Stock News 2010: Sun Cellular now offers Facebook for free

Image by Getty Images via @daylife
MANILA, Philippines – Sun Cellular subscribers can now enjoy connecting with their friends and family on Facebook for free with their handsets. The service provided by Sun Cellular is Facebook Zero, a light version of Facebook for mobile phones. The service allows users check their status, update their news feed, and comment without shelling out a single peso, thus the name “Zero.”

Sun Cellular is the only mobile operator in the Philippines to tie up with Facebook and offer this mobile service for free.

“Facebook offered the FB for free on mobile phones to all mobile operators worldwide. Knowing how popular Facebook is with its subscribers, Sun Cellular saw this as opportunity to extend value added services to its users and signed up,” explains Ricky Pena, Sun Cellular Vice-President for Postpaid and New Business.

Facebook Zero is a light service allowing users to check their status, read and update news feeds from friends, and post comments for free. Charges will only apply when users access external links and photos.

All Sun Cellular subscribers with GRPS capable handsets can start using Facebook Zero. Once your cellphone is activated, go to wap.suncellular.com.ph and click on ‘Free Facebook’.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/290287/

Stock News 2010: Gokongwei Group set to start construction

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Finally, the Gokongwei Group is going to start construction of its long-overdue $500-million naphtha cracker project in Batangas, Board of Investments managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said.

Panlilio told reporters that Lance Gokongwei, president of JG Summit Holdings Inc., who paid him a courtesy call last week and informed him of the project’s development.

“He said that project construction will start in January this year. It is rough half a billion dollar project,” Panlilio said.

The naphtha cracker plant was originally registered with the BoI in 2005 at a project cost of P25.6 billion under the JG Summit Petrochemical Corp. Based on that original registration, the plant was supposed was supposed to start commercial in 2008.

In May 2008, however, the company revised the project with a new commercial operation target of January 2012. At that time, the project cost already ballooned to P34.38 billion, P8.7 billion more than its original P25.6 billion because of the foreign exchange depreciation at that time. It was placed under an entirely new unit – JG Summit Olefins Corp.

This time, however, Panlilio said the project cost is roughly half a billion dollars or back to its original cost of P25 billion. The reduced cost could largely be attributed to the strong peso against the US greenback.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/290286/gokongwei-group-

Stock News 2010: Pancake converts P220-M worth of notes to 20% equity

MANILA, Philippines – Pancake House, Inc., has issued shares equivalent to 20.67 percent of its outstanding capital to two creditors through the conversion of five-year convertible notes amounting to P220.48 million.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Pancake House said this is in line with the terms of the investment agreement it signed with Aureos Southeast Asia Fund, L.L.C. and Plantersbank Venture Capital Corp. for SME's, Pancake House Holdings Inc. and Martin Lorenzo in October 21, 2005.

The firm said the remaining five-year convertible notes of the corporation issued on October 28, 2005 were mandatorily converted into 45.16 million common shares with par value of P1 per common share out of the corporation's authorized but unissued capital stock.

The shares were swapped at the conversion price of P4.485030 per common share and credited as fully paid and non assessable to Aureos (P151.9 million) and Grand Prime International Limited (P50.63 million).

The conversion of the notes to common shares resulted in Pancake House having a total issued and outstanding capital stock of P237.8 million divided into 237.8 common shares with P1 par value.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/290279/pancake-convert

Stock News 2010: PSE implements rule requiring listed firms to have 10% minimum public ownership

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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Tuesday started implementing a rule that listed companies should have a minimum public ownership of 10 percent to avoid being delisted, in an effort to improve liquidity in shares and enable the discovery of a fair price.

The move, which was approved last December following a 63 percent increase in the benchmark index in 2009, comes nearly five years after the stock market operator first scrapped a similar norm in 2005, retaining it only for initial and backdoor listings.

The weakness of the stock market in the first half of the decade forced many companies to resort to buying back shares to shore up stock prices. In the process, many companies ended up non-compliant of the minimum public ownership and faced the prospect of being delisted if the ownership limit for continuing listing wasn't dropped.

As of last November, only 71 of the 179 listed firms listed on the bourse were compliant with the minimum ownership level.

Under the PSE's amended rule, listed companies whose public ownership has fallen below 10% are given a 12-month grace period to comply with the ownership rule and are fined subsequently. If public ownership stays below the minimum level for 36 months, the firms will be delisted.

The bourse has sent out reminders to increase public stake to at least 10% of their outstanding stocks to avoid delisting.

Four companies--oil refiner Petron Corp., ship builder Keppel Philippines Marine Inc., pharmaceutical company Euro-Med Laboratories Philippines Inc. and investment holding company Manchester International Holdings Unlimited Inc.) – that had been asked to comply with the new rule have replied to the bourse's request.

In separate filings with the PSE, all four companies have pledged to take steps to meet the required public ownership.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/290274/p

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• Manila bourse enforces minimum 10 pct public float rule (reuters.com)

Stock News 2010: Insular Life energy-linked product generates P700 M

Insular Life’s latest investment-linked insurance product offer, the i-Dollar Energy 5 was a best-seller.

Launched last October 18 and available only until November 8, Insular’s i-Dollar Energy 5 was a principal-protected, 5 years to mature, single premium US dollar-denominated variable life insurance policy that provided investment opportunities in the international energy sector through key equity indexes.

Aside from the appeal of the underlying investment asset because of growing global demand for traditional and alternative energy, the product also had a novel “look-back” feature wherein the four lowest quarterly observation values would be dropped, thus further raising the upside potential return to the investor.

Insular Life’s latest special product offering was so well-received that it generated almost $16 million, or approximately P700 million in new premium revenues. This was more than five times the target volume initially set.

The response was unprecedented and eclipsed all previous sales records for the company’s limited product campaigns.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/290064/in

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• Types of Life Insurance Products (termlifeinsurance.org)

Stock News 2010: Vista Land starts P1-B lifestyle complex

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The country’s largest homebuilder Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. is spending P1 billion for its first commercial and lifestyle development to be located in the Evia master-planned city in Las Piñas City.

Vista Land president Benjamarie N. Serrano said the groundbreaking of the Lifestyle Center has been set for December and the P1 billion will be spent in the next six months.

“We are looking at total capital expenditures of about P11 billion in the next five years for Evia, as we build out major components including the Lifestyle Center, the Riverwalk, the church, and the University Town, together with continuing residential developments,” said Serrano.

These already thriving components consist of three high-end, mid-range and entry-level residential and commercial projects of Vista Land’s Brittany, Crown Asia and Camella brands which now have almost 5,500 residential units on about 150 hectares.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/290047/vi

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Stock News 2010: Jollibee net P711M in Q3, up by 32%

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MANILA, Philippines—Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. grew its third-quarter net profit by 31.8 percent to P711 million from a year ago on higher retail sales and better margins from its worldwide restaurant network.

This brought JFC’s nine-month net profit to P2.15 billion, up by 16.2 percent year on year, on the back of P38.42 billion in revenue.

JFC chief executive officer Tony Tan Caktiong disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday that sales were robust in practically all brands led by a double-digit growth rate in the turnover of its flagship Jollibee brand.

“Today, more people eat in each Jollibee store in the Philippines than in each of the past two years due to higher product value appreciation as rated by consumers in market research,” he said.

Systemwide sales—a measure of all sales to consumers—amounted to P16.88 billion in the third quarter and P50.79 billion for the nine-month period, both up by around 10 percent. Philippine sales rose by 7.7 percent while foreign sales grew by 20.5 percent year on year in the quarter.

http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20101111-302711/Jollibee-net-P711M-in-Q3-up-by-32

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Stock News 2010: CitisecOnline income reaches P79.2M in Q3

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MANILA, Philippines—Leading online stockbroker CitisecOnline.com Inc. grew its third-quarter consolidated net profit by 10.9 percent to P79.2 million as strong Philippine operations made up for sluggish output from its overseas unit in Hong Kong.

This brought COL’s nine-month net profit to P188.8 million, down by 5.4 percent from a year ago, weighed down by the overseas operations.

“We are very pleased with the results of our Philippine operations. Initiatives to grow the business by educating, equipping and empowering the Filipino retail investors are clearly paying off as evidenced by the significant growth in the number of our customer accounts and the size of their equity. It is even more encouraging that the bulk of our new customers are first-time investors in the stock market,” COL president Conrado Bate said.

http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20101111-302716/CitisecOnline-income-reaches-P792M-in-Q3