Stock News 2013: Gokongwei plans more power, ethanol projects in Negros

Official seal of City of Bacolod (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tycoon John Gokongwei Jr. has announced plans to put up power and ethanol plants on Negros Island.

Gokongwei said on Thursday that the Gokongwei group would put up an ethanol plant at the Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corp. (Ursumco) compound in Manjuyod, Negros Oriental.

He said the ethanol plant would be operational by the end of the year.

The Ursumco ethanol plant will use molasses, a byproduct from the processing of sugar cane into sugar, to produce ethanol.

Meanwhile, other byproducts from the sugar mills would be used to fuel power plants.

One proposed power plant would be located at the Southern Negros Development Corp. (Sonedco) property in Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental, Gokongwei said.

The power plant will generate electricity using bagasse, a renewable biomass residue from the sugar mill, as feedstock, according to the investor presentation of United Robina Corp. (URC).

The power plant would supply Sonedco’s electricity requirement while the surplus power would be fed to the power grid in the area.

The URC company officials disclosed that the power plant would have a capacity of 40 megawatts and would cost around $60 million.

If the ventures into ethanol and power production would turn out to be economically viable and competitive, Gokongwei said the group would consider putting up more ethanol and power plants.

Gokongwei, chairman of JG Summit Holdings, was in Bacolod to receive a plaque declaring him an adopted son of Bacolod as well as a copy of an executive order that named him the honorary mayor.

http://business.inquirer.net/108043/rcbc-posts-24-profit-growth

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Stock News 2013: TV5 allots P6B for capex

GMA Logo in their 60th Anniversary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ABC Development Corp., owner and operator of TV5, is infusing P6 billion for its capital expenditures this year to boost its efforts to cut losses since dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) acquired the network in 2009.

PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan told reporters on the sidelines of TV5’s “Blast Off for 2013” that the country’s third largest network’s budget for capital expenditures this year would be at par with the amount spent by the company last year.

This year’s budget would be allocated to complete the network’s state-of-the-art media center in Mandaluyong City with the news part scheduled to be finished in the first quarter.

“The capex would be around P6 billion, approximately the same as last year. We are still building our entertainment studios in Mandaluyong and the news part will be finished within first quarter this year,” Pangilinan said.

He added that a portion of the amount would also be used to introduce new shows as the network goes full throttle towards being one of the country’s leading multimedia this year.

TV5 welcomed the new year with its biggest show of force as it launched its biggest offerings for the first quarter of the year.

The PLDT chief pointed out that the company’s reprogramming would redound to improved bottomline as TV5’s losses ballooned to about P2.8 billion in the first half of last year.

“We should be better this year with better programming, better talents, and revenues I think,” Pangilinan said.

He said the company is now in the process of trimming its operating and production costs.

“It is a learning process for us in terms the ability to control cost of mounting a production whether it is a teledrama or a comedy. We are learning how to control the cost of production,” he explained.

According to him, TV5 would be able to sustain its strong finish last year after overtaking GMA Network Inc. (GMA7) in the last quarter in six viewer rich cities in Metro Manila including Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, and General Santos City that has a total four million viewers based on Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

http://philstar.com/business/2013/01/17/897750/tv5-allots-p6b-capex-will-launch-new-shows

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Stock News 2012: Robinsons shifts focus to commercial projects

English: Newly opened Robinsons Place Mall, Tacloban City, Philippines (Opened 2009-06-11) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
After slowing down on residential construction, Gokongwei-led property firm Robinsons Land Corp. is recalibrating its growth strategy and beefing up its landbank to build a strong pipeline of work in the commercial segment.

“We’re more aggressive now. We’re embarking on landbanking to ensure sufficient land capacity for development,” said Frederick D. Go, president of RLC.

Go said the company remains in talks with Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada for the latter’s $2-billion casino project in the Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corp.’s Entertainment City along Roxas Blvd. RLC is considering running the retail and hotel operations for Okada’s project.

In April, RLC said it was inherently cautious about the short-term outlook for the residential real estate market and would rather focus on expanding its shopping mall, office building and hotel operations, which account for more than 65 percent of the group’s total revenues.

RLC is building seven new shopping malls and expanding three of its existing malls to capitalize on strong consumer spending and a growing business process outsourcing industry. Of the seven, three will be built this year while the other four will rise in 2013.

The expansion of the retail portfolio will increase the group’s total mall leasable area to a little over a million square meters (sqm) in two years.

RLC recently completed two mall expansion projects in Tacloban and Bacolod.

Together with the two expansion projects, RLC’s total gross leasable area (GLA) is seen to reach 911,000 sqm at end-September this year. In 2013, RLC will add another 100,000 sqm to bring the total GLA to 1.01 million sqm.

For the office segment, RLC is completing Cyberscape Alpha and Cyberspace Beta in Ortigas by mid-2013.

As for its Go Hotel chain, the company is looking to build four this year in line with plans to hit a 30-branch network over the next five years.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?publicationSubCategoryId=66&articleId=840420

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Stock News 2012: Robinsons Land to expand retail portfolio

Robinsons Place Dumaguete in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp.(RLC) is scaling up its retail portfolio in the next two years to boost its total mall leasable area to a little over one million square meters.

RLC president Frederick D. Go told reporters after the company’s annual stockholders meeting late Wednesday that they are building seven new shopping malls and expanding three of 29 existing malls in 2012-2013 to take advantage of the expected strong consumer spending and a booming business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Go said three new malls will be built this year while another four in 2013.

In March, RLC opened its first full-service mall in Calasiao, Pangasinan. The company is slated to open Robinsons Place Palawan in May and Robinsons Magnolia in July.

 RLC recently completed two mall expansion projects in Tacloban and Bacolod.

Together with the two expansion projects, RLC’s total gross leasable area will reach 911,000 square meters at end-September this year. In 2013, RLC will add another 100,000 sqm to bring the total GLA to 1.01 million sqm.

In the office sector, RLC expects to complete Cyberscape Alpha and Cyberspace Beta in mid-2013 which will increase total net leasable area to 274,000 sqm from 194,000 sqm this year.

Go said the company is scouting for more land to purchase to expand their office building portfolio.

RLC has set aside P13 billion for capital expenditures this year, majority of which will go to new mall openings, office buildings and hotels.

Aside from this, it is planning to open two more Go Hotels this year, in Tacloban and Bacolod. It already opened in Palawan and Dumaguete in the first quarter of the year.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?publicationSubCategoryId=66&articleId=798682

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Stock News 2011: Robinsons Place Bacolod to open new leisure destination

Image via Wikipedia
Robinsons Place Bacolod reflects the unique lifestyle of Bacolod, which is known as the City of Smiles. In Bacolod, people don’t go to the mall just to run errands or hurriedly buy food and other necessities. Most often, a trip to the mall is with the entire family, for dinner and a screening at Robinsons Movieworld, which has a 3D cinema. Children, even teenagers, spend Sundays with their families (going out with friends is done on Saturday) and everyone wants to go to the mall to eat, walk around and enjoy the company of their family.

Robinsons Place Bacolod, located on Lacson St., Mandalagan, has over 134 stores and restaurants, and six cinemas. The mall is near Silay City, which is home to many historical landmarks including the Victor Fernandez Gaston Heritage House, Manuel Severino Hofileña Heritage House, and the Bernardino Lopez Jalandoni Ancestral House.

It is also minutes away from the new Bacolod Silay Airport, making it a good stop for visitors to buy pasalubong on their way home.

Robinsons Place is Bacolod’s first full-service mall. Since it opened in 1997, it has gone from being a daily shopping experience to being the center of leisure and entertainment in the city.

Robinsons Place Bacolod is undergoing an expansion that, once completed, will add a new one-level shopping and dining destination and provide 6,000 square meters more to the shopping mall’s existing gross floor area of 48,500 square meters.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=663055&publicationSubCategoryId=85