The privately held technology company behind the PayMaya mobile wallet successfully raised , or over P8 billion, to fund its expansion and an upcoming digital bank. Voyager Innovations said on Monday the money came from existing investors PLDT Inc., China’s Tencent, global investment firm KKR and the International Finance Corp., through IFC Financial Institutions Growth…
The big-ticket infrastructure projects currently rolled out by the government will create an additional 1.6 million jobs this year, President Duterte’s infrastructure managers said on Wednesday. Public Works Secretary Mark Villar told the Asia Infrastructure Forum 2021 the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program had so far created as public infrastructure spending was doubled to 5…
As the Philippines rebounds from the pandemic, strengthening labor market programs will be critical to help workers and enterprises make the transition. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines was experiencing its longest-ever economic and job expansion. There was remarkable growth in wage and salary employment (a measure of modern employment), growing at an average…
The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday raised a bigger P21 billion from short-dated treasury bills as rates declined across the board due to stable inflation and improving economic prospects. The Treasury was supposed to sell only a total of P15 billion or P5 billion each across the three tenors but it doubled the award…
Aboitiz-led UnionBank of the Philippines (UBP) grew its first quarter net profit by 79 percent year-on-year to P4.7 billion on the back of higher interest earnings and hefty trading gains. This performance translated to a robust return on equity of 18.1 percent, the bank told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday. “Our strong financial performance…
The Board of Investments (BOI) saw a 66-percent increase in investment commitments from January to March to P138 billion from P83 billion in the same period last year, a top official said in a recent online briefing with Chinese companies, as he encouraged firms that were already in the Philippines to expand and diversify their…
Taking over the helm of a multi-billion-peso company is challenging enough in the best of times, certainly even more so at the beginning of a raging pandemic that would cause an unprecedented public health and economic crises. Such a prospect would have daunted other candidates from immediately embracing their new role of chief executive…
As the Philippines deals with a new surge of Covid-19 cases, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty reminiscent of early 2020, three businesses share their tips on how local enterprises can fully recover from this pandemic: be aware of fundamental changes in consumer behaviors, leverage technology to cater to these behaviors, and, above all, always put…
Over a year into the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, the Aboitiz Group is ready to march toward recovery with renewed —yet prudent—optimism. Like most other organizations, the Aboitiz Group encountered setbacks last year given quarantine restrictions that have dampened consumer demand and investor appetite. And yet the group’s strategic business units (SBUs) that operate in various…
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Philippine companies, including the Ayala group, were already working on programs around the evolving, expanded role of private institutions in society. And that expanded role is to help address the pain points of the community at large, and of the nation even—not just of our shareholders—and to be more…