B 2


BY EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO REPORTER


business The Manila Times FRIDAY D e cember 10, 2010


struction of the former’s fuel station in the Subic Bay freeport.


In a media briefing, Fernando Martinez, Eastern Petroleum chair- man, said Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) kowtowed to the country’s largest oil refiner after ini- tially approving its pump outlet. “This is contrary to the Oil Deregu- lation Law and is also evidently an anti-


Eastern says Petron blocking competition E


ASTERN Petroleum Corp. on Thurs day claimed that industry leader Petron Corp. is blocking the con-


competitive practice,” Martinez said. Petron allegedly cited an 800- meter exclusivity agreement with state-run SBMA around its fuel sta- tion in the Freeport.


A Filipino-owned oil company with around 35 stations across the country, Eastern Petroleum is putting up a P50


PAL flight bookings up despite labor problems


PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) on Thursday said its flight bookings rose by a tenth for the coming holi- days despite the labor woes hound- ing the flag carrier.


In a statement, the Lucio Tan-


owned airline said the higher book- ings this month is an indication of a strong passenger confidence in PAL’s continued operations. Cielo Villaluna, PAL spokesper- son, said its sales department noted a significant uptick in confirmed bookings especially after Mala- cañang, through Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., made a public appeal to the PAL Employees Asso- ciation (Palea) to defer any work stoppage as the Palace exhausts all means to resolve the labor tiff. PAL workers’ union earlier held a


strike vote, but the airline manage- ment questioned its legal basis. PALEA is protesting PAL’s plan to spin off part of its operations, a move that will result in letting go some 3,500 of its 7,500 workforce. Villaluna said close to 90 percent of


PAL’s booked passengers have been is- sued confirmed tickets for Manila- inbound flights, indicative of the travelers’ trust in the airline’s ability to fly them to their respective destinations. “Many of our inbound passengers finalized their travel plans after Malacañang’s appeal to Palea. Most of them are hopeful that through Malacañang’s intercession and Palea’s cooperation—‘in the spirit of Christmas’—they would be able to


spend the holidays with their loved ones,” he said.


Based on sales data, almost all flights coming from the United States are full —registering the highest number of forward bookings—followed by those coming from Australia. PAL’s traditionally packed flights


every December are those coming from North America, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Between Christ- mas and New Year, its airplanes are filled with vacationers bound for Kalibo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singa- pore and China. Last year, PAL carried 9.2 million passengers or an average of 25,630 pas- sengers per day. This number goes up by as much as 30 percent with the Christmas peak season as thousands of tourists, balikbayans and overseas Fili- pino workers flock home to spend Christmas with their families. “While the strike vote threatens to spoil the holiday travel plans of thou- sands of Filipinos, PAL is exerting all efforts to ensure continued safe and reliable service,” Villaluna said. She said the strike vote did not


cause any flight cancellations, adding that no significant withdrawal of pas- senger bookings have been noted. “We would like [to] reiterate our advise [to] our passengers to please come to the airport early—at least two hours before the intended depar- ture time—to avoid long queues and other inconveniences that usually occur during this time of the year,” Villaluna said. DARWIN G. AMOJELAR


AGI to sell treasury shares


ALLIANCE Global Group Inc. (AGI) will sell treasury shares to finance its new tourism-related ventures outside Metro Manila.


In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the holding company of Andrew Tan said it will reissue 550.1 million treasury shares, repre- senting about five percent of the com- pany’s total outstanding stock. The share offering will happen in a single tranche in the first quarter of 2011, but this may be delayed de- pending on market conditions. At end-September, the company had P4.13-billion worth of treasury shares, which include those accu- mulated by AGI under its buy-back program and those held by certain subsidiaries. In 2008, AGI launched a P2-billion share buy-back program, which was implemented until January 10 this year. On Monday, AGI announced that


it would earmark P7 billion for new tourism-related projects outside the Philippine capital to show its strong commitment and confidence in the country’s tourism industry. The new tourism projects would


create synergies with its integrated tourism estate Resorts World Manila at Newport City in Pasay City. Resorts World Manila features the


country’s largest casino, the 172 all- suite Maxims Hotel, the 342-room five-star Marriott Hotel and a budget hotel called Remington. AGI will also build the four-star Hamilton Hotel, which will bring its total rooms to 1,800. Travellers International, a joint


venture between AGI and Genting Hong Kong, is expected to make a “substantial” contribution to the Philippine holding firm’s revenues this year following the first full-year operations of Resorts World. AGI expects its net income attribut- able to shareholders to increase by at least 38 percent this year to P6.62 from last year’s P4.8 billion with its tourism ventures accounting for the growth. In the first nine months, AGI’s net income attributable to shareholders rose 63 percent to P5.39 billion from last year’s P3.31 billion. AGI shares fell from P11.98 on Wed-


nesday to P11.90 each on Thursday. KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE


Republic of the Philippines


Department of Public Works and Highways Region I


Pangasinan 3rd District Engineering Office


OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ENGINEER Tumana, Rosales, Pangasinan


Date: December 02, 2010 INVITATION TO BID The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Pangasinan 3rd


apply to bid for the following contract: CONTRACT


ID 10A10132


Const’n./Imprvt./Widening of Manila North Road incldg. its intersection, by passes, ROW Acquisitions,


Drainage, Bridges, Pedestrian Overpass and other local roads.


Procurement will be conducted through open competitive bidding in accordance with R.A. 9184 and its Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations. To bid for this contract, a contractor must submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) and must meet the following major criteria: (a) prior registration with the DPWH, (b) Filipino citizen or 75% Filipino-


owned partnership/corporation with PCAB license applicable to the type and cost of this contract, (c) completion of a similar contract costing at least 50% of ABC, and (d) Net Financial Contracting Capacity at least equal to ABC, or credit line commitment for at least equal to 10% of ABC. The BAC will use non-discretionary pass/fail criteria in the eligibility check and preliminary examination of bids.


Unregistered contractors, however, shall submit their applications for registration to the DPWH-3rd


The significant times and deadlines of procurement activities are shown below: ACTIVITIES


1. Publication/Posting of Invitation to Bid 2. Receipt of LOIs from Prospective Bidders 3. Issuance of Bidding Documents 4. Pre-Bid Conference


5. Receipts and Opening of Bids The BAC will issue hard copies of LOI Forms at DPWH-3rd Pangasinan Engineering District, Tumana, Rosales, Pangasinan before the deadline for the


receipts of LOI. The DPWH-POCW Central Office will only process the contractor’s applications for registration with complete requirements, and issue the Contractor’s Certificate of Registration (CRC). Registration Forms may be downloaded at the DPWH website www.dpwh.gov.ph.


SCHEDULE December 02 to December 08, 2010


December 02 to December 16, 2010 until 3:00 P.M. December 02 to Dec. 22, 2010 before 9:00 A.M. December 09, 2010-10:00 A.M. December 22, 2010 – 10:00 A.M.


Pangasinan Engineering District, Tumana, Rosales, Pangasinan, upon payment of a non-refundable fee of P1,000.00. Hard copies of the BDs


will be available at the same address upon payment of a non-refundable fee of THIRTY THOUSAND PESOS ONLY-P30,000.00. Prospective bidders that will download the BDs from the DPWH website shall pay the said amount on or before the submission of their Bid Documents. Bids must be accompanied by a bid security, in the amount and acceptable form, as stated in Section 27.2 of the Revised IRR.


Prospective bidders shall submit their duly accomplished forms as specified in the BDs in two (2) separate sealed bid envelope to the BAC Chairman. The first envelope shall contain the technical


component of the bid, which shall include the eligibility requirements. The second envelope shall contain financial component of the bid. Contract will be awarded to the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bid as determined in the bid evaluation and the post-qualification.


The DPWH, Pangasinan 3rd District Engineering Office, Tumana, Rosales, Pangasinan reserves the right to accept or reject any bid and to annul the bidding process anytime before Contract award, without incurring any liability to the affected bidders.


APPROVED: (SGD.) EMMANUEL W. DIAZ BAC – Chairman


MT – Dec. 3 & 10, 2010


Urdaneta City to Sison, Pangasinan


NAME OF CONTRACT District Engineering Office, Tumana, Rosales, Pangasinan through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), invites contractors to LOCATION BRIEF DESCRIPTION


Const’n. of Flood Control, Drainage Structure


APPROVED BUDGET CONTRACT FOR THE CONTRACT DURATION P10,800,000.00


120 C.D.


million “mega” station across Petron’s outlet in the former US naval base. Eastern Petroleum’s planned fa- cility is complete with fastfood out- lets and retail stores. Martinez said the company already secured all the necessary permits for the proposed station after approval from the SBMA board.


Armand Arreza, SBMA administra-


tor, refused to hand a building per- mit to the company after Petron’s al- leged intervention, the Eastern Petro- leum executive said. Petron has three existing stations at the Freeport while two other retail- ers, PTT Philippines Corp. and Total (Philippines) Corp., each have one.


”Petron is putting up ‘Bulilit’ stations sandwiching independent players to kill us, but now that a small player is putting up a station beside them we are not al- lowed to?” Fernando said.


The ‘Bulilit’ stations are one- to


two- pump outlets that cost a frac- tion of what it would take to put up regular stations. Petron earlier rolled out the facilities in its bid to cut into small oil companies’ market share. With its nearly 1,500 pump sta-


tions, Petron comprises over a third of the retail sector. Small oil com- panies—also called independent players that sprouted following the passage of the Oil Deregulation Law over a decade ago—represent 25


percent of the market. ”They are all over the place with 1,000 plus stations, ano pa gusto nila? Anong akala nila sa petroleum, beer?” Martinez said. Petron is a majority-owned subsidi- ary of San Miguel Corp., the country’s largest food and beverage conglomerate. Martinez said Eastern Petroleum is holding off legal remedies to set- tle its tiff with Petron, pending talks with the Department of Energy (DOE) regarding the oil giant’s “mo- nopolistic tendencies.” ”We are taking this up with the DOE.


We have been sending letters to DOE but up to now we have not received any response from them,” he added.


STATE-OWNED Philippine National Oil Co.’s (PNOC) upstream petroleum and coal arm plans to undertake four energy projects next year. In a briefing, Gemiliano Lopez Jr., PNOC-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) chairman and chief executive, said the company has allocated around P4 billion for its capital ex- penditure projects in 2011. He said that the firm would use internally generated cash to bankroll the projects in the pipeline, including a 50- megawatt coal mine and power plant in Isabela. PNOC-EC also plans to build


a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Zamboanga, an 80-megawatt gas power plant in Batangas, and a gas-receiv- ing terminal in Bataan. “These projects, which are currently in the planning and market study stages, are part of the company’s response to the country’s growing de- mand for energy and are con- sistent with the government’s thrust to actively promote public-private partnerships,” Lopez said. PNOC-EC’s coal projects


would use local resources while its gas plant will tap the Malampaya field to aug-


ment the power require- ments of Luzon. The Bataan terminal will consist initially of offshore liquefied natural gas receiv- ing and re-gasification facili- ties. The planned terminal will be located at the PNOC- Alternative Fuels Corp. in- dustrial complex.


A former Manila City


mayor, Lopez said that these projects are in response to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) foreseen need for ad- ditional installed capacity in the Luzon Grid by 2011. “As such, the current ad- ministration, through the


Coffee brewer launches ‘inspirational’ diary to boost sales in Christmas


WHEN UCC Coffee Concept Store owner Hubert Young started his business in 2000, he only had a vision, three staff members, and a couple of consultants. Today he has 600 employees working in 23


branches across the country – a feat that Young con- sidered a significant change. This is why UCC marked its 10th


year in the Phil-


ippines by launching the Beacons for Change Vi- sion Logbook. The coffee shop’s logbook is a diary of sorts with the theme, “Positive Change and Plan- ning for Change.” The UCC Vision Log- book aims to deliver to loyal customers a blend of motivational and practical information that would help bring about positive change through- out the year. Young also organized a team he called the “bea- cons of change,” whose members belong to the country’s top business coaches. They are experts in their respective fields and are all well-versed when it comes to planning for change. The beacons of change who contributed to the vision logbook were financial expert Randell Tiongson, motivational speaker Francis Kong, Prof. Francisco Bernardo 3rd


»feature ■ Hubert Young and mind-mapping expert


Raju Mandhyan. “This vision logbook is something useful for in- dividuals who want to see change in themselves and in their social environment. It is innovative and rel- evant,” Young said. During the logbook’s launch, Kong said people can both desire and fear change. “What we need to do is to learn how to let go of our fear of change. If we want to consciously bring about change for the good, then that change has to be envisioned and planned,” he said. To benefit from positive change, Kong offered few tips, such as people must believe that they can change, believe a cause since causes are mightier than policies, and encourage people to be lifelong learners. “We must execute excellently, brilliantly and never waver in our performance. If nothing ever changed,


there will be no butterflies,” he said. Bernardo said people must be innovative and keen observers. Citing a Chinese belief, he said people must always seize opportuni- ties as they come. “The Chinese believes that crises produced op- portunities. So let us be watchful of crises be- cause such situations create business opportuni- ties,” he said. The basic vision logbook includes the calendars


for 2011 and 2012, and contains useful modules such as a travel vision logbook, conversion tables, notes, stories, tips, and quotations. More promo- tional coupons for free dishes or drinks are in- side the logbook.


Customers will be given a Beacons of Change Card, which will give them a chance to get a seat to a Group Collaboration Talk with Kong. The Beacons of Change Card will be stamped


when claiming add-on modules and for joining Coffee Collaboration talks. They may also get additional modules, such as Tiongson’s “12 Easy Steps to Financial Wellness,” Mandhyan’s “Mind Mapping,” and the Let’s Go Foundation’s “Entrepreneur’s Workbook for Change.” Young said five percent of the proceeds from the UCC Beacons of Change Vision Logbook program will be donated to a Christian mission and charity works. The program is a way for UCC to enable some


of the country’s top beacons of change to help others become themselves beacons of change, one day at a time, he said.


■ CONSUMER FROM B1


4Q consumer confidence higher


cate that respondents expect increased family income and finances from a broad-based and more inclusive growth of the economy,” Guerrero said. However, the percentage of households that con- sidered the current quarter as a favorable time to buy big big-ticket items declined to 20.6 percent from the previous quarter’s 21 percent. The lower outlook was most pronounced on buying conditions for house and lot at 25.5 percent from 28.9 percent dur- ing the previous quarter.


ANGELO S. SAMONTE Sought for comment, Charmaine


Canillas, Petron public affairs head, said the company “welcomes competition which is the true spirit of deregulation.” She said Petron’s investment in Subic nearly 10 years ago contained “a provision approved by the SBMA board stating that no similar busi- ness would be established within an 800-meter radius of our facility.” “This is a standard provision for


many investment locations such as Subic and Fort Bonifacio. Subic has a large area beyond the 800-meter radius of our station which other oil companies can avail of as many of our competitors have already done in the past,” she added.


PNOC-EC lines up power projects for next year


DOE, has also tapped PNOC- EC to develop energy re- sources that would fuel exist- ing and planned power plants,” Lopez said. Besides these projects, PNOC-EC also holds interests in eight petroleum service contracts and five coal oper- ating contracts located in vari- ous parts of the country. The company’s primary cash cow is the Malampaya project, the country’s largest natural gas field to date. PNOC-EC’s A shares closed flat at P24 and B shares at P26 apiece on Thursday. EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO


IP Converge debuts at local bourse


IP COVERGE Data Center debuted at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, but its shares closed un- changed despite the cheap valuation of the stock.


The shares of the technology and communication services provider of IPVG Corp. opened at P4.15, lower than its offer price of P4.20 per share. IP Converge shares traded below its initial public offering (IPO) price for most of the trading session. While it rallied later in the session, the stock was unchanged at the close. The company had cut its offer price to P4.20 per share, outside of the indicative price range set at P7.04 to P8.80.


“I expected it to be better because the stock is 5 times P/E for 2011 and maybe 9 times P/E for 2010, which means it’s very cheap,” said Joseph Roxas of Eagle Equities Inc. “I think people have been condi- tioned by the two previous IPOs to sell on the first day. In the medium and long-term, I think it will perform better,” Roxas added. Gokongwei-led Cebu Air, Inc. and the Zamora-led Nickel Asia Corp. had debuted in the local stock mar- ket ahead of IP Converge. The company is projecting at least


P70 million in earnings this year, but David de Leon, the firm’s chief financial officer, said IP Converge may surpass this. Enrique Gonzales, IP Converge chief executive officer, said the com- pany’s board of directors has ap- proved a 50-percent dividend policy last week.


“With the regular dividends we


will pay out and the ability to dem- onstrate that we can grow at a healthy rate, the market will support the share price,” Gonzales said. IP Converge intends to use the


P190.97 million it raised from sell- ing 45.47 million common shares to expand its data centers, which will cater to current customers and ad- dress the demand for quality data center space and services. “We will build another one in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig to capture the hosting requirements of a lot of cor- porations and multinational compa- nies that have decided to locate in the area,” Gonzales said.


The P155-million data facility in


Taguig will be launched late in the second quarter or early third quarter of next year. Another P50-million data center will rise in Cebu City. Construction will begin in the fourth quarter of next year, as the project aims to tap foreign firms with local operations as well as multilat- eral agencies The company said it would like to double the business in the next three years, cementing its leadership posi- tion in the country and capture a slice of the regional market. KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE


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