THE REVISED concession terms for the P42.7-billion Laguindingan airport proposal of Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc. are now being reviewed by the Department of Transportation (DoTr), the agency said.
Transportation Undersecretary for Planning Ruben S. Reinoso, Jr. said in a text message Tuesday the “evaluation of (Aboitiz InfraCapital’s) revised submission is ongoing,” referring to the concession terms for the company’s unsolicited proposal to take over the Laguindingan airport.
Once it hurdles the department’s review, the proposal will then be turned over to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), joining three other airport proposals that have earlier been endorsed by the DoTr: the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Bohol-Panglao International Airport and Davao International Airport proposals.
Last week, Aboitiz InfraCapital Chief Operating Officer Cosette V. Canilao told reporters the company has submitted its revised concession terms to the DoTr to follow the operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for the Clark International Airport.
“We’ve been in constant communication with DoTr. Everything looks okay naman,” she said.
The DoTr said in June it started requiring all airport development proponents to submit concession terms that are patterned after the government’s contract with Luzon International Premier Airport Development Corp. for the O&M of the Clark International Airport.
The Clark O&M contract requires the private concessionaire to handle all market risks and take on the insurance for damage to an airport’s assets. It also said the government will indemnify the concessionaire from material adverse government action, or compensate the private sector in the event of untoward incidences in the course of a project.
So far, the DoTr had given to NEDA the P102-billion proposal of the consortium of seven conglomerates for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The group is formed by Aboitiz InfraCapital; AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp.; Alliance Global Group, Inc.; Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp.; Filinvest; JG Summit; and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
Aboitiz InfraCapital’s Bohol-Panglao International Airport was likewise given to NEDA in August.
Mr. Reinoso said Tuesday the department had also already endorsed the P49-billion proposal of Dennis A. Uy-led Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings Corp. for the Davao International Airport to NEDA.
Ms. Canilao said Aboitiz InfraCapital is hoping to be awarded the three airport development projects it is vying to take on — NAIA, Bohol-Panglao and Laguindingan airports — by early next year.
“Pwede matapos yung Swiss challenge this year (The Swiss challenge may be finished this year), but the awarding would take next year siguro (most likely),” she said.
PRE-NEED FIRMS that do not sell any type of plans will now have to maintain a minimum paid-up capital of P50,000, the Insurance Commission (IC) said.
The IC in Circular Letter No. 2019-50 dated Sept. 16 set a minimum unimpaired paid-up capital requirement for pre-need companies “to avoid confusion,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
“For the avoidance of confusion, this Commission likewise finds the need to prescribe minimum unimpaired paid-up capital requirements for pre-need companies with servicing licenses and/or those that are not offering any type of plan for sale in the market,” the statement read.
However, IC maintained that the number of plans that these firms sell to the market will still determine its minimum paid-up capital requirement.
“The threshold amount of said minimum capital shall be based on the number of pre-need plans such company actually offered for sale in the market during said calendar year,” the circular read.
The IC requires pre-need companies selling three or more types of plans to have a minimum unimpaired paid-up capital of P100 million, while those selling two types of plans have a requirement of P75 million. Meanwhile, pre-need firms offering just one kind of plan have a minimum unimpaired paid-up capital requirement of P50,000.
The circular will take effect immediately, the IC said. — B.M. Laforga
Indonesia’s biggest fair moves out of the hotel, its home for 10 years. Will ours ever move out of the parking lot?
By Sam L. Marcelo Associate Editor
ART JAKARTA moved to new digs for its 11th edition, the first one under fair director Tom Tandio, who quit Art Stage Singapore in January 2018. Mr. Tandio moved the Indonesian fair out of the plush ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place — which the event called home for a decade, with its chandeliers and conspicuous red-and-yellow carpet — and into the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), a concrete-floored high-ceilinged venue possessing the look preferred by art fairs everywhere.
Taking place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, Art Jakarta featured 70 galleries, 40 of which were international — with The Drawing Room Manila being the lone gallery from the Philippines. The event attracted 39,066 visitors from all over the world.
Exhibitors welcomed Mr. Tandio’s decision to relocate the fair. Said Stella Chang, director of Singapore-based Yavuz Gallery: “JCC beats any hotel. The convention center is a blank slate — there’s so much more you can do.” She made an example of Yavuz’s installation of Ronald Ventura’s Bobro’s World Tour, a man-cave representing consumerism and excess. Entered via a giant golden dog’s gaping maw, it was furnished with couches, a mini KTV booth, and symbols of consumerism and excess.
Other works presented in special sections demonstrated the horizontal and vertical flexibility of the new space. Arario Gallery brought Eko Negruho’s Moving Landscape (2015), the largest manual embroidery thus far by the Indonesian artist, and hung it from JCC’s rafters. Meanwhile, motion graphics artist and VJ Isha Hening created Cursory Glance, a tall immersive work made of LED floor panels. Despite the more ambitious scale of the works and comparable foot traffic, the fair never felt as packed as it did when it was held in Pacific Place.
HARDWARE VERSUS SOFTWARE
During the vernissage, Mr. Tandio had to field repeated questions as to whether the refreshed version of Art Jakarta was gunning for the spot vacated by Art Stage Singapore, which bills itself as the fair of Southeast Asia. This January, organizers of Art Stage Singapore canceled the 2019 edition just nine days before it was supposed to take place, leaving galleries in limbo. (The Singaporean fair, founded in 2011 by Swiss impresario Lorenzo Rudolf, also attempted to gain a foothold in Indonesia in 2016, when it launched Art Stage Jakarta. It folded after two years.)
Fueling further speculation: Mr. Tandio and Gil Schneider, who serves as Art Jakarta’s fair consultant, were previously connected with Art Stage Singapore. Mr. Tandio, however, squashed the narrative that Art Jakarta has ambitions to speak for the region: “For me, being an art hub is not very important,” he said. “The key thing is being different.”
By “being different,” Mr. Tandio clarified that he wasn’t referring to the practical details of the fair — because, if anything, Art Jakarta now more closely resembles its international counterparts in the way it is laid out and lit — but in the intangible. “The uniqueness we’re talking about is not in the hardware but the software: about how — as a fair — our energy, our spirit, is unique compared to others,” he said, adding that much of it is due to the new team behind Art Jakarta (aside from Messrs. Tandio and Schneider, there’s also independent curator Enin Supriyanto, who is the fair’s artistic director) and the Indonesian art scene itself.
During one of the talks held in conjunction with the fair, Gridthiya Gaweewong, artistic director of the Jim Thompson Art Center in Thailand, attributed the strength of the Indonesian art scene to its grassroots beginnings. “The Indonesian art scene was built from the bottom up, which is amazing. When you look at our friends here from Singapore, it was really top-down,” she said. Ms. Gaweewong also contrasted Indonesia with Thailand: “The sense of community here [in Indonesia] is super impressive. What we have in Thailand is very territorial: we have three biennales that do not talk to each other.”
Meanwhile, June Yap, curatorial director of the Singapore Art Museum, observed how convivial the atmosphere is in Indonesia. “Everyone comes together, everyone plays different roles,” she said.
Take, for example, Mr. Tandio. Aside from being fair director, he is also a collector of contemporary art (one of his more interesting purchases: a performance that came without a single shred of documentation) and a co-founder of IndoArtNow Foundation, an online archive of works by contemporary Indonesian artists.
‘A MATURATION OF THE SYSTEM’
A reinvigorated Art Jakarta is just one of the recent developments that prompted Aaron Seeto, director of Museum MACAN, to say that Indonesia’s confidence is on the upswing. “There is a maturation of the ecosystem,” he said in a separate interview that took place in the museum. “You have really great artists and you have really great collectors.”
Opened in 2017, Museum MACAN was included in Time magazine’s list of “World’s 100 Greatest Places.” Although young, the museum presented a major survey exhibition in 2018 by Yayoi Kusama — a big and complicated show by an equally big and complicated artist — and followed that up with a major retrospective for Chinese artist Xu Bing (now on view), which opened in time for Art Jakarta.
“One of the missions of the museum is really to support the ecosystem,” Mr. Seeto said. “This is not something we can do ourselves. It’s also not something we wish to do ourselves. I don’t want to take the burden of art education for everyone, or the burden of making exhibitions, or being the only one. We want to see more variety. We want to be able to work with more people from different places.”
The institution Mr. Seeto heads is yet another feather in the country’s cap, adding to respected biennales such as the Jakarta Biennale and Biennale Jogja; and artist collectives such as Ruangrupa, which was chosen as artistic director of the 15th edition of Documenta, the 100-day exhibition of contemporary art that will take place in 2022 in Kassel, Germany.
CREATING CONVERSATIONS
Alain Servais, a Belgian collector who is an outspoken fixture in the international art circuit, said that Mr. Tandio’s Art Jakarta — with its new brand identity, new venue, and new management team — was part of an organic whole.
“An art fair is not a flying saucer that arrives from one country and lands in another country. Absolutely not. An art fair is the result of the energy of the country. No art fair can be built on no energy. This country is full of energy,” he told BusinessWorld. “An art fair is only the result of the scene. It cannot go faster, it cannot be better… Of course, it’s not Art Basel but I would definitely recommend it to people to come here. Definitely.”
Art Jakarta, with its focus on Asian-centric galleries, didn’t suffer from the lack of mega-galleries like Gagosian and David Zwirner — what Mr. Tandio called “the big boys” — that usually gobble up the coveted first rows in art fairs. “I think if collectors want to collect those works [from those galleries], they can easily go to Singapore or Art Basel Hong Kong,” Mr. Tandio said. Neither did Art Jakarta venture into anything too academic. Other fairs, like Art Stage Singapore, experimented with platforms that were curatorially strong but commercially difficult. “We’re not like that,” said Mr. Tandio of Art Jakarta.
The next edition of Art Jakarta will have the same number of exhibitors — 70 — with about the same ratio of Indonesian to international galleries. “I want all my exhibitors to be satisfied. Having more galleries doesn’t mean that you can sell more. I think that 70 is a good size for three days,” he said. “We want to be friends with everyone,” he added, pointing out that Art Jakarta’s gallery mix includes regulars in Art Central and Art Basel (previously described as the David and Goliath of Hong Kong art fairs).
For Mr. Tandio, the opportunities that arise from an art fair are as important as dollar signs. “Hopefully, an artist meets Mami Kataoka from Mori Art Museum and maybe she sees an artist’s works here. And then, you know, there’s a chance for them to do a group show,” he said. “Networking — that’s a very key role for a fair. We are not here just to sell art. We are here to create a conversation between all these people.”
NO FASTER, NO BETTER
Mr. Servais’s sentiment that a fair cannot go faster or be better than the scene has a flip side: a fair cannot go slower or be worse than the scene. It’s interesting to think about considering the rumors swirling around the next edition of Art Fair Philippines (AFP), which describes itself as “the premier platform for exhibiting and selling the best in modern and contemporary Philippine visual art.”
This June, ANCX reported that 10 of Manila’s top galleries — dubbed the “Breakaway 10” — were leaving Art Fair Philippines to start their own.
If this all sounds familiar, it is because Art Fair Philippines was the original “breakaway” fair. Organized by Trickie Lopa, Lisa Periquet, and Dindin Araneta, AFP was born in 2013 after disgruntled exhibitors at ManilArt — which, before AFP, touted itself as “the first and only annual international art fair in the Philippines” — wanted an art fair that was more professional and reflective of the local art scene.
What began as a personal endeavor for the three organizers is now an event that pulls in numbers comparable to Art Jakarta (around 30,000 visitors over three days). The 2019 edition, held in February, featured 52 galleries, 16 of which were international.
It was and still is held in a parking lot in Makati City — a venue that Ms. Lopa described as “a little bit make-do, out-of-the-box, and out-of-the-ordinary” in 2013. This, despite the swelling number of visitors, which led to AFP taking up more floors of the parking lot and, in one edition, instituting timed entries to regulate foot traffic.
The parking lot may be unique but is it still of a standard? Is it still reflective of the scene? Although he wasn’t talking about AFP, one can go back to Mr. Tandio’s explanation of a unique fair versus a standardized fair and how the two are not mutually exclusive.
“When we talk about standards, we’re talking about hardware: the lighting, the walls, the flooring, the space. We have to have a standard,” he said. “The uniqueness we’re talking about is not about the hardware but the software: about how — as a fair — our energy, our spirit, is unique compared to others.”
Art Jakarta left the hotel, secure in its belief that the fair could still be unique despite moving into a cookie-cutter convention center. Will Art Fair Philippines be brave enough to make the same leap out of the parking lot in 2021? Or is the Philippine art scene now big enough to support several fairs?
AC ENERGY, Inc. is looking to explore opportunities in gas-fired power generation and energy storage as it sees these resources as complementing renewable energy projects by 2025, its top official said.
The move comes as shareholders of Phinma Energy Corp. on Tuesday approved the management’s plan to rename the listed firm to AC Energy Philippines, Inc.
“Our vision for AC Energy Philippines is to be the leader in renewable energy in the country. Our goal is to reach 2,000 megawatts (MW) of renewables by 2025. We will be building on a combined platform with over a 500-person strong team with significant experience in development and operations,” Eric T. Francia, AC Energy Philippines president and chief executive officer.
In January this year, AC Energy announced it was taking control of Phinma Energy through a “mutually strategic agreement” that gives the Ayala-led company a 51.48% stake in the listed energy company for P3.42 billion. The acquisition was completed on June 24.
Mr. Francia, who is also president and chief executive of the parent firm AC Energy, told shareholders during their annual meeting that the subsidiary would embark on a “transformational journey” in the next few years “with clear strategic priorities.”
“First, we will strengthen the company’s balance sheet. In order to capture this growth opportunities and compete effectively, we propose to increase the company’s balance sheet and capital base,” he said.
Aside from the change in name, shareholders approved on Tuesday Phinma Energy’s plan to increase its capitalization to P24.4 billion from P8.4 billion.
“Second, we will invest in strategic assets. With an increased capital base, we will consolidate key operating developmental assets such as SLTEC (South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp.) as well as our renewable energy pipeline,” he said.
SLTEC is a joint venture of AC Energy, Phinma Energy and Marubeni Corp.’s Axia Power Holdings Philippines Corp. Commercial operations for the thermal power plant’s first unit started in April 2015, while the second unit was completed in February 2016. SLTEC’s circulating fluidized bed thermal plant has two units each with a capacity of 122 MW.
“Consolidating the ownership of SLTEC will enable the company to withstand market volatilities and compete for the long term,” Mr. Francia said. “We shall also invest in greenfield projects, with the strong emphasis on renewable energy.”
Mr. Francia said with the government’s target of renewables reaching 35% of energy output by 2030, the country would need to build more than 15 gigawatts — or 15,000 MW — of renewables in the next decade.
“We will make significant investments in this space,” he said. “With the future scaling up of renewables and with the variable nature of its output, renewables would have to be complemented by other low carbon technologies such as gas-fired generation and/or energy storage.”
He said the company would explore opportunities in these areas.
Mr. Francia said Phinma Energy subsidiary Phinma Petroleum and Geothermal, Inc. (PPG) has an interest in oil and gas exploration service contracts off the west Palawan coast.
“Our subsidiary, PPG has an interest in oil and gas exploration service contracts of the west Palawan coast. We plan to further develop the gas field prospect in line with the country’s effort to find the next indigenous source after Malampaya,” he said.
On Tuesday, shares in Phinma Energy fell 6.69% to P2.65 each, while PPG dropped by 4.37% to P9.20 each. — Victor V. Saulon
SAN FRANCISCO — Deep disagreements within the Federal Reserve over the economic outlook and how the US central bank should respond will not stop policy makers from cutting interest rates at a two-day meeting that begins on Tuesday.
While an oil price spike after attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities over the weekend added to the list of risks facing an economy already slowed by ongoing trade tensions and global weakness, the deep divide evident around the Fed’s policy-making table means further rate cuts could be far from a done deal.
At one end of the Fed’s massive boardroom sit St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who are expected to argue for a steep reduction in borrowing costs to counter low inflation and an inverted Treasury yield curve.
Pushback from the opposite end is likely to come from Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who opposed the Fed’s rate cut in July, and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker, who only reluctantly supported it and says he wants to leave rates where they are “to see how things play out.”
Fed Chair Jerome Powell, seated midway down the table, faces the delicate task of taking on board those views and the disparate arguments of the other dozen policy makers to build consensus.
A top challenge: making sense of economic data that suggests the US manufacturing industry may be contracting and inflation remains weak, even as households continue to spend and employers overall are adding plenty of jobs.
“The discord is extremely visible,” said Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. “If you look at the economy today, you look at an economy that’s bifurcated … The key question is whether that weakness seeps through the economy, and whether that’s aggravated.”
Since the Fed’s 8-2 decision to cut rates in July, a move that Powell called a ‘mid-cycle’ adjustment, the economic data has delivered mixed signals.
Strong retail sales and continued wage growth may add to Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren’s confidence that current economic conditions do not justify further policy easing. He dissented in the July policy decision.
The ongoing US-China trade war makes Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan among others concerned about slowing factory output and a slide in business investment. Kaplan supported July’s rate cut.
The newest wild card to factor in to the debate emerged unexpectedly in Saturday’s attacks on the Saudi oil facilities, which triggered the biggest spike in oil prices in more than two decades.
Fed officials could see the development either as a risk to an already fragile growth outlook, which would support the case for more easing, or as a welcome boost to inflation, which would back a case for standing still for now.
And even though the conviction for further rate hikes has softened since last week, traders overall continue to expect one more reduction in borrowing costs by the end of the year.
Fed policy makers will bring to the meeting their own views of where rates should be by December. In June, the last time they published their forecasts, about half of policy makers expected a total of two rate cuts this year; about half thought no rates would be appropriate. — Reuters
JUST because Repertory Philippines (Rep) has been around a long time — it is currently on its 82nd season — that does not mean that it is an old dog that can’t do new tricks. Case in point, its closing show in its current season is its very first original musical adaptation of a Filipino classic — The Quest for the Adarna, produced through Rep’s Theater for Young Audiences (RTYA).
Based on the Filipino epic poem, the musical is set in the Kingdom of Berbania, ruled King Fernando and Queen Valeriana who have three sons: Princes Pedro, Diego, and Juan. Then King Fernando has a nightmare and falls ill, and the only cure is the song of the Ibong Adarna. The three princes then journey one by one to Mount Tabor to try to capture the Adarna.
Directed by Joy Virata, assisted by co-directors Jamie Wilson and Naths Everett, the story is told in English translation with original music by Rony Fortich and book and lyrics by Luna Griño-Inocian.
“The story lends itself to music,” Ms. Griño-Inocian told BusinessWorld in an online interview.
“Music can emphasize these emotions, tone them down, or lighten up a potentially dark theme, reinforce or stress the feelings, show the progression from bad to worse or from full on rant to a calm acceptance,” she added. Ms. Griño-Inocian knows whereof she speaks — after all, she co-wrote the popular musical The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Jaime del Mundo for Trumpets. (Several years later she followed this up with another, non-musical, adaptation from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy.)
Ms. Griño-Inocian chooses the parts in the story where the songs make the most impact. “I usually put songs in to strengthen character, show character and relationship development, and to push the main theme.”
As for the lyrics, Ms. Griño-Inocian drew inspiration from the story itself and the characters.
“The original story gives a writer a lot of leeway for creating characters and situations; choices to go either stereotypical and/or come up with the totally unexpected; and then, opportunities to embellish them with anachronistic elements drawn from current language, music genres, and nods to popular culture so the younger generations can find something they can relate to,” she explained.
The challenge that Ms. Griño-Inocian had to face when adapting the epic into a musical, which clocks in at 90 to 95 minutes, is catching and keeping the attention of children ages seven to 12.
“I took cues from my grandchildren — the music they like, the TV shows, movies, and role-playing games they are interested in, what makes them laugh and what drives them crazy, and what holds their attention,” Ms. Griño-Inocian wrote.
Actresses Carla Guevara-Laforteza, Shiela Valderrama-Martinez, Andrea Monique Alvarado, and Cara Barredo alternate in the role of the Adarna. They are joined by Arion Sanchez, Jim Andrew Ferrer, Ade Valenzona alternating as Prince Pedro; Andres Borromeo, Vinni Todd, Luis Marcelo, and Sean Nolasco as Prince Diego; and Leo John Guinid, Diego Aranda, and Neo Rivera as Prince Juan. Hans Eckstein, Noel Rayos, and Jay Barrameda alternate as The Hermit; Cara Barredo, Justine Narciso, Jillian Ita-as, and Alex Reyes alternate as Maria Blanca. Eckstein, Arnel Carion, and Raymund Concepcion alternate as King Fernando; while Naths Everett and Ayam Eckstein take on the role of Queen Valeriana.
During the press preview on Sept. 14, co-director Jamie Wilson noted that the musical included Asian theater elements such as shadow play and puppetry.
Aside from entertainment, Mr. Wilson stressed that the musical adaptation focuses on “positive values of the Filipino” which are aimed to educate young audiences on the values of duty and love for family, forgiveness, and redemption.
“Being kind, knowing when to go beyond one’s comfort zone, learning to forgive, keeping one’s word no matter what and having the courage to go on despite being afraid — those will always be relevant,” Ms. Griño-Inocian noted.
The Quest for the Adarna runs until Jan. 26, 2020 at the Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1 in Makati City. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (www.ticketworld.com.ph, 891-9999). For updates and show schedules, visit www.repertoryphilippines.com.ph. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman
Parklinks North is already about 70% sold, the company said. — ARRA B. FRANCIA
By Arra B. Francia Senior Reporter
AYALA LAND Premier (ALP) has ventured into its first project in Quezon City with a two-tower residential condominium seen to fetch over P26 billion in sales.
The luxury property unit of Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) on Tuesday said it has already sold about 70% of the project’s first tower, Parklinks North Towers. The 55-storey building is seen to generate P12.7 billion in sales, against a project cost of around P7 billion.
“Our buyers are mostly local, close to 90% are local from Quezon City, Makati, and the Pasig area. A lot of them are entrepreneurs, a lot are repeat buyers or those who purchased an ALP property in the past,” ALP Head of Sales and Marketing Paolo O. Viray said in a press briefing in the company’s showroom in Bonifacio Global City yesterday.
Since its launch in November 2018, prices in Parklinks North have appreciated 15% to P320,000 per square meter (sq.m.).
Parklinks North offers a total of 280 units with one-bedroom to four-bedroom layouts ranging from 70 to 306 sq.m. Units are priced from P22-120 million.
Amenities in the tower include an outdoor lounge, pool complex, fitness center, social hall, children’s play area, and sports court located on the 10th floor.
Parklinks North is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2025.
ALP said it will also launch Parklinks South within the next few weeks, given the robust demand seen in the first tower.
Mr. Viray said Parklinks South will have a similar layout, but will offer more units at 313. The price of each square meter could average at P310,000 to P315,000, for a sales value of close to P14 billion for the entire tower.
The second tower is expected to be completed in 2027.
The residential condominium project will be located inside the 35-hectare mixed use estate Parklinks, a joint venture between ALI and Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. (EPPI). The township will connect parts of Quezon City and Pasig City through a bridge.
The towers will be directly connected to Parklinks Mall, a five-storey lifestyle mall covering 51,000 sq.m. of leasable space. The mall will house a sports center, six cinemas, office spaces, and a mix of retail and dining options.
It will also stand next to the River Esplanade, or an open civic park that will feature dining establishments.
ALI and EPPI said last year that it will spend P53 billion to develop Parklinks over the next 10 years. Launched in January 2018, the company has already begun development for 16 hectares in the estate. This is set to be completed in November.
The companies have also started construction for the 110-meter bridge that will be completed by the first quarter of 2021.
HONG KONG — The launch of new online-only banks in Hong Kong is expected to be delayed in part due to anti-government protests in the city, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Most of the eight newly licensed digital banks in Hong Kong, including joint ventures involving Standard Chartered and Bank of China Hong Kong, had aimed to begin operating before the end of 2019.
But as protests stretch into a fourth month, the new banks, seen triggering the biggest shake-up to Hong Kong’s retail banking sector in years, will now launch early in 2020, the people told Reuters.
A delay would be the latest sign of the damage being wrought on the Asian financial hub’s economy due to the political turmoil that erupted in June.
Some of these so-called virtual banks had aimed to launch brand promotion campaigns as early as this month, but these plans have now been put off, the people said, on condition of anonymity give the sensitivity of the matter.
“This form of banking service is mainly aimed at the youth, millennials, and many of them are out on the street these days joining the protests,” a senior executive at a license winner said.
“It will be difficult to launch a brand campaign around them and attract their interest when their priority is clearly not having another bank account,” said the executive, declining to be named as he was not authorized to talk to media.
More than 100 days of sometimes violent protests were sparked by a bill that would have drawn the semi-autonomous Chinese territory closer to the mainland Chinese legal system. The bill was withdrawn earlier this month, but the protests have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage.
Hong Kong awarded virtual banking licenses to three groups in March — joint ventures led by StanChart and BOC Hong Kong, and a subsidiary of the international arm of Chinese online insurer ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance.
The banks intended to launch services in six-to-nine months, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said at that time.
Five more licenses were issued later to joint ventures led by smartphone maker Xiaomi and Tencent, and a unit of Ant Financial among others.
HKMA said starting six-to-nine months after authorization was “not a rigid requirement”, but services were expected to be rolled out to the public in the fourth quarter at the earliest based on the virtual banks’ latest indications.
StanChart said its virtual bank joint venture was working toward a launch in early 2020. Livi VB Ltd., the virtual banking joint venture led by BOC Hong Kong, said it was working toward the launch in the near future. ZhongAn declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for the Xiaomi-led joint venture said the virtual banking business was in the preparation stage, while Ant said that work for its bank was progressing smoothly. Tencent led-Fusion bank did not respond to a request for comment.
SOFT LAUNCH
A couple of the license winners could still ‘soft launch’ in 2019, restricting services to staff and their families ahead of a full launch, the people said.
The virtual banks plan to offer savings accounts, credit cards, personal loans and travel insurance, and will try to take market share from HSBC, StanChart and some Chinese lenders who currently dominate retail banking in Hong Kong.
The launch delay is also partly due to the time required to build technology infrastructure, compliance and customer acquisition processes, and hire staff, the people said.
“This is about building a new bank from ground zero, with regulatory standards that are similar to traditional banks,” one person said. — Reuters
Muhammad Ali by Andy Warhol, 1978, the complete set of four screenprints in colors, each signed in ink by the artist and subject. — CHRISTIE’S
ANDY WARHOL portraits of Muhammad Ali, Tom Seaver, Chris Evert and other star athletes from the 1970s will be sold at auction in November.
Pele, Jack Nicklaus and Dorothy Hamill are also featured in the group of 10 silkscreen paintings commissioned by late collector Richard Weisman that will be offered at Christie’s postwar and contemporary art auctions Nov. 13-14 in New York, the company announced Monday. Ali is expected to be the top lot with an estimate of $4 million to $6 million.
Some of the Warhols on offer drew headlines a decade ago when they were among works reportedly stolen from Weisman’s home in Los Angeles. At the time, he said he planned to forgo the hassle of an insurance claim. “Thankfully, the works were returned to the Weismans unaffected and have since remained part of the family collection,” Christie’s said in an e-mailed statement.
Weisman, the son of Los Angeles collectors and philanthropists Frederick and Marcia Weisman, was a friend of Warhol’s and approached him with an idea to combine his two passions of art and sports.
“Andy didn’t really know the difference between a football and a golf ball,” Weisman said in a 2003 book he published about his collection.
So it was Weisman’s job to select the athletes, according to Christie’s. One basketball player demanded a complete set of portraits, rather than the single portrait of himself that was being offered. He was substituted with future Hall of Fame inductee Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose portrait is estimated to fetch $300,000 to $500,000.
‘A FLOP’
Warhol spent two years photographing the athletes with his Polaroid Big Shot camera. The artist went to Ali’s training camp for the shoot while several other athletes came to pose at his New York studio, according to Vincent Fremont, the former executive manager of the studio.
“To get Muhammad Ali to pose without his shirt on was pretty good,” Fremont said.
The works were completed between 1977 and 1979. Each measures 40 inches square and will be sold separately. In 2011, the entire group fetched $5.7 million at auction. The composite low estimate for the 10 works in November auctions is $6.2 million.
The collection was initially “a flop,” Weisman’s daughter, Abby Weisman, said in an interview. “It was an odd idea because at the time these worlds didn’t mix at all,” she said. “It was quite different from the society portraits and movie star portraits.”
Three works in the auction — featuring Pele, Hamill, and Abdul-Jabbar — are listed as “recovered” on the Los Angeles Police Department’s website tracking stolen prints and paintings. The Federal Bureau of Investigation returned them in 2015, according to Sara Friedlander, who oversees Christie’s postwar and contemporary art department in New York. Richard Weisman had wanted the art more than the insurance money, she said.
The auction house is offering pieces individually, not as a set. Unlike some of Warhol’s other works, they are not editioned and each painting is unique. Ali, Evert, Pele, Nicklaus, Abdul-Jabbar, and O.J. Simpson signed their portraits.
The iconic images have appeared over the years in magazines and billboards promoting everything from sportswear to cars and breakfast cereal. “The sports stars of today are the movie stars of yesterday,” Warhol said, according to Weisman’s book.
Weisman’s eclectic collection at Christie’s also includes pieces by Roy Lichtenstein, Norman Rockwell and Alberto Giacometti. — Bloomberg
THE Department of Transportation (DoTr) is modernizing the signalling and communications system of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) with new fiber optic cables next week.
In a social media post yesterday, the department said it will start replacing the old copper wires that are currently being used in the train line with 20 reels of fiber optic cables.
It added MRT-3 maintenance providers Sumitomo Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) and TES Philippines, Inc. (TESP) target to complete the replacement before the year ends.
“(The) new fiber optics cable will be used for the upgrading of (signalling and communications) systems for better stability of backbone data communication,” Sumitomo Project Manager Koji Nishiyama said in a mobile message sent through DoTr Assistant Secretary Goddes Hope O. Libiran.
“Kung dati, copper wires lamang ang ginagamit para sa signalling system ng MRT-3, ngayon, dahil sa komprehensibong rehabilitasyon ng rail line, mapapalitan na ng mas modernong kagamitan ang system (Before, copper wires were used for the signalling system of the MRT-3. Now, because of the comprehensive rehabilitation of the rail line, the system will be replaced with more modern equipment),” it said.
“Kailangan ito upang mapanatili ang ligtas na distansya sa pagitan ng mga tren habang nasa mainline (This is needed to maintain a safe distance between trains while running on the mainline),” it added.
The modernization of the MRT-3 by Sumitomo-MHI-TESP started early this year after the governments of the Philippines and Japan signed last year the P16.985-billion, 43-month contract to rehabilitate the train system.
Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John R. Batan said in May — when the DoTr officially turned over the train line to the Japanese contractors — that the rehabilitation of the MRT-3 is expected to improve its speed to its optimal 60 to 65 kilometers per hour (kph) from the current 30 kph.
The maintenance works is also expected to increase the number of running MRT-3 train sets to about 20 upon completion of the rehabilitation from the usual 15 at present.
Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said last month the DoTr is also talking with Sumitomo to accommodate the 48 China-manufactured “Dalian trains,” which were procured during the previous administration. Once Sumitomo agrees to its use, the MRT-3 fleet would increase to 120 train cars from the current 72. — Denise A. Valdez
BAYEUX, FRANCE — The French town of Bayeux has been home for nearly a millennium to a tapestry depicting a bloody battle for power.
Now it has another.
An exhibition featuring a tapestry illustrating the events of hit HBO TV show Game of Thrones opened in Bayeux, Normandy, on Friday — just down the road from the museum where its 11th century inspiration is housed.
The tapestry was created in Northern Ireland, one of the principal filming locations for the series. Around 30 stitchers worked for some 1,500 hours on the stretch of linen, which begins with King Robert Baratheon visiting the Starks in Winterfell.
Some 87 meters (95 yards) later, it ends in fire and blood with the final, controversial, scenes of the 8th season.
Depicting all that gore using jacquard threadwork was not easy, said project chief embroiderer Valerie Wilson.
It would have been a challenge that also faced the medieval embroiderers, who created the famous 70-meter Bayeux tapestry to recount the invasion of England by William the Conqueror. The work brings to life scenes such as the 1066 Battle of Hastings, where Harold of Wessex is shown dying with an arrow to the eye.
“The Game of Thrones tapestry references the Bayeux tapestry stylistically and in terms of some of the motifs that have been used and the way that the story unrolls in a linear fashion,” said Wilson.
The two tapestries also address a common theme, said Antoine Verney, chief curator of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. “It’s whether we can justify violence to claim power,” he said.
The show was based on the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin.
The Game of Thrones exhibition in Bayeux runs from Sept. 13 to Dec. 31 at the Hotel du Doyen, on the site where the Bayeux Tapestry itself was originally displayed before its eventual move to the dedicated museum nearby. — Reuters
LONDON — The European Central Bank’s (ECB) decision to buy €20 billion of bonds a month in its restarted stimulus program should allow it to run for an “extended period of time” before reaching self-imposed limits, the central bank’s chief economist said on Monday.
The ECB has put limits on its bond buying to ensure it does not own too large a share of a country’s debt or individual bonds.
“Twenty billion (a month) doesn’t cause an issue with the limits for an extended period of time,” Philip Lane said at an event hosted by Bloomberg on Monday.
He added the bank’s policy makers could also “revisit” its limits if they “interfered with the delivery of monetary policy.” — Reuters
