MANILA, Philippines—The pre-need industry’s net income rose 36.7 percent to P2.1 billion in 2021, as both sales value and volume increased. The latest Insurance Commission (IC) data showed that the total bottom line of the country’s 12 pre-need players last year climbed by over a third from P1.5 billion in 2020. Their combined premium income…
In previous columns, I highlighted how the pandemic affected the Philippine property sector. At the height of this crisis, we saw negative office take up, correction of condominium rents and prices, and decline in mall space rents due to substantial drop in consumer traffic. In the past quarter however, property developers and investors are aggressively…
Filipinos living or working abroad never faltered in their commitment to send more money back home despite the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, jacking up cash remittances to the Philippines to a fresh high of $31.4 billion in 2021. In a statement on Tuesday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said cash remittances coursed through banks rose…
The inflow of US dollars from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is shoring up the Philippines’ external position, with personal remittances growing 5.3 percent year-on-year in the 11 months ending Nov. 30 last year. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said January to November remittances reached in 2021 from $29.99 billion in the same period of…
The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (Campi) is expecting to end the year with a growth of around 20 percent, which they hope to raise even further in 2022. “By year-end, [we] expect around a 20-percent [growth],” said Campi president Rommel Gutierrez in a Viber message when asked for the group’s year-end…
Yuchengco-led construction firm EEI Corp. has returned to the local stock market for the first time in 14 years, raising P6 billion from a warmly received offering of preferred shares. EEI’s offering of series A and series B preferred shares, which ended on Dec. 15, had been oversubscribed by 4.85 times the base offer of…
The country’s largest conglomerate, SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), has filed a registration statement to raise as much as P15 billion from the offering of long-term peso-denominated bonds by February next year. These fixed-rate bonds will form the second tranche of its P30-billion debt securities shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Based on…
Banking giant BDO Unibank Inc. is preparing to raise another P5 billion in debt from a massive P365-billion bond program to partly finance its expansion. BDO, by the Sy family’s SM Group, disclosed plans to issue peso-denominated fixed-rate Asean sustainability bonds. The lender said in a stock exchange filing the proposed offer would run from…
Razon group-led International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has secured a for its Toamasina International Container Terminal in Madagascar, its first port terminal concession in the African continent, through 2040. ICTSI disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that its wholly-owned subsidiary Madagascar International Container Terminal Services Ltd. (MICTSL), which operates the port of…
A sharp earnings rebound awaits Philippine property firms in the next 12 to 24 months, driven by the recovery of mall rental revenues as well as the resumption of residential construction and selling activities, said First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp. First Metro Sec’s top picks in this favored sector are: “Our selection process is based…