to the renminbi in big volumes, doing away with passing through the US dollar.

The organization of the trading community is part of a three-stage Development Plan of Bank of China and Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. to develop domestic renminbi services.

US-trained coder helping NetEase find new life beyond games

FOR DECADES, NetEase Inc. has been the perennial runner-up to the likes of Tencent Holdings Ltd. in China’s evolving internet landscape. Now it’s betting on a bookish computer scientist to catapult it to the top of the class in the nation’s $36 billion online education market.

Zhou Feng, chief executive officer of NetEase Youdao, is charged with helping NetEase escape from under Tencent’s enormous shadow and find life beyond video games. The US-trained software coder handpicked by billionaire founder William Ding Lei is creating an all-in-one learning platform to tap the lucrative space where education and technology overlap. To bankroll that expansion, the company could float Youdao, last valued at $1.1 billion, as soon as this year.

Zhou is counting on a decades-old custom. Every summer, millions of Chinese high school students sit through a grueling two-day college entrance exam, or gaokao, that helps determine the course of their lives. That’s why China’s tiger moms and dads have long sent their kids from as early as kindergarten age to private tutoring classes for English, math and sciences.

Intense competition has fueled an education boom, particularly targeting the K-12 group that includes students from kindergarten through high school, creating a coterie of multi-billion-dollar corporations. Leading players like New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. and TAL Education Group that still rely mainly on in-class teaching have gone public in the US and seen their shares soar. Online start-ups such as the Tencent-backed VIPKid are still trying to convince parents that digital instruction can be as good, if not better than brick-and-mortar classrooms.

Through combining content with the latest technology, Zhou sees a business chance for Youdao, whose name loosely translates to “there’s a way.” Courses can be taught through high-speed live-streaming, enabling smooth communication between teacher and student. Artificial intelligence-powered tutors can grade homework and use data to evaluate student test results, he said.

“That’s what we have always been good at,” said Zhou, 40, a University of California at Berkeley alumnus with a penchant for blending English words into conversations. “Almost every industry in China has been transformed by the internet, but that’s not yet the case for education.”

Revenue for China’s online education market is estimated to have reached around 252 billion yuan ($35.7 billion) in 2018, and is expected to more than double in 2022, with 264 million paying users, according to iResearch.

But there’s yet to be a clear winner — even for top tuition providers like New Oriental, its digital arm Koolearn in 2017 only accounted for less than 1% of the total revenue in the local online teaching market, according to Frost & Sullivan data cited in its prospectus. What sets Youdao apart is its exclusive focus on online and its expansion into education-related hardware. It has launched a slew of products from apps for note-taking and children’s stories to smart devices like a 799 yuan electronic dictionary pen, which allows students to scan printed text and translate it instantaneously.

“NetEase’s technology support and the company’s online DNA and roots should make its products more sophisticated than traditional education providers,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Vey-Sern Ling. Still, not having physical classrooms means it could be difficult for Youdao to expand beyond structured, standardized learning or test prep, he said.

NetEase could do with a win. Founder and CEO Ding has a master plan for China’s second largest game developer to delve into three sectors including e-commerce, music streaming and online education, but the result is best described as mixed. Its music arm has grappled with rising content costs, as it has to sublicense a large chunk of songs from its much bigger rival, Tencent Music Entertainment Group. Although e-commerce has grown to become NetEase’s largest division after gaming in terms of revenue, it sold its popular import platform Kaola to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in a $2 billion deal.

That magnifies the importance of Youdao and its leader, with whom Ding shares a long history. Back in 2004, when Zhou was pursuing his doctorate degree in computer science, NetEase’s CEO came across his paper on filtering junk emails, and, ironically, shot him a message that was mistaken as spam. It had no body text but just a subject line: “I’m Ding Lei, I have a technical question for you.”

The two eventually got in touch via phone calls, and Zhou worked part-time for NetEase for three years. After earning his doctorate in 2007, he officially joined the company as lead architect for Youdao in Beijing, which at the time was trying to morph from a digital dictionary into a web search engine. To challenge the local leader Baidu Inc., Youdao’s approach was to operate a slew of vertical search services at one time, in everything from news to blogs to maps.

Those efforts failed, and in 2012 Zhou decided to close the search operation. “That was when we hit our lowest point,” he said. Zhou shifted the 400-person team to develop learning apps instead.

Youdao’s revenue rose 60% in 2018 from a year earlier, while sales for K-12 courses increased three-fold in the same period, he said. Online courses have surpassed advertising as Youdao’s largest income stream, Zhou said.

Now of the nearly 2,000 employees Zhou oversees at Youdao, half are teachers and other staffers dedicated to building up its online class portfolio. “Learning is much more difficult than playing video games,” he said. — Bloomberg

CCA holds masterclass with chef JC de Terry

THE Center for Culinary Arts (CCA, Manila) will be conducting “Wine and Learn” exclusive masterclass cooking sessions Spanish culinary master, chef Juan Carlos “JC” de Terry on Sept. 23 and 30, 3 to 6 p.m., at Terry’s Bistro in Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati City. Assisting him will be chef Raul Avila.

For his two-day, two-part cooking sessions, Mr. De Terry will teach participants the essentials to preparing some of his Spanish specialties: for Session 1, this starts with a paella cooking demo, followed by a serving of sangria, and finished off with a churros dessert and chocolate. Session 2 (Essential Tapas) meanwhile engages participants to explore and push their creative boundaries as they learn to whip up favorites like croquettes, patatas bravas, and other recipes.

Class fees per person are P2,500 (one session) and P4,000 (two sessions). Both inclusive of ingredients per session.

Apart from gaining new insights, participants get to enjoy the dishes along with a perfectly matched complimentary drink. To access Terry’s Bistro’s wider selection of quality wines, guests have to add P500.

Mr. De Terry is widely regarded as one of the leading authorities on Spanish cooking in the country after establishing Terry’s Bistro, with branches in Makati and Ortigas.

The collaboration serves as a teaser for a longer program that CCA will have with Mr. De Terry, said Ana Beatrice Trinidad, CCA Manila’s PR and Business Development Director. “We are looking at launching a professional track that is all about Spain’s regional cooking (Valencia, Basque, Navarra, and Galicia).”

For reservations to the masterclass and other details, e-mail: talktoccamanila@gmail.com or call 218-8566.

Philab asks for OSG intervention in case vs DepEd

PHILAB Holdings Corp. has asked the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to step in its case with the Department of Education (DepEd) for its failure to pay the company P2.44 billion.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Wednesday, the listed firm said its subsidiary Philab Industries, Inc. and its joint venture partner Chinese government-owned China Education Instrument and Equipment Corp. have requested for arbitration concerning their billing dispute with DepEd.

“This request was received by the Office of the Solicitor General and DepEd on Sept. 16,” the company said, adding that the venue for the ad hoc arbitral proceedings will be selected within 30 days.

BusinessWorld reached out to DepEd for comment on the matter but has yet to reply as of press time.

Trading of Philab Holdings’ shares were suspended in May 2018 after the Philippine Stock Exchange rejected the firm’s 2017 annual report due to its receivables from DepEd.

Philab derives a substantial amount of its net sales from procurement contracts with DepEd and the Department of Health, providing mostly life science tools and equipment. — Arra B. Francia

Wells Fargo tests crypto for internal transactions

WELLS FARGO & Co. said on Tuesday it will pilot its own digital currency powered by blockchain to help move cash across borders and between branches in real time.

The currency, called Wells Fargo Digital Cash, will be linked to the US dollar and transferred using the bank’s distributed ledger technology to keep track of payments within its internal network.

The system will allow the bank to bypass third parties in the asset transfer process saving costs and time, said Lisa Frazier, head of the Innovation Group at Wells Fargo.

“We are eliminating the intermediaries which can often extend the timeline to be able to do cross border money transfers,” she said.

The fourth largest US bank’s corporate clients will not have to make any changes to the way they interact with the bank since the currency will not be client-facing.

The pilot will begin next year but the bank has tested the technology by moving money between Canada and the United States. Following the broader roll-out the company hopes to expand to multi-currency transfers.

Though Wells Fargo executives have been bullish on the potential for blockchain technology in financial services, the company has been more skeptical of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin which launched the system into the spotlight.

Last year, Wells Fargo joined US rivals in banning the purchase of Bitcoin by credit-card customers, due to the volatility of the investment.

Blockchain technology has attracted billions of dollars in investments from banks and other companies, but concerns about implementation and scalability has hindered many blockchain projects so far.

Early roadblocks have not stopped banks from experimenting aggressively in the space. In February, JPMorgan Chase & Co. launched its own digital currency, also linked to the US dollar, that allows its corporate clients to transfer funds instantly across its internal blockchain network. — Reuters

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