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Hot money swings to net inflow in Jan
By Kathleen A. Martin (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 15, 2015 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Foreign portfolio investments swung to a net inflow in January from an outflow in the same month last year as more investors poured money in the local bourse, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday.
A net hot money inflow of $591.62 million was recorded in January, a turnaround from the net outflow of $1.844 billion in the same month in 2014.
“(This is) due to higher investments in PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange)-listed shares arising from a top-up offering of a holding corporation’s shares (and) sale of a universal bank’s and holding firm’s shares,” the central bank said.
Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings last month sold 145.65 million common shares and raised P8.8 billion through a top-up placement to fund its investments. Aboitiz Equity Ventures, meanwhile, sold 5.086 million treasury shares worth P276.65 million in January for its working capital and cash reserves needs.
At the same time, the BSP said the inflows were due to the “upgraded growth outlook for the country by the International Monetary Fund.”
Gross inflows of hot money rose 72 percent to $2.195 billion in January from $1.277 billion last year, while gross outflows fell 49 percent to $1.604 billion from $3.121 billion.
The net outflow recorded in January last year was due to the investors pulling out of emerging markets as the US Federal Reserve started decreasing its massive asset-buying program.
The BSP said bulk or 82 percent of the portfolio investments in January were put into PSE-listed securities. These mainly benefitted property companies, banks, holding firms, utility firms, and food, beverage and tobacco companies.
Another 17.4 percent went into peso-denominated government securities, while the remaining 0.7 percent was put in peso time deposits.
The top investor countries during the month were the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The United States remained the main destination of outflows, the BSP noted.
Last year, hot money ended in a net outflow of $310.21 million, a reversal of the $4.22-billion net inflow in 2013. This was blamed to heightened volatility in financial markets as the US central bank decreased its monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage bonds, which eventually ended in October.
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Hot money swings to net inflow in Jan | Business, News, The Philippine Star | philstar.com
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Barclays sees drop in Dec remittances
By Kathleen A. Martin (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 15, 2015 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Cash remittances into the Philippines likely eased further in December last year due to a high base in the same period in 2013, UK-based investment bank Barclays said in a report.
The bank, in its latest Emerging Markets Weekly report, estimated remittances to have inched up 1.9 percent in December from the same month in 2013, even slower than the two percent rate in November which was already the slowest in nearly six years.
“We expect remittances to recover sequentially from weakness in November, but a high base following 2013’s typhoon-related surge in remittances will likely weigh on year-on-year growth,” Barclays said.
Cash remittances in December 2013 climbed 10 percent to $2.173 billion, owed to the seasonal surge in inflows from Filipinos abroad and to families sending to their loved ones hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda.
Official December 2014 remittances data will be released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Monday.
Latest available data showed money sent home by Filipinos living and working abroad amounted to $2.122 billion in November, bringing the 11-month tally to $21.911 billion.
Bulk of these remittances were sent from the United States, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada.
The central bank has said the continuous deployment of skilled Filipino workers abroad sustained the increase in remittance flows during the period.
The BSP forecast cash remittances to have grown 5.5 percent in 2014 from the $22.968 billion recorded in 2013.
Remittances support domestic consumption, the largest driver of the Philippine economy. In 2013, remittances made up more than eight percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
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Barclays sees drop in Dec remittances | Business, News, The Philippine Star | philstar.com
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2014 exports climbed 9% to $62b
By Jennifer Ambanta | Feb. 10, 2015 at 11:40pm
Exports climbed 9 percent in 2014 to a record $61.8 billion from $56.7 billion in 2013, despite the 3.2-percent contraction recorded in December, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show.
“Compared to other economies in the region, the Philippines’ full-year exports growth performance was relatively strong despite the challenging external environment. This is a good indication of the growing resiliency of our sectors given that economies in the Euro area, Japan and China remain sluggish, causing regional trade flows to soften,” said Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.
The PSA said merchandise exports dropped 3.2 percent in December to $4.8 billion from $5 billion a year ago. This followed a 21.7-percent growth in exports registered in November.
Overseas sales of electronics were the highest since 2010 and more garments were shipped than any year since 2011. Sales of electronics, which accounted for 42 percent of total exports last year, climbed 8.1 percent in 2014 to $25.9 billion from $23.9 billion in 2013.
“Philippine exports have massively outperformed the rest of Asia,” said Michael Wan, a Singapore-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG. “We’re seeing benefits of increased foreign direct investment. Products are also quite diversified, from electronics to agriculture,” he said.
While Philippine exports totaled about $62 billion last year compared with Singapore’s $522 billion and Thailand’s $225 billion, the country is improving its skills and climbing up the value chain, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said.
Meanwhile, export earnings of manufactured goods in December fell to $4.18 billion from $4.23 billion in December 2013.
“This can be traced mainly to year-on-year declines in other manufactured products, wood manufactures and electronic equipment and parts. Nonetheless, outbound sales of electronic products, machinery and transport equipment, garments, miscellaneous manufactured articles and chemicals remained buoyant,” Balisacan said.
The sluggish outturns in coconut products and sugar pulled down revenues from total agro-based products by 24.9 percent to $291.8 million in December 2014 from $388.7 million a year ago.
“While outward sales of other agro-based products reached $81.7 million, higher by 10.2 percent compared to $74.2 million in December 2013, decline in coconut oil exports drove outward shipments from coconut products to drop from $145.1 million in December 2013 to $79.5 million in the same month of 2014,” said Balisacan.
Balisacan warned of a possible slight tempering of exports in 2015, given the weakness in China and Euro deflation.
“What could provide an upside support to exports is the continuing US recovery and possibly some respite from Japan, which may realize economic expansion towards end-2015,” he said.
Japan was the top destination of Philippine-made goods in December, accounting for 21.2 percent of the total. The United States was the second largest market with 14.1-percent share and China, third with 11.4 percent. With Bloomberg
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2014 exports climbed 9% to $62b - Manila Standard Today
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Ayala spending P185b in 2015
By Jenniffer B. Austria | Feb. 12, 2015 at 11:40pm
Ayala Corp., one of the country’s largest conglomerates, said Thursday it will deploy P185 billion worth of funds this year to expand property and telecommunication businesses and hike investments in power generation and infrastructure.
The conglomerate’s capital expenditures this year, however, were slightly lower than P190 billion programmed in 2014.
Ayala said in a disclosure to the stock exchange more than half of the group’s capital spending was allotted for property unit Ayala Land Inc., which would invest P100 billion in 2015.
Ayala Land said it would launch more residential, office, hotel and commercial center projects and acquire land for future development to achieve the target of P40-billion net income by 2020.
The group’s telecom business through Globe Telecom Inc. allocated P37 billion for capital expenditures in 2015, including the P8 billion unspent budget in the second half of 2014.
Ayala Corp. said Globe’s capital spending for the year would be used for data-related initiatives and LTE network infrastructure upgrades.
Ayala Corp., the parent company, will deploy P21 billion primarily to support investment programs in power generation and transport infrastructure.
The rest of the amount will be mobilized to fund the growth initiatives of other business units, including Manila Water Company Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands and Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc.
“We started an aggressive growth strategy a few years back and we continue to undertake value enhancing opportunities amidst this sustained momentum in our economy. Each of our business units are seizing investment opportunities within their individual spaces under this positive environment,” Ayala Corp. chairman and chief executive Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said.
“In particular, we continue to strengthen our positions in power and transport infrastructure --- two sectors that are presenting opportunities for investments with potential to become new growth platforms for Ayala,” Zobel de Ayala said.
Ayala Corp. booked a net income of P14.1 billion in the first nine months of 2014, up by 35 percent from a year ago, driven by the robust performance of real estate, telecom and water units.
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Ayala spending P185b in 2015 - Manila Standard Today
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$1-b Shell gas project on track
By Alena Mae S. Flores | Feb. 09, 2015 at 11:30pm
Shell Philippines Exploration B. V., the operator of the Malampaya natural gas field in northwest Palawan, said it is on track on completing the $1-billion Malampaya expansion project that will install a second platform by the middle of 2015.
“We are just completing the Malampaya phase three project. We are on track,” Spex managing director Sebastian Quinones said.
The consortium led by Spex (with 45 percent) is undertaking phase 3 of the Malampaya project, after completing phase 2, to sustain the level of gas production under existing contracts. Other members of the consortium are Chevron Malampaya LLC (with 45 percent) and PNOC Exploration Corp. (10 percent).
Two production wells were successfully installed in 2013, marking the completion of phase 2. Phase 3 involves the design, fabrication and installation of a new depletion compression platform, which is expected to be completed by the middle of the year.
“The depletion compression platform will be towed out to Palawan soon, so in that manner we are along with the plan and we do have our turn around,” Quinones said.
Malampaya’s first glas platform would be shut down on March 15 to April 13 for a scheduled maintenance repair.
The Malampaya deep-water gas-to-power project, completed in 2001 at cost of $4.5 billion, supplies natural gas to power three power plants in Batangas with a combined capacity of 2,700 MW, representing 30 percent of the country’s energy requirements.
Quinones said Spex, one of the country’s most active oil and gas players, was bullish about Malampaya’s operations this year.
“We will complete this year this project. In fact the Malampaya phase three is a $750 million [project], so we really make sure that this will happen,” he said.
“You have to invest in the future, otherwise you will not recover your expenses,” Quinones said.
Shell’s license over service contract 38, covering Malampaya, will expire in February 2024, the same period that the gas reserves are expected to be depleted. Around half of the reserves at the Malampaya gas field have been consumed.
“We have applied for the license extension [with the Energy Department. We are in discussions for the extension,” Quinones said earlier.
Quinones said there were currently seven production wells in the Camago-Malampaya reservoir.
“There are fields nearby, smaller ones. But to be able to extract that, obviously we need to put in more money. There’s also license extension and all those other things that will be required,” he said.
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$1-b Shell gas project on track - Manila Standard Today
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PH can keep rate for much of 2015
By Bloomberg | Feb. 13, 2015 at 11:45pm
The Philippine central bank can hold its benchmark interest rate for most of 2015 even as a lower inflation forecast gives policy makers more room to maneuver, Governor Amando Tetangco said.
“If things remain as they are, that is inflation expectations are well anchored, domestic demand continues to be resilient, oil prices remain low but not too volatile and Fed normalization is orderly, I think we can keep rates steady for the most part of 2015,” Tetangco said in an interview with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television from Manila on Friday.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas held its benchmark at 4 percent Thursday and cut inflation forecasts for this year and next. The central bank will watch for the possible effects of sustained low crude prices on global growth and any risk of a delayed increase in US interest rates because of cheap oil, Tetangco said.
“He’s very comfortable with the inflation outlook,” said Euben Paracuelles, a Singapore-based senior economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. “As long as it stays within target there’s no need to move either way. They could think about easing only if inflation falls below 2 percent for a sustained period,” he said, referring to the lower end of the central bank’s 2 percent to 4 percent goal for this year and next.
The peso rose to 44.285 per dollar at the close of trading. Philippine stocks climbed the most in more than a week, holding near a record. The yield on bonds due August 2024 fell for a second day, according to midday fixing prices at Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.
While the inflation outlook gives policy makers more room, firm demand, uncertainty over oil prices, and minimal deflationary risk are being considered, Tetangco said, when asked if there’s more scope to ease monetary policy.
“Real lending rates in the Philippines are the third lowest in the region,” he said. “We kept rates steady because we believe that this is consistent with a symmetric inflation targeting approach. We felt that we had room to wait for additional data to see if the lower end of our target range, for instance, will be breached for a persistent period.”
The Philippine economy expanded 6.9 percent in the three months through December from a year earlier, the fastest in five quarters. Consumer prices rose 2.4 percent in January from a year earlier, the slowest pace since August 2013.
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PH can keep rate for much of 2015 - Manila Standard Today
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Politics and National Security News:
Philippine Military ‘Behind’ President After Coup Plot is Revealed
Military Investigation Purports to Find no Groups of Soldiers Involved in Coup Plot
ByTrefor Moss
Feb. 13, 2015 12:19 a.m. ET
MANILA—The Philippine military said Friday it was “solidly behind the president,” after reports surfaced of a plot to overthrow President Benigno Aquino III through a coup d’état.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc said a military investigation “had not found any unit or group of soldiers who engaged in this coup plot,” which came to light during Senate testimony on Thursday. “All commanders assure us that all their people are accounted for,” he said.
The apparent plot followed the deaths of 44 police commandos in a bungled counterterrorism raid in Mindanao in late January. The disastrous mission to kill or capture a most-wanted terrorist has stoked fierce criticism of Mr. Aquino in the Southeast Asian country, with many feeling that responsibility for the policemen’s deaths lies ultimately with the president as commander-in-chief.
Mr. Aquino has confirmed that he was briefed about the planned raid before it took place, but it remains unclear how much he knew about the tactical details of the operation.
Rumors of coup plots are relatively common in the Philippines, despite the country’s increasingly stable politics. The last serious coup attempt, which ultimately failed to unseat then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was in 2006. Mr. Aquino’s mother, Corazon Aquino, faced down repeated coup attempts during her time as president from 1986 to 1992.
The botched raid also publicly humiliated the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, whose failure to coordinate on the day of the Jan. 25 operation has become one of the focal points of official inquiries into the causes of the disaster.
At the latest in a series of public Senate hearings into the police deaths, Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin disclosed Thursday that he had received reports of an ongoing coup plot. He said he was investigating, and assured the Senate that any attempt to oust Mr. Aquino by force would “entail no military support.”
Mr. Gazmin was responding to questions from Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, who said she had received intelligence that “leaders of certain…groups” were forming a plan to depose Mr. Aquino, and that the coup plot was being financed by a “very rich man…known to have funded a similar coup d’état in the past.”
Lt. Col. Cabunoc said the military was aware of text messages sent by unknown individuals, which appeared to refer to meetings between soldiers and the would-be coup-makers, and he said the military was trying to ascertain the origin of these messages.
“We are all solidly behind the president,” he said.
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Philippine Military ‘Behind’ President After Coup Plot is Revealed - WSJ
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Crossfire between Philippine military, rebels wounds bird-watching guide, scares 7 foreigners
Published February 13, 2015
Associated Press
MANILA, Philippines – Crossfire between the military and communist rebels has wounded a bird-watching guide and scared seven foreigners in a protected mountain area in the southern Philippines.
Col. Jesse Alvarez, an army commander in the area, said the military was not aware the bird-watchers were there when the 10-minute firefight ensued Friday.
Daniel Somera, supervisor of the Mount Kitanglad protected area in Bukidnon province, said one of four Filipino guides was wounded and brought to a hospital but the rest of the bird-watching group escaped unhurt. Three Britons, three Danes and one Australian were in the mountain area near where the firefight occurred.
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Crossfire between Philippine military, rebels wounds bird-watching guide, scares 7 foreigners | Fox News
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Hot money swings to net inflow in Jan
By Kathleen A. Martin (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 15, 2015 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Foreign portfolio investments swung to a net inflow in January from an outflow in the same month last year as more investors poured money in the local bourse, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday.
A net hot money inflow of $591.62 million was recorded in January, a turnaround from the net outflow of $1.844 billion in the same month in 2014.
“(This is) due to higher investments in PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange)-listed shares arising from a top-up offering of a holding corporation’s shares (and) sale of a universal bank’s and holding firm’s shares,” the central bank said.
Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings last month sold 145.65 million common shares and raised P8.8 billion through a top-up placement to fund its investments. Aboitiz Equity Ventures, meanwhile, sold 5.086 million treasury shares worth P276.65 million in January for its working capital and cash reserves needs.
At the same time, the BSP said the inflows were due to the “upgraded growth outlook for the country by the International Monetary Fund.”
Gross inflows of hot money rose 72 percent to $2.195 billion in January from $1.277 billion last year, while gross outflows fell 49 percent to $1.604 billion from $3.121 billion.
The net outflow recorded in January last year was due to the investors pulling out of emerging markets as the US Federal Reserve started decreasing its massive asset-buying program.
The BSP said bulk or 82 percent of the portfolio investments in January were put into PSE-listed securities. These mainly benefitted property companies, banks, holding firms, utility firms, and food, beverage and tobacco companies.
Another 17.4 percent went into peso-denominated government securities, while the remaining 0.7 percent was put in peso time deposits.
The top investor countries during the month were the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The United States remained the main destination of outflows, the BSP noted.
Last year, hot money ended in a net outflow of $310.21 million, a reversal of the $4.22-billion net inflow in 2013. This was blamed to heightened volatility in financial markets as the US central bank decreased its monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage bonds, which eventually ended in October.
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Hot money swings to net inflow in Jan | Business, News, The Philippine Star | philstar.com
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Barclays sees drop in Dec remittances
By Kathleen A. Martin (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 15, 2015 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Cash remittances into the Philippines likely eased further in December last year due to a high base in the same period in 2013, UK-based investment bank Barclays said in a report.
The bank, in its latest Emerging Markets Weekly report, estimated remittances to have inched up 1.9 percent in December from the same month in 2013, even slower than the two percent rate in November which was already the slowest in nearly six years.
“We expect remittances to recover sequentially from weakness in November, but a high base following 2013’s typhoon-related surge in remittances will likely weigh on year-on-year growth,” Barclays said.
Cash remittances in December 2013 climbed 10 percent to $2.173 billion, owed to the seasonal surge in inflows from Filipinos abroad and to families sending to their loved ones hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda.
Official December 2014 remittances data will be released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Monday.
Latest available data showed money sent home by Filipinos living and working abroad amounted to $2.122 billion in November, bringing the 11-month tally to $21.911 billion.
Bulk of these remittances were sent from the United States, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada.
The central bank has said the continuous deployment of skilled Filipino workers abroad sustained the increase in remittance flows during the period.
The BSP forecast cash remittances to have grown 5.5 percent in 2014 from the $22.968 billion recorded in 2013.
Remittances support domestic consumption, the largest driver of the Philippine economy. In 2013, remittances made up more than eight percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
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Barclays sees drop in Dec remittances | Business, News, The Philippine Star | philstar.com
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2014 exports climbed 9% to $62b
By Jennifer Ambanta | Feb. 10, 2015 at 11:40pm
Exports climbed 9 percent in 2014 to a record $61.8 billion from $56.7 billion in 2013, despite the 3.2-percent contraction recorded in December, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show.
“Compared to other economies in the region, the Philippines’ full-year exports growth performance was relatively strong despite the challenging external environment. This is a good indication of the growing resiliency of our sectors given that economies in the Euro area, Japan and China remain sluggish, causing regional trade flows to soften,” said Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.
The PSA said merchandise exports dropped 3.2 percent in December to $4.8 billion from $5 billion a year ago. This followed a 21.7-percent growth in exports registered in November.
Overseas sales of electronics were the highest since 2010 and more garments were shipped than any year since 2011. Sales of electronics, which accounted for 42 percent of total exports last year, climbed 8.1 percent in 2014 to $25.9 billion from $23.9 billion in 2013.
“Philippine exports have massively outperformed the rest of Asia,” said Michael Wan, a Singapore-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG. “We’re seeing benefits of increased foreign direct investment. Products are also quite diversified, from electronics to agriculture,” he said.
While Philippine exports totaled about $62 billion last year compared with Singapore’s $522 billion and Thailand’s $225 billion, the country is improving its skills and climbing up the value chain, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said.
Meanwhile, export earnings of manufactured goods in December fell to $4.18 billion from $4.23 billion in December 2013.
“This can be traced mainly to year-on-year declines in other manufactured products, wood manufactures and electronic equipment and parts. Nonetheless, outbound sales of electronic products, machinery and transport equipment, garments, miscellaneous manufactured articles and chemicals remained buoyant,” Balisacan said.
The sluggish outturns in coconut products and sugar pulled down revenues from total agro-based products by 24.9 percent to $291.8 million in December 2014 from $388.7 million a year ago.
“While outward sales of other agro-based products reached $81.7 million, higher by 10.2 percent compared to $74.2 million in December 2013, decline in coconut oil exports drove outward shipments from coconut products to drop from $145.1 million in December 2013 to $79.5 million in the same month of 2014,” said Balisacan.
Balisacan warned of a possible slight tempering of exports in 2015, given the weakness in China and Euro deflation.
“What could provide an upside support to exports is the continuing US recovery and possibly some respite from Japan, which may realize economic expansion towards end-2015,” he said.
Japan was the top destination of Philippine-made goods in December, accounting for 21.2 percent of the total. The United States was the second largest market with 14.1-percent share and China, third with 11.4 percent. With Bloomberg
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2014 exports climbed 9% to $62b - Manila Standard Today
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Ayala spending P185b in 2015
By Jenniffer B. Austria | Feb. 12, 2015 at 11:40pm
Ayala Corp., one of the country’s largest conglomerates, said Thursday it will deploy P185 billion worth of funds this year to expand property and telecommunication businesses and hike investments in power generation and infrastructure.
The conglomerate’s capital expenditures this year, however, were slightly lower than P190 billion programmed in 2014.
Ayala said in a disclosure to the stock exchange more than half of the group’s capital spending was allotted for property unit Ayala Land Inc., which would invest P100 billion in 2015.
Ayala Land said it would launch more residential, office, hotel and commercial center projects and acquire land for future development to achieve the target of P40-billion net income by 2020.
The group’s telecom business through Globe Telecom Inc. allocated P37 billion for capital expenditures in 2015, including the P8 billion unspent budget in the second half of 2014.
Ayala Corp. said Globe’s capital spending for the year would be used for data-related initiatives and LTE network infrastructure upgrades.
Ayala Corp., the parent company, will deploy P21 billion primarily to support investment programs in power generation and transport infrastructure.
The rest of the amount will be mobilized to fund the growth initiatives of other business units, including Manila Water Company Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands and Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc.
“We started an aggressive growth strategy a few years back and we continue to undertake value enhancing opportunities amidst this sustained momentum in our economy. Each of our business units are seizing investment opportunities within their individual spaces under this positive environment,” Ayala Corp. chairman and chief executive Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said.
“In particular, we continue to strengthen our positions in power and transport infrastructure --- two sectors that are presenting opportunities for investments with potential to become new growth platforms for Ayala,” Zobel de Ayala said.
Ayala Corp. booked a net income of P14.1 billion in the first nine months of 2014, up by 35 percent from a year ago, driven by the robust performance of real estate, telecom and water units.
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Ayala spending P185b in 2015 - Manila Standard Today
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$1-b Shell gas project on track
By Alena Mae S. Flores | Feb. 09, 2015 at 11:30pm
Shell Philippines Exploration B. V., the operator of the Malampaya natural gas field in northwest Palawan, said it is on track on completing the $1-billion Malampaya expansion project that will install a second platform by the middle of 2015.
“We are just completing the Malampaya phase three project. We are on track,” Spex managing director Sebastian Quinones said.
The consortium led by Spex (with 45 percent) is undertaking phase 3 of the Malampaya project, after completing phase 2, to sustain the level of gas production under existing contracts. Other members of the consortium are Chevron Malampaya LLC (with 45 percent) and PNOC Exploration Corp. (10 percent).
Two production wells were successfully installed in 2013, marking the completion of phase 2. Phase 3 involves the design, fabrication and installation of a new depletion compression platform, which is expected to be completed by the middle of the year.
“The depletion compression platform will be towed out to Palawan soon, so in that manner we are along with the plan and we do have our turn around,” Quinones said.
Malampaya’s first glas platform would be shut down on March 15 to April 13 for a scheduled maintenance repair.
The Malampaya deep-water gas-to-power project, completed in 2001 at cost of $4.5 billion, supplies natural gas to power three power plants in Batangas with a combined capacity of 2,700 MW, representing 30 percent of the country’s energy requirements.
Quinones said Spex, one of the country’s most active oil and gas players, was bullish about Malampaya’s operations this year.
“We will complete this year this project. In fact the Malampaya phase three is a $750 million [project], so we really make sure that this will happen,” he said.
“You have to invest in the future, otherwise you will not recover your expenses,” Quinones said.
Shell’s license over service contract 38, covering Malampaya, will expire in February 2024, the same period that the gas reserves are expected to be depleted. Around half of the reserves at the Malampaya gas field have been consumed.
“We have applied for the license extension [with the Energy Department. We are in discussions for the extension,” Quinones said earlier.
Quinones said there were currently seven production wells in the Camago-Malampaya reservoir.
“There are fields nearby, smaller ones. But to be able to extract that, obviously we need to put in more money. There’s also license extension and all those other things that will be required,” he said.
-----
$1-b Shell gas project on track - Manila Standard Today
-----
PH can keep rate for much of 2015
By Bloomberg | Feb. 13, 2015 at 11:45pm
The Philippine central bank can hold its benchmark interest rate for most of 2015 even as a lower inflation forecast gives policy makers more room to maneuver, Governor Amando Tetangco said.
“If things remain as they are, that is inflation expectations are well anchored, domestic demand continues to be resilient, oil prices remain low but not too volatile and Fed normalization is orderly, I think we can keep rates steady for the most part of 2015,” Tetangco said in an interview with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television from Manila on Friday.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas held its benchmark at 4 percent Thursday and cut inflation forecasts for this year and next. The central bank will watch for the possible effects of sustained low crude prices on global growth and any risk of a delayed increase in US interest rates because of cheap oil, Tetangco said.
“He’s very comfortable with the inflation outlook,” said Euben Paracuelles, a Singapore-based senior economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. “As long as it stays within target there’s no need to move either way. They could think about easing only if inflation falls below 2 percent for a sustained period,” he said, referring to the lower end of the central bank’s 2 percent to 4 percent goal for this year and next.
The peso rose to 44.285 per dollar at the close of trading. Philippine stocks climbed the most in more than a week, holding near a record. The yield on bonds due August 2024 fell for a second day, according to midday fixing prices at Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.
While the inflation outlook gives policy makers more room, firm demand, uncertainty over oil prices, and minimal deflationary risk are being considered, Tetangco said, when asked if there’s more scope to ease monetary policy.
“Real lending rates in the Philippines are the third lowest in the region,” he said. “We kept rates steady because we believe that this is consistent with a symmetric inflation targeting approach. We felt that we had room to wait for additional data to see if the lower end of our target range, for instance, will be breached for a persistent period.”
The Philippine economy expanded 6.9 percent in the three months through December from a year earlier, the fastest in five quarters. Consumer prices rose 2.4 percent in January from a year earlier, the slowest pace since August 2013.
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PH can keep rate for much of 2015 - Manila Standard Today
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Politics and National Security News:
Philippine Military ‘Behind’ President After Coup Plot is Revealed
Military Investigation Purports to Find no Groups of Soldiers Involved in Coup Plot
ByTrefor Moss
Feb. 13, 2015 12:19 a.m. ET
MANILA—The Philippine military said Friday it was “solidly behind the president,” after reports surfaced of a plot to overthrow President Benigno Aquino III through a coup d’état.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc said a military investigation “had not found any unit or group of soldiers who engaged in this coup plot,” which came to light during Senate testimony on Thursday. “All commanders assure us that all their people are accounted for,” he said.
The apparent plot followed the deaths of 44 police commandos in a bungled counterterrorism raid in Mindanao in late January. The disastrous mission to kill or capture a most-wanted terrorist has stoked fierce criticism of Mr. Aquino in the Southeast Asian country, with many feeling that responsibility for the policemen’s deaths lies ultimately with the president as commander-in-chief.
Mr. Aquino has confirmed that he was briefed about the planned raid before it took place, but it remains unclear how much he knew about the tactical details of the operation.
Rumors of coup plots are relatively common in the Philippines, despite the country’s increasingly stable politics. The last serious coup attempt, which ultimately failed to unseat then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was in 2006. Mr. Aquino’s mother, Corazon Aquino, faced down repeated coup attempts during her time as president from 1986 to 1992.
The botched raid also publicly humiliated the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, whose failure to coordinate on the day of the Jan. 25 operation has become one of the focal points of official inquiries into the causes of the disaster.
At the latest in a series of public Senate hearings into the police deaths, Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin disclosed Thursday that he had received reports of an ongoing coup plot. He said he was investigating, and assured the Senate that any attempt to oust Mr. Aquino by force would “entail no military support.”
Mr. Gazmin was responding to questions from Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, who said she had received intelligence that “leaders of certain…groups” were forming a plan to depose Mr. Aquino, and that the coup plot was being financed by a “very rich man…known to have funded a similar coup d’état in the past.”
Lt. Col. Cabunoc said the military was aware of text messages sent by unknown individuals, which appeared to refer to meetings between soldiers and the would-be coup-makers, and he said the military was trying to ascertain the origin of these messages.
“We are all solidly behind the president,” he said.
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Philippine Military ‘Behind’ President After Coup Plot is Revealed - WSJ
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Crossfire between Philippine military, rebels wounds bird-watching guide, scares 7 foreigners
Published February 13, 2015
Associated Press
MANILA, Philippines – Crossfire between the military and communist rebels has wounded a bird-watching guide and scared seven foreigners in a protected mountain area in the southern Philippines.
Col. Jesse Alvarez, an army commander in the area, said the military was not aware the bird-watchers were there when the 10-minute firefight ensued Friday.
Daniel Somera, supervisor of the Mount Kitanglad protected area in Bukidnon province, said one of four Filipino guides was wounded and brought to a hospital but the rest of the bird-watching group escaped unhurt. Three Britons, three Danes and one Australian were in the mountain area near where the firefight occurred.
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Crossfire between Philippine military, rebels wounds bird-watching guide, scares 7 foreigners | Fox News
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