business The ˜Manila Times SATURDAY BY BEN ARNOLD O. DE VERA REPORTER


Services group chief executive officer (CEO), said.


S eptember 18, 2010


B 3


and would likely establish another facility here by next year.


More than fiscal incentives, the lo- cal BPO industry needs more employ- able workforce, officials of WNS Glo- bal Services told reporters on Friday. “The BPO business globally con-


Indian BPO expands Philippine operations A


N Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) company is expanding its Philippine operations,


tinues to make progress. We need new sites to fuel our growth trajec- tory. The Philippines is a very im- portant part of our growth plan,” Keshav Murugesh, WNS Global


Imperial Resources taps Japanese for Indon mine


IMPERIAL Resources Inc. has partnered with a Japanese firm to conduct exploration and develop- ment activities in a concession area in Indonesia.


In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, Imperial Resources said it has entered into a memorandum of agreement with Toyo-Union Co. Ltd. to develop concession areas in Buton Island. Last year, Imperial Resources signed an agreement with Indone- sian firm P.T. Aspal Buton Nasional, which owns about 2,900 hectares of asphalt mining concession in Sulawesi, Indonesia.


Under this agreement, Imperial Re- sources was given exclusive rights to explore and evaluate the mining prop- erty and subsequently develop and bring it to commercial production.


The results of the electric resis- tivity survey indicated conservative asphalt reserves of over 40 million barrels, which could last for 30 years or more.


Incorporated in 1969 as a min- ing and oil company, Imperial Re- sources changed its primary pur- pose in 2000 as an information technology business and pursued a new primary purpose in the same year by forming a corporation to operate education centers. In 2007, the firm returned to the business of mining and coal mine operation, and increased its author- ized capital stock. Imperial Resources “A” shares


were unchanged at P5 while its “B” shares were last traded on Septem- ber 1 at P4 each. KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE


Murugesh said the country’s large pool of college graduates, the high level of English proficiency among Filipinos, and the government sup- port to the BPO sector have led many WNS clients to prefer the Philippines. WNS on Friday inaugurated at


Eastwood, Quezon City a 300-seat facility, which would begin opera- tions this month.


Murugesh said this new Philip- pine site gobbled a “decent part” of WNS’ about $20-million global capi-


tal expenditure program for this year. He said the company is looking for an about 500-seater site, possi- bly in a so-called next wave city for outsourcing identified by the indus- try and the government. WNS has two existing sites in the Philippines—one each in Eastwood and Cubao, both in Quezon City. It has about 1,200 employees in the country.


Prabhakar Bisen, WNS Philip- pines Inc. chief executive, said the company would ramp up hiring. At present, only about a fifth of


WNS Philippines’ services are non- voice, Bisen said, adding that the company wants to increase the share of higher value accounts to about two-thirds of the mix.


Murugesh said they expect the Philippine operations to comprise a tenth of its global workforce in a few years’ time. WNS serves clients from the fi- nancial, retail, shipping, travel and telecommunications sectors in Aus- tralia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK and the US.


Murugesh said the Philippine PAFI seeks govt support to auto sector


government has been supportive of the BPO industry, but can do more if it could make the gradu- ates more employable. On average, WNS could hire only one out of every 10 applicants, he said. “We want access to the right kind of people here,” he added. Bisen said skills development ef- forts should reach those outside Metro Manila.


Besides the Philippines, WNS has facilities in India, Costa Rica, Roma- nia, Sri Lanka and the US, with a to- tal workforce of about 22,000 people.


Marcventures board OK’s capital hike


MARCVENTURES Holdings Inc. disclosed on Friday that its board of directors approved the increase of the par value of its common shares and its capital stock. In a disclosure to the Philippine


Officials of the Philippine Automotive Federation Inc. (PAFI)—the umbrella organization of automotive associations in the country—recently paid a courtesy call to Board of Investments Managing Head and Department of Trade and Industry Undersecretary Crispino Panlilio (seated third from left) to get the government’s commitment to the domestic auto industry through the Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Development Program.


Attending the meeting were, among others, PAFI Chairman Feliciano Torres (seated fourth from left), PAFI President Vicente Mills Jr.(seated at rightmost) and PAFI Secretary General Frank Nacua (standing fourth from left).


Atlas unit ships more copper to China


ATLAS Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. disclosed on Friday the successful completion of its 13th shipment of copper concentrates for this year through its subsidiary Carmen Copper Corp. (CCC).


In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Atlas said the bulk cargo was loaded on September 16 for delivery to a smelter in Yantai, People’s Republic of China. Laizhou Fangtai Metallurgy Chemicals Industry Co. Ltd of Shandong Province, P.R.O.C. was the registered consignee, the dis-


closure said.


On September 16, CCC posted record production at its concentra- tor plant of 42,540 metric tons throughput, and averaged 40,000 metric tons of copper ore per day during the week. It is now expediting the full de-


velopment of its North Lutopan pit in a bid to achieve the budg- eted mining rate of over 42,000 metric tons per day, Atlas said. The company said the 13th ship- ment had a total volume of 5,617.180 wet metric tons (WMT) and contained 27.55 percent cop-


businessinbrief


■ THE Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said the Departments of Agriculture and of Trade and Industry have agreed that a profit of P2 per kilo of sugar, based on owning cost, is already reasonable for traders and retailers. The SRA said the government has also issued show cause orders to retailers that were caught selling beyond P52 a kilo of sugar. JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ


■ ABOITIZ Power Corp. (AP) has completed its 42.5-megawatt Sibulan hydropower project in Davao del Sur that will augment electricity supply in Mindanao. AP, through wholly owned subsidiary Hedcor Sibulan Inc., started construction of the P5-billion facility in 2007 after electricity distributor Davao Light and Power Co., also an AP unit, foresaw the increase of power demand in Mindanao. EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO


■ THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said it still lacks the manpower that would work on the letter notices that it regularly serves to companies. BIR said that its system can match the data filed by taxpayers and report the discrepancies and issue letters of notice at least every other year regarding a company’s income and its value-added tax payments.


KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ


■ THE Philippine Stock Exchange has approved the maiden share offering of Cebu Air Inc., which plans to raise P32.2 billion in new capital. The company said shares would be listed in the bourse under the symbol “CEBU” on October 25. KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE


■ THE Chamber of Mines of the Philippines said the industry grew by 36 percent in the second quarter of this year and has contributed over P136 billion to the economy during the first semester. The group said investors from China, Middle East, and India are eyeing to invest in the Philippines as their own infrastructure growth is pushing demand for base metals.


JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ


■ BUREAU of Customs said its collection for August was 20 percent below its target of P26.71 billion for the month. To counter the falling revenue collection, the Departments of Finance, of Trade and Industry, and of Energy are working on the reversal of the executive orders issued by the previous administra- tion that reduced the tariff on petroleum products, steel, cement and wheat.


per, 2.59 grams of gold per dry met- ric ton (DMT), and 25.51 grams of silver per DMT based on prelimi- nary assays. The shipment is valued at approximately $10,700,000. After the loading for this lat- est shipment, a leftover stock of about 4,741 WMT of copper con- centrates remained inside CCC’s warehouse bins at its Sangi Port in Toledo City. The stockpile is be- ing built to reach a volume of 5,500 WMT for the next shipment tentatively scheduled on Septem- ber 24 this year.


JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ


■ THE European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines will put up a help desk that would assist firms that want to save energy.


This help desk would facilitate free walk-through assessments of companies’ operations to find out how they could be energy efficient as studies showed that about 43 percent of a firm’s operating costs represent electricity.


Court junks Oriental case


A MAKATI court has dismissed the case filed by Oriental Peninsula Re- sources Group against Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC), pre- venting the latter from spreading malicious news items to derail the former’s maiden share sale. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Oriental Penin- sula said it received on Friday a copy of the decision of the Re- gional Trial Court of Makati City junking the case after both parties “jointly moved to dismiss this case including the counter claims.” Oriental Peninsula filed the case on December 13, 2007, seeking “to


enjoin PGMC from spreading or cir- culating malicious news items which tends to prevent, obstruct, derail or impede” its initial public offering. On December 19, 2007, PGMC filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the revocation of the registration of se- curities of Oriental Peninsula. The corporate regulator already dismissed the case due to lack of merit. PGMC filed an appeal on the decision.


Oriental Peninsula shares rose from P3.15 on Thursday to P3.18 each on Friday. KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE


Stock Exchange, Marcventures said the par value of its common shares was raised to P1 per share from P0.01, paving the way for the possible entry of new investors in the future. The board also approved the increase in its authorized capital stock from P2 billion to an amount not exceeding P5 billion. As of the first quarter this


year, Marcventures spent P300 million to explore and develop a 4,799-hectare nickel mine project in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur in Mindanao. The company earlier said that it


was investing P474 million for the said project. Marcventures said that its open pit mining operations will produce up to 800,000 wet metric tons of nickel a year. A 120-hectare area in the


property has an estimated resource of 19.08 million metric tons of high-iron limonite and 4.47 million metric tons of high-nickel saprolite ores that can be ex- tracted within 20 years. JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ


BEN ARNOLD O. DE VERA


■ THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said it denied a customer’s petition for Manila Electric Co. to refund P39 billion to its residen- tial customers for alleged overcharging from 2004 to 2007. ERC said there were inconsistencies between the allegations of the customer and the figures in Meralco’s final determination of its rates. EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO


■ FILINVEST Land Inc. and Filinvest Alabang Inc. have submitted an unsolicited proposal to state-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority to develop a portion of Fort Bonifacio. The real estate firm said the consortium plans to turn the 101,181-square meter diplomatic and consular area into a mixed- use type of development. KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE


■ THE Department of Finance said it is inviting foreign investors, including JP Morgan Chase and Co. and Golman Sachs Group Inc., to bankroll the government’s infrastructure projects under the public- private partnership scheme. The government, however, has yet to receive any definite commitments from these potential investors since the 10 priority projects will only be finalized by the third week of October. LIKHA CUEVAS-MIEL


■ PHILEX Mining Corp. said it might buy into the Didipio gold project of Australian mining giant OceanaGold Phil. Inc. The company said that the move is part of Philex’s long-term strategy of looking for investment opportunities, which includes the acquisition of the remaining Indophil shares in the $5.2 billion Tampakan gold project of Sagittariuss Mines.


JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ LIKHA CUEVAS-MIEL


■ THE Board of Investments said a leaner Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) would likely be in place next year as the Aquino government is expected to be selective in giving away incentives amid tight government finances. The agency said the general policy for the 2011 IPP is that the government should grant fiscal incentives only to industries that really need assistance. BEN ARNOLD O. DE VERA


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