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CPG’s Azure makes beach resort experience in the city possible

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Associate Editor

WHEN Century Properties Group, Inc. (CPG) launched Azure Urban Resort Residences in 2010, not a few scoffed at its plan to create a man-made beach in the middle of Bicutan in Parañaque.

Nine years later, CPG has now completed Azure’s nine residential towers, alongside the man-made beach, a wave pool, beach club, a lap pool and other amenities.

Azure is a joint venture between CPG unit Century Limitless Corp. and Columbian Autocar Corp., which owned the six-hectare land.

“When it was offered to us by Columbian, (the lot) was nice and contiguous but it was in Bicutan…That’s why we had to come up with the insane idea of making a beach and all these resort amenities to make Bicutan a destination,” CPG Vice Chairman John Victor R. Antonio told reporters on Nov. 16 after a ceremony marking the completion of Azure.

With the “beach-within-the-city” concept, Mr. Antonio said the company was betting on Filipinos’ love of beaches.

“We thought what do Filipinos love most? And what can’t they find in an urban setting? The beach… But there’s no beach in the city. So this was a crazy idea of mine, why don’t we create a beach? Because to create a building is easy but to create something that would last for generations and our buyers would be proud of would be difficult,” he said.

Azure is composed of nine 20-storey towers all named after famous beach destinations — Rio, Santorini, St. Tropex, Positano, Miami, Maui, Maldives, Bahamas and Boracay. The towers have a combined 5,355 units with a total sales value of P22.55 billion.

Around 98% of the inventory has been sold out.

For the towers, CPG offered one-bedroom (30 square meters), two-bedroom (45 sq.m.) and penthouse (50 sq.m.) units.

“We starting at P90,000 to P95,000 per sq.m., and it went up to P180,000 per sq.m.,” Mr. Antonio said.

The CPG vice chairman noted they originally offered more two-bedroom units in the first few towers, but later towers focused more on one-bedroom units due to market demand.

“They want champagne taste on a beer budget. They want the amenities and the lifestyle, but on a budget,” Mr. Antonio said.

With the man-made beach and wave pool, Azure has become a tourist destination, especially among staycationers.

Owners have started renting out their units on Airbnb or through CPG’s own Siglo Suites. This allows the owners, most of them who live abroad, to generate revenues from their units. Around 100 Azure units can currently be rented directly through Siglo Suites.

The rise in short-term rentals caused overcrowding in the beach and wave pool, leading the company to implement measures to control the number of users allowed per unit.

“It gets full during the summer. We had to implement a system because people were bringing in their families, so there was overcrowding. We created a system together with the unit owners and they respected the plan,” Mr. Antonio said.

Most amenities are exclusive to unit owners. The Paris Beach Club, designed by socialite Paris Hilton, features the gym, locker rooms, residents’ lounge, playroom, movie room, dance studio, game room, function rooms, spa and café.

Outdoor amenities also include two lagoon pools, lap pool, children’s water play area, beach volleyball area, basketball court and pocket gardens.

Mr. Antonio said the success of Azure has prompted CPG to replicate it in San Fernando, Pampanga. Azure North features three residential towers, along with a beach lagoon and wave pool.

“We will be completing the first two towers and amenities next year. There was a lot of demand, so why not create it for the north? Azure North had brisk sales because they didn’t have a masterplanned beach community in Pampanga,” he said.

IMF urges BoJ to target shorter maturity yields to ease strain

THE BANK of Japan should consider steps to ease the strains caused by its policy on the banking sector, the International Monetary Fund said. — REUTERS

TOKYO — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to consider steps to ease the strains caused by its ultra-loose policy on financial institutions, such as targeting a shorter maturity for its long-term bond yield target.

Fiscal policy can complement the BoJ’s efforts to protect the economy from overseas risks, the global lender said, suggesting that Tokyo should not shy away from ramping up fiscal spending in the near term despite its huge public debt.

“Strengthening the effectiveness of coordination between monetary and fiscal policy remains a high priority,” the IMF said in its Article 4 policy proposal to Japan on Monday.

While the central bank ought to maintain its massive stimulus program, it must also find ways to mitigate the rising cost of prolonged easing and make its policy sustainable as inflation remains distant from its 2% target, the IMF said.

“As it stands, both fiscal policy and monetary policy are stretched, leaving limited room to respond to shocks,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told a news conference.

“The BoJ’s accommodative stance needs to continue to support reflation and growth. At the same time, financial sector oversight should be strengthened to mitigate rising financial stability risks,” she said after the Article 4 consultations.

Under a policy dubbed yield curve control (YCC), the BoJ pledges to guide short-term rates at -0.1% and the 10-year bond yield around 0%. While the policy has helped keep corporate borrowing costs low, it has flattened the yield curve and crushed the margin commercial banks earn from lending.

One way to ease the impact on financial institutions could be to steepen the yield curve by shifting the BoJ’s 0% target for the 10-year yield to a shorter maturity, the IMF said.

BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has repeatedly said if the central bank were to ease, it would seek to do so without causing an excessive fall in super-long yields. He believes that one way to keep long-term yields from falling too much could be for the government to issue more super-long bonds.

The BoJ could also make its 2% inflation target a more flexible, long-term goal by adopting a target range for price moves, as structural factors like technological innovation may keep inflation low for a prolonged period, it said.

Years of massive monetary stimulus has failed to fire up inflation to the central bank’s target, while diminishing policy ammunition and global growth risks have cast further doubt on its ability to reach its goal.

The Financial Services Agency, Japan’s banking regulator, should strength financial sector supervision and prod regional banks to diversify its business operations, the IMF said.

“Rising economic policy uncertainty, an increase in financial stability risks, and consumer and investor confidence at multi-year lows all suggest a rising risk profile” for Japan, it said.

Japan’s economic growth slumped to its weakest in a year in the third quarter as soft global demand knocked exports. Analysts fret that a sales tax hike from October could also weigh on the economy. — Reuters

Unbreakable explores a different kind of romance

THE STORY of “unbreakable” friendships is the crux of Unbreakable, the newest film from ABS-CBN Star Cinema which screens nationwide starting Nov. 27 and stars Bea Alonzo and Angelica Panganiban.

“Primarily this is a friendship movie… [this is] a story about the unconditional love between friends. Lately, we’ve had a lot of romance films [but this time] it’s about friendship. We haven’t seen that in a while,” Mae Cruz-Alviar, the film’s director told the media during a press conference on Nov. 20 at the ABS-CBN offices in Quezon City.

The film follows Mariel Salvador (played by Bea Alonzo) and Deena Yambao (Angelica Panganiban), who have been best friends since college. Their relationship gradually changes when they marry brothers Justin (Richard Guttierez) and Bene (Ian Veneracion) Saavedra as family obligations and a tragedy force them to re-evaluate the meaning of friendship.

“I just thought we do a lot of love stories but rarely do we see love stories that feature friendship. There are now more people who are single and choose to be single, and for those people who choose to be single I think the important relationship [they have] outside the family is friendship,” Ms. Cruz-Alviar said.

“I believe the break-up of a friendship can be just as devastating as a romantic relationship,” she added.

At several points during the press conference, Ms. Cruz-Alviar stated that while the film’s trailer may imply unfaithfulness as the main source of conflict in the film, it’s not a kabit (mistress) movie.

“It’s not what you think it is,” she said.

The film’s leads have wildly different personalities, Ms. Alonzo described her character as someone “who likes to fix people” while Ms. Panganiban said her character is someone “who is out to please everyone,” and while their personalities served as the backbone of their years-long friendship, how they change in reaction to what life throws at them is what will break their friendship.

“This is a story worth telling because all of us can relate: we all have friends,” the director said.

Unbreakable screens nationwide on Nov. 27. — ZBC

Cebu Landmasters, IBC plan to build Iloilo residential tower

CEBU Landmasters, Inc. (CLI) is partnering with International Builders Corp. (IBC) to develop a P1.5-billion condominium project in Iloilo City.

The listed Cebu-based property developer told the stock exchange yesterday it forged a joint venture agreement with IBC Chairman Alfonso G. Tan to build a residential tower in downtown Iloilo.

CLI will manage and own 50% of the high-rise building, which is scheduled to be completed in four years.

IBC, which has expertise in construction, will build a mall at the same time to complement the condominium.

“We are very proud to forge this partnership with Mr. Alfonso Tan and his family. He has established IBC as the leading construction firm in the region, and both our homegrown companies are motivated by the opportunity to contribute further to Iloilo’s exceptional growth,” CLI Chief Executive Officer Jose R. Soberano III said in the statement.

While working on the residential tower, CLI said it is simultaneously building almost 1,200 units of house and lot under the Casa Mira brand in a 14-hectare property in Jaro, Iloilo.

CLI is currently present in Visayas and Mindanao through starter homes, residential condominiums, top-end residential units, mixed-use complexes and hotels.

In October, it said it was building 58 projects in 10 key cities in Visayas and Mindanao as it targets to reach 200,000 square meters of property by 2023. It also aims to have 1,350 hotel rooms in seven locations by 2022.

CLI booked a net income of P1.65 billion in the nine months to September, surging 77% from a year ago, as revenues jumped 61% to P5.95 billion.

The property firm said its reservation sales propelled its profits during the three-quarter period as it reached a record-high P9.2 billion at the end of September.

Shares in CLI at the stock exchange ended flat at the close of Monday’s trading to P4.70 apiece. — Denise A. Valdez

In Kafka’s birthplace, bureaucracy keeps property boom going

ONE of Europe’s hottest property markets is lavishing opportunities on those lucky or smart enough to have bought early. But for Richard Gallo and Michaela Tomaskova, it’s a headache with no end in sight.

They’re caught on opposite ends of the same conundrum, an alignment of forces pushing housing prices relentlessly higher in Prague. When Mr. Gallo moved from Italy to the Czech Republic, one of the European Union‘s cheaper countries, he found himself priced out of the capital. It’s the job of Ms. Tomaskova, a developer, to provide people like him with places to live. But her company is drowning in a sea of red tape.

The problem is a supply squeeze that’s been exacerbated by Prague’s booming tourism industry and its rapidly growing population. Mostly, though, it’s bureaucratic hurdles that have capped the flow of new apartments at a rate that’s changed little in the last decade, even as soaring demand sparked construction booms in cities like Budapest and Warsaw.

It means that, even though prices jumped 22% last year, the surge has no reason to slow any time soon.

“We’re absolutely convinced, and there’s a consensus among developers, that the jump in prices will stop and the market will stabilize only if the permit process speeds up,” said Ms. Tomaskova, the head of one of Prague’s biggest developers, Central Group.

Prague often feels full, with throngs of people crowding its compact downtown area. The medieval cobblestone streets, Gothic towers, Romanesque rotundas and Art Nouveau palaces have long attracted millions of tourists. And with the EU’s lowest unemployment rate, the country has also become a magnet for foreigners looking for work. All of them need places to stay — while local demand is also up, driven by rising wages.

Mr. Gallo struggled to find work in his hometown of Corropoli, Italy after the global financial crisis, but made his move and quickly found a job working as a lathe operator in a factory in Prague. That, though, didn’t mean he could afford a place to live.

He’s not alone: compared with wages, the prices are the EU’s highest. Across the nation, potential buyers need 11 gross annual salaries — the average paycheck is 409,260 koruna ($17,779) — for an apartment, more than in the U.K., France or Germany, according to a study by Deloitte LLP. Even in an age of cheap mortgages, that’s out of reach for many.

“In the past, perhaps it was doable to buy something in Prague,” said Mr. Gallo, 27. “But these days the prices are so high that it’s impossible.”

OUT OF REACH
Part of the problem are the apartments taken off the market as owners jump into the Airbnb-fueled short-term rental craze. According to a 2018 study by the Planning and Development Institute of Prague, as many as a fifth of all apartments in the capital’s Old Town district, and 10% in the surrounding areas, are listed on the site.

But the biggest factor is the absence of new apartments. For years, developers have failed to build the estimated 6,000 a year that the city needs to keep up with its growing population, now at 1.3 million. That’s expected to grow by 160,000 in the next decade.

Last year, builders finished only 5,290 flats, according to the statistics office.

“For many years, Prague hasn’t managed to react to the inflow of people into the city,” said David Jirusek, the spokesman of Finep Holding, one of the largest developers in the capital. “Prague is lacking thousands of apartments.”

Ms. Tomaskova, the developer, has 30,000 apartments in the pipeline. But the approval process is kafkaesque. Just a planning permit — one of three required stages — needs about 40 stamps from different authorities from the Fire Department to the Cultural Heritage Office. Approvals often take so long that plans need to be amended to reflect technological advancements, she said.

“These three steps take us 10 years,” Ms. Tomaskova said. “The documentation for buildings is now so detailed that we have to drive it to the construction office in a van, and it’s also clear that the clerks can’t understand everything.”

As a result, Central Group is well below the lower end of its target of bringing 1,000 to 1,500 apartments to market each year.

Still, the surging prices are breathing life into some big projects. One site that may help clear the logjam is Bubny-Zatory, an area about the size of 140 soccer fields just two miles from Prague Castle. Not that it has been a smooth run for the former rail freight terminal. Along with other brownfield sites, it’s been locked in bureaucratic battles since the fall of communism three decades ago.

Prague’s new leadership, serving since 2018, wants construction on a mixed office, retail and housing project to start there within the next two to three years, with the goal of providing homes for as many as 25,000 people over two decades.

“Prague has some homework to do to make more apartments available,” Mayor Zdenek Hrib said in an interview. “The first thing that we need to do is to unblock these huge brownfields.”

Mr. Gallo, who has started a family, now has a flat in Sadska, a village about 25 kilometers east of the capital. He has to get up at 5:30 a.m. every day to make it to work on time.

“We kind of gave up on the idea of moving to Prague,” he said. “It’s cheaper to live here and commute every day than paying a mortgage there.” — Bloomberg

Former member of K-pop girl group found dead

SEOUL — A former member of South Korea’s top K-pop girl group was found dead on Sunday, the country’s Yonhap news agency reported citing police.

The body of Koo Hara, 28, was discovered at her home in southern Seoul, Yonhap said.

Police were not immediately available for comment.

Koo, better known as Hara in other parts of Asia, had spoken out against cyber bullying. In June, a month after she was found unconscious at her home and hospitalized, she said it was difficult to overcome depression and pleaded for positive comment on social media.

She debuted with the five-member Kara in 2008. It was one of the early girl groups that helped fan the global K-pop wave, building large fan bases in Japan, China, and other countries.

After a deal with a South Korean management agency was terminated, Koo launched a career as a solo artist in Japan and held a concert there this month.

Another K-pop star, Sulli, a former member of girl group f(x), who was a close friend of Koo’s and had also spoken out against cyber bullying, also died in October. — Reuters

AC Energy appoints joint lead managers for green notes

AC Energy, Inc. has named the financial institutions that will be involved in its proposed three-year green notes offering, which is subject to market conditions, its parent company Ayala Corp. said on Monday.

The planned notes offering are fixed for life or non-deferrable senior perpetual non-call instruments, and will be issued by AC Energy Finance International Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of AC Energy. The notes will be guaranteed by AC Energy.

AC Energy mandated BPI Capital as sole global coordinator; and BPI Capital, CLSA, Credit Suisse and UBS as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners.

As a requirement for the notes, AC Energy will be submitting its pro-forma financial information as at Sept. 30, 2019 and for the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2019 and year ended Dec. 31, 2018 as part of the offering circular.

AC Energy, one of the country’s fastest growing energy companies, has more than $1 billion of invested and committed equity in renewable and thermal energy in the Philippines and in the region.

The company aims to surpass 5 gigawatts of attributable capacity and generate at least half of that energy from renewables by 2025. — Victor V. Saulon

US Federal Reserve, trade war make $488-B Japan fund a Treasuries bull

JAPAN’S Asset Management One Co. has a bullish call on Treasuries. One for the long, long run.

The money manager overseeing the equivalent of $488 billion says benchmark US yields will keep falling as structural changes in the economy and stubbornly low inflation see the Federal Reserve following its peers in Japan and Europe in lowering interest rates toward zero.

“The US will stay in a monetary easing cycle in the long run,” said Yusuke Ito, a fund manager in the global fixed-income investment division at Asset Management in Tokyo. “There are structural issues which need to be addressed. The problem of aging demographics is slowly coming and will affect the supply-and-demand balance in the economy.”

As markets look forward to the new year, the key questions for global investors are how much further will the Fed go in easing its monetary policy and whether the US and China will be able to reach a trade deal. While futures traders are pricing in just one quarter-point rate cut by the Fed next year, some strategists — including at NatWest Markets and TD Securities — are expecting two reductions.

Signals of a slowdown in the US manufacturing sector will weigh on the labor market and consumption, Mr. Ito said. The trade dispute “won’t resolve easily” as both China and America are fighting a battle for supremacy, he said, citing it as another reason for Treasury yields to decline.

‘OVERHEATING’
Asset Management sold Treasuries when the 10-year yield dropped to a three-year low of 1.43% in September as the market was “overheating,” Mr. Ito said. However, it bought the securities when signs of progress in trade talks saw yields rise back toward 2%. They won’t climb back to those levels anytime soon, he said.

The Treasury yield curve is expected to steepen as the Fed’s easing phase extends, Mr. Ito said, without providing any yield forecasts. Ten-year yields have slipped 91 basis points this year to 1.77% to head for their biggest annual drop since 2011, as the Fed lowered interest rates three times.

Despite the slide, the yields are among the highest in developed markets without the cost of currency-hedging, and remain one of the top investment options for Japanese investors who continue to grapple with negative yields at home.

Asset Management’s bullish call comes when traders have been indicating that Asian real-money funds — including from Japan — have been steady buyers of long-end US debt over the past two weeks.

MEXICO, ITALY
The money manager has also been overweight Mexican bonds as it sees “large room” for the central bank to ease policy, including a move as early as December, Mr. Ito said. That’s even as the monetary authority cut the benchmark rate by a quarter point to 7.50% earlier this month.

“Mexico moved very closely with the Fed in raising rates but it may have tightened too much, restraining inflation and causing its economy to slow down,” Mr. Ito said.

Asset Management is “very bullish” on Italy as it considers the nation’s bonds to be undervalued relative to those in Portugal or Greece, Mr. Ito said. It also finds Spanish debt appealing for the nation’s current-account surplus and push for economic reforms.

The money manager doesn’t prefer bonds in other European nations “as there isn’t much room for the European Central Bank to ease its monetary policy,” Mr. Ito said. — Bloomberg

LG launches energy-efficient, cost-effective air conditioners

By Mark Louis F. Ferrolino
Special Features Writer

AIR conditioners account for large energy use and costs in commercial buildings. To address this issue, electronics firms continue to innovate and introduce energy-efficient and cost-effective solutions.

LG Electronics, Inc. recently launched its 2020 line-up for single commercial air conditioners (CAC). These products, with a cooling capacity ranging from 1.5 horsepower (HP) to 10 HP, are rigged with R1 Compressor and Smart Inverter, making them ideal for restaurants, and small- and medium-sized stores and offices.

LG Electronics Asia B2B Air Solutions Sales Manager Joohoon Kim said in a press briefing that LG’s newest line up for single CAC suits the need of different buildings in terms of space and required cooling performance.

The Floor Standing air conditioner, for instance, is efficient to use in large areas due to its powerful cooling operation, while the Ceiling Mounted Casette air conditioner helps save space and make air flow with a 4.2-meter ceiling height possible.

The 1 Way Ceiling Casette air conditioner allows users to easily get their preferred cooling comfort with its wind detection feature. The Ceiling Suspended air conditioner, on the other hand, cools down 30% faster and expels air faster and further.

Meanwhile, the Ceiling Concealed Duct air conditioner is engineered with thermistors in the controller and the indoor unit that can optimize indoor air temperature. Users can also easily detach and reattach its filter because its panel is divided into heat exchanger and fan/motor.

“We have the market knowledge of what the customers really want in their design or preference. Hence, LG Air Solutions is constantly improving its products to tailor to their specific needs,” LG Electronics Philippines Air Solutions Business Development Manager Rod Astoriano said.

The R1 Compressor used in LG’s new line of air conditioners addresses the problem of low efficiency in the widely used rotary compressor and improves the tiling motion. The compressor also lowers the noise to four decibels and reduces the weight by 20%.

With the LG Smart Inverter, consumption and electricity costs of its users are expected to decline by 25% and recoup their investment within 20 months.

“LG inverter is indeed a cutting-edge technology with high-level of energy efficiency ratio (EER). You can save a lot of money from paying high electricity,” Mr. Astoriano said.

“The power consumption of [air conditioners in] a house or a building contributes around 50%. So, if you’re paying P10,000, you’re paying actually P5,000 for your air-conditioning,” he explained.

LG Electronics Philippines Managing Director Inkwun Heo said that the sales of LG in the country grew significantly in 2018 and HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) business was a significant part of it.

“LG’s HVAC Division will continue to develop the world’s best HVAC for contributing to conserve the environment as well as creating better living conditions for everyone,” he said.

In the second quarter of 2020, LG is set to launch new additions to its portfolio. These include the Dual Vane Casette air conditioner that manages air flow more precisely and provides optimized air flow for users, and the Round Cassette air conditioner that provides perfect circular air flow without any blind spot.

BSP moratorium on fees affecting ATM density

BSP
BANKERS said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ moratorium on automated teller machine fees affected lenders’ expansion. — BW FILE PHOTO

THE PHILIPPINES is still behind its ASEAN neighbors in terms of automated teller machine (ATM) availability, according to estimates from the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP).

Bankers said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) moratorium on ATM transaction fees “held back” their performance in servicing and expanding their reach.

With 21,000 ATMs for 58 million cardholders throughout the country or about 20 ATMs per capita of 100,000 card users, the Philippines still has a gap to fill compared to other countries’ ATM per capita such as Thailand’s 94, Singapore’s 49, Malaysia’s 45, and Indonesia’s 40 ATMS for 100,000 cardholders, respectively.

The BAP said the growth rates of banks’ ATM deployments slowed to an average of 6.4% since 2013 from 13% in the preceding years.

“The moratorium on ATM transaction fees since 2013 has held back banks optimal performance in servicing and expanding their reach,” BAP said in a statement on Monday.

According to the group, lenders shoulder expenses from operational activities such as loading, servicing, complaints handling, reconciliation, software, capacity expansion and security, apart from those incurred from physical ATM deployments.

“The number of cardholders has been increasing for the past six years. Banks need to keep up with the maintenance and innovation of ATMs, as well as expansion of ATM network to accommodate the surge of ATM usage,” BAP Managing Director Benjamin P. Castillo said.

“We will collaborate with the regulators to ensure that ATM fees remain market-driven and reasonable, while continuing to provide convenience and security to the banking public,” Mr. Castillo said.

The BSP has already approved the applications of some banks for up to a P3 increase in ATM fees when using cards from a different card provider.

Vicente T. de Villa III, managing director at the BSP’s Financial Technology Sub-Sector, previously said ATM fees imposed by lenders are around P11 to P15 per transaction. — L.W.T. Noble

Michael Jackson movie is in the works

MICHAEL JACKSON’S story is headed for Hollywood from the producer who helped make hit film Bohemian Rhapsody, industry media reported on Friday.

Deadline, Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter said producer Graham King had secured the rights, including music, from Jackson’s estate to make a feature film about the life of the “Thriller” singer, whose legacy has been tarnished by allegations of child sex abuse.

The movie is expected to span Jackson’s journey from child star to global icon that ended when he died in 2009 at age 50 of an overdose from a powerful sleeping aid just weeks before a planned comeback concert.

Deadline, citing unnamed sources, said the film “isn’t intended to be a sanitized rendering” of Jackson’s life.

King’s production company and the Jackson estate did not immediately return calls for comment.

Jackson was tried and acquitted in 2005 on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy. In 1994, he settled a sexual abuse civil lawsuit concerning another 13-year-old boy.

His reputation came under scrutiny again this year because of the Emmy-winning documentary Leaving Neverland in which two men gave emotional accounts of what they said was sexual abuse by the singer in the 1990s when they were boys.

Jackson’s family attacked the documentary and his estate denounced it as a “rehash of dated and discredited allegations.”

Despite the publicity, the Jackson estate is backing a new Broadway musical about the singer, due to open in July 2020. A Michael Jackson show One from Cirque du Soleil continues to play in Las Vegas, and stage musical Thriller Live has been playing in London since 2009.

Bohemian Rhapsody, a musical biopic about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury who died of AIDS in 1991, won four Oscars this year, including for lead actor Rami Malek. It has taken more than $900 million at the global box office.

Deadline said the script for the Jackson movie will be written by John Logan, whose credits include The Aviator. No casting, expected release date or movie studio was announced. — Reuters

Gaz Lite maker aims to generate P220-million revenues in 2020

PASCAL Resources Energy Inc. (PREI) is targeting to generate P220 million in revenues, mainly from the sale of its Gaz Lite aluminum liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) canisters.

In a press briefing on Monday, PREI officials said they hope to encourage more Filipino consumers to switch to clean energy for cooking. Within the next five years, PREI is aiming to tap half of the 12 million households who currently do not use clean fuel for cooking. The company said it has reached an estimated 150,000 customers since 2015.

Described as the world’s first refillable aluminum LPG canister, Gaz Lite was developed as an alternative to solid fuel — or wood and charcoal-based — cooking, as well as to the dangerous refilling of butane canisters with LPG.

PREI Chairman Nelson C. Par said that the company targets P220 million in revenues by 2020. The company had invested an initial P20 million for research and development, and P500 million in its first facility in Lubao, Pampanga that will be fully operational by January 2020.

“For this year, we’re looking at probably P100 million [in revenues]. After our exit from the traditional business, we’ve now invested P500 million for the facility. We’re serious about it,” Mr. Par said.

“Hopefully we would be able to pull together all those interested to be distributors. We’re looking at going nationwide for this.”

PREI intends to expand to further facilities in Gaz Lite’s main markets in Visayas and Mindanao.

PREI Assistant Vice President for Branding and Marketing Matthew Par said that the company intends to improve affordability for LPG.

Solid fuel users spend an estimated P30 per day, while a Gaz Lite canister refill that lasts three to five days costs P65 at suggested retail price.

Initial costs for Gaz Lite would be P145 for a new canister, or around P1,000 for the stove and two-canister set. Gaz Lite canisters only work with the stoves and grills produced by the company.

Smaller and one-time use LPG-refilled butane canisters, the PREI assistant vice president said, typically cost between P10 and P35 each.

The Department of Energy reported that household LPG in Metro Manila was at P578.30 to P740.30 per 11-kilogram cylinder as of Nov. 6.

Gaz Lite was initially the corporate social responsibility activity of the Par family-owned LPG and refilling company PR Gaz, which they sold in 2017. The family founded PREI in 2018.

Gaz Lite is the only refillable LPG canister that carries the Philippine Standards (PS) Mark as well as the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines’ Utility Model registration. — Jenina P. Ibañez

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