SMDC Lists Additional 1.87 Billion Shares

SM Development Corporation (SMDC) listed an additional 1.83 billion of its common shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Nov 3, 2010 . The shares were from the highly successful P11.7 billion stock rights offering held October 18-22, 2010. Each SMDC shareholder holding at least three common shares as of October 6, 2010 was offered and entitled to subscribe to one new share at an offer price of PHP 6.38 per share. The additional listed common shares have a par value of PHP 1.0 per share and BDO Capital and Investment Corporation acted as the sole underwriter of the offer.

SMDC’s stock rights offer was fully subscribed. Initially, the company will receive 50% of the total proceeds from the offer equivalent to PHP 5.8 billion and the other 50% on or before end of May 2011. Prior to this second rights offering, SMDC has a total of 5.5 billion common shares issued and outstanding. After the completion of the offer, the company’s common outstanding shares will top 7.3 billion.

“We are highly encouraged by the strong market reception and support of the Company’s latest stock rights offering, after the first rights offering. This second stock rights offering comes on the heels of the very successful first rights offering totalling PHP 5.0 billion held early this year, and the PHP 10.0 billion note issuance in June -- a clear manifestation of trust and confidence investors and other stakeholders have on the positive prospects of the company,” said SMDC vice chairman and chief executive officer Henry Sy, Jr.

The net proceeds will be used by SMDC for land acquisition, project development, and construction activities.
 The additional resources raised through this new initiative will ensure the continuity of SMDC’s excellent product offerings in the housing and financial markets. Likewise, this capital raising activity will further strengthen the financial backbone of the Company and provide it with the needed muscle to tap bigger and promising markets in the region such as China.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Jose T. Gabionza
Vice President
SM Development Corporation
E-mail: jose.gabionza@smdevelopment.com
Tel. No. 857-0100

Source

SMDC disclosure to PSE

Nov 3, 2010

PHILWEB Posts Record Growth

PhilWeb Corporation, posted net income of P477 million for the first three quarters of 2010, 28% higher than the P373 million it posted for the same period in 2009. Revenues totaled P755 million, up 30% year on year, compared to P580 million in the first nine months of 2009.

PhilWeb Corporation is the Philippines’ first and largest listed online technology firm and leader in online gaming.

"We are particularly pleased with our third quarter results, as it shows that our core businesses remain robust," PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes said.

Valdes said the Philweb remitted a total of P921 million to PAGCOR through the 3rd quarter of 2010, representing the 60% PAGCOR share in the e-Games Internet Cafe and Internet Sports Betting Station businesses. He noted that the PAGCOR share for these businesses come with no capital expenditures or  operating expenses on their part,  thus the total remittance flows directly to the PAGCOR bottom line.

Remittances through October 31st have reached Ph1.1 billion. "We expect to remit over P1.3 billion to PAGCOR for 2010," stressed Valdes.

"We are also pleased with our businesses' performance at the start of the fourth quarter this year, which show continued growth. Thus, we remain confident that 2010 will be a record year for PhilWeb, both in terms of revenues and net income," said Valdes.

Source:

Philweb disclosure to PSE

October 29, 2010

SM City Novaliches Opens to Public!

SM City Novaliches opened to the public on Friday, 22 October 2010. The new 60,334 sqm mall Located along Quirino Highway in Barangay San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City.

It is SM Prime Holdings, Inc.'s 40th mall in the Philippines, its third mall in the
city, after SM City Fairview and SM City North Edsa. The new mall is estimated to have provided up to 4,000 new jobs.

SM Prime President Mr. Hans T. Sy said, “We warmly welcome all our valued customers to our newest and 40th mall, SM City Novaliches. The area of Quezon City continues to be a key expansion area for SM malls. This reinforces our confidence in the prospects of Quezon City given its vibrant population and burgeoning business sector.”

SM City Novaliches has a leasable area of 42,721 sqm. The mall’s anchor tenants are SM Supermarket, SM Department Store, SM Appliance Center, Ace Hardware, BDO, and Watsons. Other tenants include quick service restaurants Jollibee, KFC, McDonald’s, Mang Inasal, Shakey’s, and Pizza Hut; fashion and apparel retailers Bench, Penshoppe, Human, and Folded N Hung; and health and beauty salons Let’s Face It, Davids, Ricky Reyes, and GQ Barber, among others.

SM City Novaliches has a 500-seat food court, parking for over 1,200 vehicles, and a terminal for public utility vehicles. SM Prime malls in the Philippines command a total of 4.8 million sqm of mall space.

Source: PSE Disclosure
Oct 21, 2010

SM Prime to Open SM City Calamba

The Philippines’ dominant mall developer and operator, SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime), opened SM City Calamba October 15, 2010. SM's 39th shopping mall in the country and its third in the province of Laguna, after SM City Sta. Rosa and SM City San Pablo, SM City Calamba has a gross floor area of 66,516 square meters (sqm) and occupies 55,102 sqm of land.

The new mall’s anchor tenants are SM Supermarket, SM Department Store, SM Appliance Center, Ace Hardware, BDO, and Watsons. Other mall tenants include Jollibee, McDonald’s, KFC, Red Ribbon, Bench, Penshoppe, and National Bookstore. SM City Calamba, with a leasable area of 44,740 sqm, also offers a business center, a Cyberzone, and a food court that comfortably seats up to 340 diners. The mall has four cinemas with a combined seating capacity of about 1,200 and parking slots for over 300 vehicles.

SM Prime President Mr. Hans T. Sy said, “We are pleased to open the doors of our newest shopping mall, SM City Calamba. It is SM’s third mall in Laguna, a clear testament to the robust progress and development that the province has sustained. Laguna offers a large and diverse market driven by trade and tourism. SM is here to fully support the growth of this beautiful and very promising province.”

SM City Calamba followed the opening this year of SM City Tarlac and SM City San Pablo. With 39 malls all over the country, SM Prime has developed a combined GFA of 4.8 million sqm. Before the year ends, the company is set to open SM City Novaliches in Quezon City and its fourth mall in mainland China, which will be located in the city of Suzhou.


Source PSE Disclosure
October 14, 2010

Green Core allocates 40 MW of clean & affordable power to Visayas

Green Core Geothermal, Inc. (GCGI), a subsidiary of geothermal leader Energy
Development Corporation (EDC), will ensure that the provinces of Capiz, Iloilo and Aklan benefit from clean and affordable power for the next 12 years. The contract between GCGI and the Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO 1), Aklan Electric Cooperative (AKELCO) and Capiz Electric Cooperative (CAPELCO) guarantee long-term power supply for both residential and industrial customers of the three cooperatives.

Based on the contracts, GCGI will supply AKELCO with 18 MW for 2010 and 10 MW from 2011 to 2020. AKELCO services 17 municipalities in Aklan and two municipalities in Antique. ILECO 1, on the other hand, is assured of 3 MW from 2010 to 2012 and 18 MW from 2012-2022. ILECO 1’s franchise areas cover 15 municipalities. CAPELCO, meanwhile, will get 12 MW for the next 10 years to energize 17 cities and municipalities in Capiz.

Power will come from the 112.5-MW Tongonan 1 in Leyte and 192.5-MW Palinpinon plants in Negros Oriental which GCGI won in a bidding by PSALM last year.

The officers of the three cooperatives are one in saying that geothermal is the best option for them. “We’re very happy with this deal primarily because of the low rates of geothermal compared with other sources. It’s good that we get 70 percent of our supply from GCGI’s geothermal plants and only 30 percent from more expensive sources. We are able to provide both our residential and industrial customers with clean, stable and affordable power,” CAPELCO general manager Edgar Diaz said.

EDC President and COO Richard Tantoco reiterated that the pricing of indigenous renewable energy resource such as geothermal is not only independent of any indexation to movements in global energy indices but is also VAT zero rated.

Hence, ILECO 1 General Manager Wilfred Billena is confident that the contracts “will also result in lower power rates for us in Iloilo.” AKELCO General Manager Chito Peralta likewise expressed satisfaction with the agreement. “Getting power has always been a challenge for us because as you know, Aklan is located at the tip of the grid. Now Green Core will be able to augment the power supply of the province and encourage more tourists to visit Boracay.”

“We’re very glad to have ILECO 1, CAPELCO and AKELCO as partners in delivering cleanenergy to Iloilo and Aklan. EDC’s long-term contracts with them will support the growth needs of their respective provinces and customers with clean, reliable and affordable power. Since the industry is leaning more towards clean energy, EDC, with its 34-year head start in the geothermal business, is well positioned to address the supply shortage in the Visayas grid,” Tantoco said.

Source: PSE Disclosure Sept 30, 2010

Philippine Internet Metrics

Michael Alan Hamlin, managing director of TeamAsia, wrote in a Manila Bulletin article about Philippine Internet metrics. Highlights:

• The Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia will account for almost 90% of growth in online ad spend in Southeast Asia in the next five years
• The value of online advertising in the Philippines is expected to reach P1 billion this year
• 80% of an estimated population of 98 million – equivalent to some 72 million individuals – use mobile phones.
• The Philippines has the sixth highest number of mobile phone subscribers in Asia Pacific
• Filipinos send two billion SMS messages a day, more than anywhere else in the world
• Mobile telephony has clearly been embraced by economically challenged socioeconomic classes as an affordable and reliable way to interact with family and friends.
• Internet users – estimated at between 24 and 35 million – are disproportionately young, single, and surprisingly, poor.
• over 70% of Philippine Internet users go online at Internet cafés.
• 35% of Filipinos living in Cagayan de Oro accessed the Internet in the past month at the time of the survey.

Full story at Philippine Internet by the Numbers

PLDT Expands Network, Increases Capacity, Enhances resiliency

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) announced completion of another phase of its Digital Fiber Optic Network (DFON) expansion program. PLDT recently activated an additional 320 Gbps across six network loops nationwide to serve the rising demand for bandwidth as more customers increase their usage of broadband Internet and multi-media services. This increased the operating capacity of PLDT's DFON to more than 1,000 Gbps at a total cost of P600 million.

PLDT has also embarked on a P2.6B DFON network fortification program through establishment of loops within the loops to enhance network resiliency to protect the existing businesses of PLDT and to drive new businesses nationwide.

To date, PLDT already completed the third fiber optic cable leg to Baguio while the 1,220 Km third fiber optic cable leg between Lucena and Cebu traversing through Bicol, Masbate, Panay and Negros islands is expected to be completed middle of this year.

PLDT President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said:
"We are adding capacity to serve the fast growing needs of our customers for bandwidth. We are improving resiliency to ensure uninterrupted service, and adding density so that the network will be able to serve more communities in its footprint. These projects will spur growth in local economies by making these locations more attractive investment areas, especially for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) locators. Moreover, this will expand broadband coverage so that more Filipinos including those in the rural areas can connect to the world through the Internet."

PLDT Customer Service and Marketing Group Head and SVP Eric Alberto noted that the completion of the latest DFON expansion program will strengthen PLDT's leadership in the increasingly competitive broadband market.

Alberto said:
"Our superior backbone network will enable us to offer our customers the best possible user experience of broadband, particularly in such high-bandwidth services such as video and multimedia."

He added that PLDT's fiber optic transport network is augmented by the nationwide terrestial microwave backbone being operated by SMART.

With a total capacity of more than 120Gbps, SMART's microwave network is utilized to reach remote areas -- such as Tawi-twai in the South to Batanes in the North. On the West sode, it reaches Palawan from Batangas in Luzon and from Panay Island in Visayas. Bohol is also reached through multiple routes of SDH radio going to Cebu.

Aside from serving as an aggregate note to carry traffic to the nearest fiber optic node, microwave radios are also used as alternate routes for the crtical circuits passing through the major fiber-optic networks. Major backbone areas with both high-capacity fiber optics and high capacity microwave network covers Regions 1 and 2, Baguio to Bulacan, Bicol Regions, Panay to Negros to Cebu islands, Zamboanga to Ozamis and Cagayan de Oro to Davao up to Gen. Santos City.

These microware networks complement the higher capacity fiber-optic networks and are vital in delivering reliable SMART services across the country.


Source: PLDT Press Release Feb 25, 2010

Maynilad steps up projects and operations for El Nino

Maynilad is fast tracking key projects in its concession area's water supply to manage the effects of El Niño.

Maynilad intensified operations by increasing its teams of deployed engineers and contractors from 30 to over 90. This will enable recovery of around 40 million liters per day (MLD) of water, to partially offset the reductions in its raw water supply due to El Niño.

Maynilad is completing its Putatan Water Treatment Plant, which is scheduled to produce an initial 50 million liters of water per day (MLD) by May. The state-of-the-art treatment plant uses a multi-stage process of Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF), Microfiltration, Reverse Osmosis and Chlorination to ensure that the water from Laguna Lake passes the Department of Health (DOH)-issued Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW).

The West Zone concessionaire is working on the commissioning of its new Villamor pumping station by April. The Villamor facility has a reservoir that can store up to 10 million liters of water. It also has the capacity to pump water to the high areas in the southern portion of Maynilad’s concession area. In effect, the company can store water during off-peak hours and then pump the supply when customer demand is higher.

Maynilad serves over 7 million customers in Metro Manila and parts of Cavite. Its concession area includes the cities of Manila (excep portions of San Andres & Sta Ana), Quezon City (west of San Juan River, West Avenue, EDSA, Congressional, Mindanao Avenue, the northern part starting from the Districts of the Holy Spirit & Batasan Hills), Makati (west of South Super Hi-way), Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon all in Metro Manila, and the municipalities of Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario in Cavite Province

Source: Maynilad Press Release Feb 20, 2010

Maynilad undertakes massive leak repair program

In preparation for the long dry season, Maynilad is undertaking a massive leak repair program to lessen the effects of reduced rainfall on Metro Manila’s water supply. Maynilad earlier received a memorandum from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo directing the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to implement a 60-day suspension of all
regulations, ordinances, or other issuances that would restrict or prohibit the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and its concessionaires from conducting leak repairs.

With this directive, the water concessionaire can undertake a massive leak repair program to avert water shortage in Metro Manila and nearby areas. Maynilad is prepared to spend around P314 million on the said program which will address not only the simple vertical leaks (those involving customer meter assemblies) but also the leaks found along the company’s primary lines.

At the start of this year, Maynilad tallied a total of 2,965 leaks to be repaired, while receiving an average of 105 leak reports per day. The water company has a team of leak detection engineers and 30 contractors that will address water leaks in the West Zone.

After completion, the repair works are estimated to save as much as 40 million liters of water per day. Maynilad’s concession area covers the cities of Manila (all but portions of San Andres & Sta Ana), Quezon City (west of San Juan River, West Avenue, EDSA, Congressional, Mindanao Avenue, the northern part starting from the Districts of the Holy Spirit & Batasan Hills), Makati (west of South Super Hiway), Caloocan, Pasay, Paranaque, Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon all in Metro Manila; Cavite City, and the towns of Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario, all in Cavite Province.

To report pipe leaks and illegal connections in these areas, the public may call Maynilad Hotline 1626. The number is available 24/7.

Source: PSE Disclosure: Feb 8, 2010

Philweb

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PhilWeb Corp.(PSE:WEB), the country’s first listed online technology firm, confirmed that it set up a P1billion company that will operate mobile lottery games as part of a strategy to expand horizons.

Cliburn Anthony A. Orbe, WEB Chief Information officer confirmed, the new firm, PhilWeb Mobile Lottery Corp., was granted a certificate of incorporation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Its primary purpose is to operate either alone or in partnership with others mobile based lottery games and other related mobile game
offerings.