The thrift bank subsidiary of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, BPI Family Savings Bank, is going to roll out a credit facility that will cater to the micro and small enterprises. This plan of BPI Family to increase its loan exposure will be done through a customized business packaged which it will roll out [...]

Mediaquest Holdings Inc. is allotting around P700 million for its capital expenditure this year. The media unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is earmarking the said amount for its satellite TV business year to increase its subscriber base to 200,000.
At the end of 2009, Cignal Digital TV, Mediaquest’s direct-to-home satellite television has 45,000 subscribers [...]

Local banks have agreed to help raise and lend the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) P14-billion for its construction of a 164-megawatt coal-fired power plant in La Paz, Iloilo City. The Panay Energy is owned by George Ty’s Metrobank group, and the loans were arranged by First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), the investment banking arm [...]

The Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), more popularly recognized as he Pag-IBIG Fund launched a bond offering which will be auctioned to the public on March 9. The state-administered fund manager will be offering P12 billion bonds starting next month.
Jaime Fabiaña, chief executive officer of HDMF said that the proceeds of the funds would be [...]

Bibingkinitan! has embarked on an aggressive campaign to expand its number of outlets this year. The fast-rising Filipino food chain is aiming to open up about 100 new outlets all over the country, to bring its total number of stores to at least 250 by the end of 2010.
Richard V. Sanz, president and chief executive [...]

Because of the increasing volume of transactions in the Philippines, many banks in the Philippines are planning to offer products and services denominated in Chinese yuan or renminbi to their clients in the near future. According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., these banks are looking to offer renminbi-denominated products and [...]

A Singaporean firm is planning to invest $7.5 million in a local gaming company. Straitwey, a Singapore-registered company who is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japan Gaming Development Organization (JGDO) and is the investment entity used by JGDO to invest into projects within the gaming industry, is investing the $7.6 million in the primary [...]

Online games always a ready audience in the Filipino market. There is a big market for Filipino online gamers, although most the games were created outside the country. A group of Filipinos with entrepreneurial mindset is eyeing to cash in on this online gaming craze capturing Filipinos from all walks of like.

Because of the difficulty in obtaining a franchise from Congress, the Gatchalian Group has temporarily shelved its planned airline business.
Atty. Miguel Varela, one of Gatchalian’s partners in the proposed airline company, told reporters they cannot operate yet because they failed to get a franchise, which is an act of Congress. “It is difficult to get [...]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has started accepting proposals for the bidding of the nine geothermal areas offered under the latest Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR). At least 10 local and foreign groups have already been pre-qualified.
According to Mario Marasigan, DOE assistant secretary, they are evaluating the submitted proposals at present to verify if they [...]

The San Miguel Corp. (SMC), the country with most diversified conglomerate, has been extended a P2 billion loan by the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank). The loan would be used by SMC to finance its expansion program.

For the last 15 months, the peso was pegged at its strongest level after the closing at 46 to $1 on Friday. This was mainly attributed to steady growth of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remittances and stable consumer prices.

Just this week, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas gave the nod of approval to Globe Telecommunications and Ayala Group to venture into the mobile banking business using the license of Pilipinas Savings Bank.
In recent news, Smart Communications is also planning to venture into microfinance, according to Napoleon Nazareno, Smart president. “We are also looking into [...]

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported that business have lost up to P1 billion due to the devastation brought about by tropical storm Ondoy last month. But PCCI president Edgardo Lacson said that while this is the case, local enterprises are now starting to recover.
Lacson added that although there is an existing price [...]

The Philippine Center for Print Excellence Inc. (PCPE), together with the Philippine Printing Technical Foundation Inc. (PPTF) and Global-Link MP Events Int’l Inc. will be holding the for the 6th year a print and label expo.
It will be the Print & Label Philippines 2009, the 6th International Printing & Label Machinery, Paper & Paper Products, [...]

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has teamed with the stiffest competitor of its affiliate mobile company Globe Telecoms. BPI and Smart Communications has entered into a partnership that would provide a new mobile banking platform that will offer a full range of services to the two companies’ common clients.

STI Investments Inc. is planning to increase its capital as it prepares to acquire the pre-need and healthcare units of Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife) that is why if filed for a hike in its capital stock.

Last week, the Union Bank of the Philippines (Unionbank) also went into capital-raising effort as it started offering unsecure subordinated notes to investors to beef up its capital by P5 billion, in order to lift is capital adequacy ratio (CAR) to a more comfortable level that would allow it to absorb more risk through aggressive [...]

Coffee farming industry in the Philippines is getting a big boost as Figaro Coffee Systems Inc., a Filipino-owned coffee chain, is encouraging the revival of coffee farming in the country’s mountain areas. Figaro Coffee said that more players in the coffee industry are now sourcing their coffee bean supply requirement from local coffee growers, many [...]

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that many private companies in the Philippines were able to pay their foreign loans ahead of maturity, and this was because of the continued strengthening of the peso.