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 [...]

HRMall Inc., a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm backed by the Ayala group, has acquired IQ BackOffice LLC. Based in Los Angeles, California, IQ BackOffice provides backroom finance and accounting services to mid-sized companies in the United State. It delivers high quality, software-enabled and real-time finance and accounting BPO services to US companies.
HRMall is one [...]

About 70 renewable energy service contracts were cancelled by the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of its effort to weed-out “non-performing contracts” and offer them to more serious investors. Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr. also said that licenses covering four prospective petroleum blocks were likewise cancelled.
The energy undersecretary said that the  70 companies [...]

Listed Cebu Air Inc. was the first company brave enough to hold an initial public offering (IPO) after the global financial meltdown. It was also the second largest IPO in the history of the Philippines Stock Exchange (PSE). From the IPO, the company was able to raise P23.3 billion. The bulk of the fund came [...]

New guidelines for all authorized agent-banks have been issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as part of preparations for the 2010 income tax filing season. The new guidelines is requiring all authorized agent-banks to be open for two Saturday immediately prior to April 15 of every year and extend their banking hours from [...]

“Maharlika Board” or a separate trading board for the Philippines companies that comply with high governance standards is being planned by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). If plans push through, the “Maharlika Board,” which will be the first of its kind in Asia, will start on September this year. It is part of the government’s [...]

The Sta. Ana Racetrack in Barangay Carmona, Makati is about to get a facelift, as its operator Philippine Racing Club, Inc. (PRCI) and property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) recently signed a joint-venture agreement that would the 21-hectare racetrack into a mixed-use complex. The deal was stated by both companies in their separate disclosure to [...]

Good news for many of us, Mr. President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III is coming home with $2.8 billion pledges of investment. This also includes the Millennium Challenge Corp. that grant $434 million and will be using for road construction, tax administration projects and specially for fighting the poverty.
This will help our economy to grow [...]

Now that the peso has come into its highest rate this year of P43 per $1 the question is is it good or bad for filipino citizens? the answer will be yes and no because yes it may be a sign for a rising economy and no because how about the exporter and overseas Filipino [...]

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is intensifying their Japanese language training for those wishing to work in Japan. This is part of their initiative to provide more jobs for Filipino nurses there. According to labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, there are very few Filipino nurses who are being hired in Japan because of their [...]

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.

Manila Water Co. will be part of a consortium that will be formed to buy United Utilities Plc.’s wholly owned subsidiary, United Utilities Australia Pty Ltd. (UUA) and its affiliates for A$225 million. Others that will be part of the consortium are Mitsubishi Corp., Innovation Network of Japan and JGC Corp.

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% [...]

The Cebu Pacific (CEB) Airline is investing on 22 new aircraft as part of the $1.4 billion expansion over a five-year period, in anticipation of a 50 percent increase in the number of passengers in 2013.CEB president Lance Gokongwei said the 22 brand-new Airbus 320 aircraft will be delivered from 2010 until 2014. These are [...]

The move against the imposition of the 12 percent value added tax (VAT) on toll found an ally in the person of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
Enrile opposed the imposition of 12 percent VAT on toll, saying that the tax would only bring additional burden for motorists who also pay the road users’ tax. The [...]

In less than three years, TV5 would be doing international.
At least that’s the plan of Mediaquest Holdings Inc. for its newly-acquired television network – to launch it as an international business.
Mediaquest and TV5 president and chief executive Ray Espinosa said that the international business was part of the company’s plant to make the TV network [...]

Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. has 22 new affordable housing projects lined up this year. The housing projects are all under the Camella brand, and will add 17,500 new units all over the country. The company said this is all part of cementing further Camella Homes & Communities dominant position in the affordable housing segment [...]

Singer/entrepreneur Claire Della Fuente has been ordered arrested by the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) for her bus company’s failure to pay some P417.8 million in taxes from 1997 to 2004. CTA was acting on case filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which hailed the issuance of the arrest warrant as a good [...]

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced that as an added incentive, foreign investors visiting the Freeport zones in the country – Clark, Pampanga and Subic, Zambalez, can avail of the government’s “visa-free” program.
An agreement was signed recently by BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator Armand Arreza and Clark Development Corp. [...]

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 [...]