A P600-million regional tobacco leaf warehouse was inaugurated recently by Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMI) at the Subic Techno Park inside the Subic Freeport Zone. The said facility cements the place of the Philippines as tobacco leaf warehouse hub of Philip Morris in the Asia Pacific region.
Armand C. Arreza, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) [...]

It’s called BOSS, short for business one-stop shop, an initiative by the Quezon City Government that aims to lessen the burden of businessmen when securing business permit. Launched last Friday, officer-in-charge for the Business Permit and Licensing Office Pacifico F. Maghacot, Jr. said they are expecting to have at least 12,000 new businesses within the [...]

The real estate subsidiary of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SM) is planning to launch soon, the country’s first “underwater hotel.” The said project is part of the four new developments of San Miguel Properties Inc. (SMP) which will start next year, as the company’s foray into the tourism segment begins.

The country’s biggest oil refiner and retailer, recently disclosed that for the first half of 2010, it has already spent more than P6 billion for its capital expenditure projects and debt repayments. Petron Corp., in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), said it used the proceed from its preferred share issuance early this [...]

The country’s power sector, including renewable energy projects, is likely to get a big boos from the World Bank (WB). WB’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corp. (IFC), is looking at pouring in more than $300 million in investment to the said industry in the Philippines.
IFC resident representatives to the Philippines, Jesse Ang, said [...]

Nestlé Philippines Inc., the Philippine unit of Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé, is not going to pull out of the country and relocate in Indonesia as earlier reported. In fact, John Miller, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nestlé Philippines, said they are investing in a new facility south of Manila.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (SEC) has approved and issued the listing rules for real estate investment trusts (REIT), thus giving way for a new investment instruments.  According to the SEC, the rules should spur interest from the investing public. REIT will use pooled capital of investors to buy and manage income-generating property and mortgage loans.

The United Kingdom government plans to beef up its investment in Asia by promoting business opportunities in the region, particularly in the Philippines. UK Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable said it noted the importance of these business opportunities to the British businesses’ emerging markets. “If we were looking for growth, we should be [...]

Texas Instruments (TI), one of the world’s leader in the semiconductor industry, has been doing business in the Philippines for more than 30 years, and the company plans to stay longer in the country. In fact, TI has earmarked $1 billion in new investments for its planned expansion of its operation in the country for [...]

Solutions Using Renewable Energy (SURE) Eco Philippines Inc., a renewable energy company, is earmarking $90 million for its investments. SURE Eco spokesman Clarence de Guia said the funds will be used for the construction of several biogas-fed power plants. The funding will be a combination of debt and equity. De Guia said they plan to [...]

The Naga power plant in complex Cebu. The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) opened the bidding process for the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) contract to manage the output of the said power facility.
The state-run agency said it already issued the invitation to bid (ITB) to parties who might be interested to [...]

Gokongwei-led Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) plans to increase its budget for capital expenditure (Capex) for 2010 from $250 million to $350 million this year. This is in line with the company’s effort to aggressively expand its network to match rivals Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecoms Inc.
James Go, Digitel president and [...]

The Gokongwei-led Cebu Air Inc. recently announced its plan to hold an initial public offering (IPO) this year. However, as of date, the airline company is still undecided whether it will push through or not. Chances are it will be deferred.
JG Summit president Lance Gokongwei said that the IPO might need to wait further until [...]

A listed firm expressed interest to bid for the 116 megawatt Subic diesel-fired power plant project, the sole generating facility at the Subic free port.
In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Pacifica Inc. which is controlled by port operator Michael Romero said its board has approved the plan to “bid or submit a [...]

National Power Corp. (Napocor) president Froilan Tampinco that they will be offering about P15 billion worth of peso-denominated bonds and want it to be in place within the month. The proceeds for the bond offerings would be used to fund the company’s budget requirement for the rest of the year and up to the first [...]

Homegrown fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. continues to extend its presence in China as it recently acquired one of the local beef noodle there. In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Jollibee said it will be investing RMB30 million ($4.39 million) to secure 55 percent stake on the San Pin Wang restaurant chain.
Another RMB20 [...]

A tighter rule in getting listed in the local stock exchange by way of introduction has been drafted by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in a bid to better protect the investing public. The new guidelines will affect the rule which allows the companies to start public trading of their shares without conducting an initial [...]

The North Belton Communities, a mixed-use township development in Quezon City owned by Lucio Tan’s group, was bought tycoon Henry Sy’s SM Prime Holding, Inc. A memorandum of agreement was recently signed between the Lucio Tan-led Eton Properties Philippines, Inc., Philippine National Bank (PNB) and SM Prime.
The signed MOA involves the sale of a portion [...]

The Ayala Land Corp. is earmarking P3 billion to funds its new development project in the Makati central business district (MCBD) North, The Lerato. The new project consists of three tower residential development and retail area.
Alveo Land President Dante M. Abando said during their pre-selling and launching that they have already sold 115 of the [...]

Philippine top company and business conglomerate San Miguel Corporation now plans to acquire a significant stake in Petron Corp. The announcement of interest in the oil refiner immediately sent Petron’s share to its highest since November 2007.
San Miguel has an option to acquire 40% of the Sea Refinery Corp., a firm which owns about 50.1% [...]