JG Summit announced last Friday its intention to sell its stake in telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) to NTT DoCoMo of Japan. The Gokongwei-led company said it will be selling to NTT DoCoMo the 2.8-percent stake it will receive from PLDT as part of the telecom giant’s deal with the Digital Telecommunication [...]

Nestlé Philippines has voluntarily recalled a number its Maggi instant noodles after some of the tested were tested for possible salmonella contamination. The company said it found traces of salmonella in two batches of the noodle product’s beef variant. “The product recall is a precautionary measure… to ensure the safety and quality of our products,” [...]

JG Summit Holdings Inc. is earmarking $700 million for the planned expansion this year. Most of these funds are allocated for its petrochemical and airline businesses.
JG Summit president Lance Gokongwei said the petrochemical business will be the company’s priority in the next three years. JG Summit also has stake in a property developer and may [...]

Eight companies are vying for the operations of major Metro Manila train lines. Conglomerate Ayala Corp., San Miguel Corp., and Pangilinan-led infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corps. are the local groups planning to bid for the P15-billion contract, while five foreign companies have also acquired bid documents worth P500,000 each for the project, according to [...]

Local transport firm Green Frog Zero Emission Transport Corp. dared to take the huge risk in the electric vehicle industry and expressed interest to buy some 3,000 electric buses in the next seven years, with the initial 38 units coming in from China within the year.
Green Frog director Philip Apostol said the 36-passenger buses will [...]

The Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp.’s plan to raise fresh fund for power generation via stock rights offer was approved by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
The Phinma-led company got the nod from PSE when the latter posted a memorandum on Friday saying that its board has approved the listing of 1.16billion additional common shares [...]

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) said the claim of Globe Telecom that the deal between PLDT and Digital Telecommuncations Phil. Inc. (Digitel) would result into the monopoly of the telecom industry is only Globe’s way of protecting its interest at the public’s expense. PLDT criticized Globe’s effort to stop the deal that would [...]

Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) plans to expand its facility in Manila in order to increase the variety of aircraft it can serve, including the Airbus A380, which the world’s largest passenger plane. The Airbus A320, designed for short to mid-range flights, is among the most-used aircraft by local airlines and is ideal for trips to [...]

Globe Telecom, in its letter to the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC), is asking the agency to take a look, and intervene, in the recent acquisition of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) of a majority stake of Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc. (Digitel). Globe warned that the PLDT-Digitel is threatening to free competition and gravely [...]

Philippine company Alliance Select Food International Inc. sealed a deal to acquire 100 percent of US company Spence & Co. Ltd., a Massachusetts-based salmon smoking and curing company who specializes in the production of smoked salmon and seafood, prepared in the Scottish tradition of its founder Alan Spence. The company caters to the high-end market [...]

San Miguel Corp. said it is interested in taking over the operations of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal (NAIA) 3. San Miguel said it will join in the bidding for NAIA 3 should the government open it for privatization.
In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company stated, “The company may participate in [...]

Pancake House Inc. reported a net income of P73.66 million for 2010, a figure which more than doubled the P35.56 million it posted in 2009. The Lorenzo-owned casual dining restaurant chain attributed the growth to its outlet consolidation and realignment of resources to profit-generating activities.
The company also owns and operates various other restaurant brands, aside [...]

Mobile service provider Globe Telecom is investing $500 million to improve the quality and capacity of its mobile network infrastructure throughout the country. Company officials said the network quality will be top priority of Globe this year.
As part of the company’s network transformation program, Globe is making one of its biggest network investments in quality [...]

The Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) earmarked P900 million for the expansion of its coal mining ventures in Zamboanga Sibugay in Western Mindanao. The state-run oil exploration company said that its board of directors has already approved the special budget “to fund the development of existing coal mine” that will enable it to double [...]

Isuzu Philippines Corp. (IPC) temporarily stopped its operation, starting from April 18 and will resume production on May 2. The work stoppage was due to the shortage in parts and components supply which are coming from Japan. The country’s all-commercial vehicle assemble is still optimistic though that it would be able to sustain its 17 [...]

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines is expecting the number of its passenger this Holy Week to be slightly higher than those that they had last year. PAL predicted that from April 17 to April 24, it will fly close to 200,000 passengers throughout its network of 26 international and 20 domestic destinations. The airline also said [...]

Another venture that the Ayala group is breaking into is the hydroelectric power generation partnership. The conglomerate, through its wholly owned subsidiary Michigan Power Inc. (MPI) has entered into a joint venture agreement with Sta. Clara Power Corp., an independent power producer specializing in run-of-the-river power plants. Ayala Corp managing director John Eric Francia confirms [...]

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III yesterday said he wants oil companies to open their books to public scrutiny to prove that they were not taking advantage of the public in their series of oil price increases.
“That was my position ever since I have been in public service, isn’t it? If reasonable, why can’t they show [...]

In response to the steady rising of oil prices, the Aquino government is planning to resort to “extreme legal measure” by issuing an executive order that would ban further oil price increases. The same has been done during the Arroyo administration when Executive Order was in issued in 2009 to freeze oil prices.
Department of Justice [...]

Giant conglomerate Ayala Corp. allots a record-high P79 billion for its capital expenditures this year. The company said it is in an excellent position to delve into various investment opportunities. It is particularly eyeing the power and infrastructure sector.
During the annual stockholders’ meeting, chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said that while the company is [...]