PLDT open to investing in GMA, says Pangilinan posted December 23, 2016 at 07:35 pm by Darwin G. Amojelar

The group of PLDT Inc. said on Friday it is open to revive its bid to invest in GMA Network Inc.
“We don’t know yet, we intend to focus on looking at our 2017, 2018 and 2019 numbers. So anyway, if there’s any discussions this will be 2017. [But] we are always open, a lot would be depend on how our numbers would like for 2017, 2018 and 2019,” PLDT chairman and chief executive Manual Pangilinan told reporters Friday.
“I’m quite optimistic that 2017 will show improvement over 2016,” he added.
PLDT, partly owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. of the Salim Group of Indonesia and Japan’s NTT group, earlier booked a net income of P15.87 billion in the first nine months, down 37 percent from P25.34 billion year-on-year.
Pangilinan had described the financial result “annus horribilis,” or a horrible  year.
GMA chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon earlier said he was open to entertain suitors by next year for the sale of a majority stake in the broadcasting network.
The Gozon, Jimenez and Duavit families own a combined 79 percent of the network, which airs on Channel 7 on free TV, while QTV is co-owned by ZOE Broadcasting Network
Majority shareholders of the broadcaster earlier agreed to sell about 30 percent of the company to businessman Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp., but the negotiations were scuttled after more than one year of talks. Talks with the group of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. also did not push through due to price and regulatory issues.
Ang earlier accused the owners of GMA of abruptly terminating the plan to sell a minority stake in the broadcast company while talks were ongoing, after the network blamed him for the failed negotiations.
GMA Network vice president for corporate communications Angela Javier Cruz said the Jimenez, Duavit and Gozon groups had not abruptly terminated the negotiations.
Cruz said the owners of the network were constrained to terminate the negotiations  after more than one year of negotiations.
GMA earlier reported a net income of P3.11 billion in the January-to-September period, up 72 percent from P1.80 billion year-on-year.
GMA’s consolidated revenues amounted to P12.80 billion, up 24 percent over the same period last year, buoyed by the windfall from the recently concluded national and local elections and supplemented by the improvement in sales from recurring placements.

NEDA says investment body could meet in Jan.

AFTER the cancellation of an Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) Cabinet Committee meeting set for Dec. 1, the next one could be set for the second week of January with eight projects awaiting approval, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

“Maybe second week of January,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of a briefing.

The ICC is an interagency committee which evaluates the fiscal, monetary and balance of payments implications of major national projects and makes recommendations to the President on how the projects are to be implemented.

The ICC Secretariat, in an e-mail, said the following projects are awaiting ICC-CC deliberations:

• The 100-megawatt Isabela Coal Mine and Power Plant (formerly 50 MW Isabela Coal Mine-Mouth Power Plant) under the Department of Energy (DoE) and Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) with an estimated cost of P11.52027 billion.

• The Integrated Flood Control, Coastal Defense, and Expressway Project of Manila Bay of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with an estimated cost of P5.03454 billion. The project is intended to protect the bay region from storm surges, among other hazards. 

• The North-South Railway Project (NSRP)-South Line of the Department of Transportation (DoTr) with an estimated cost of P170.699 billion.

• The proposed One-Year and Six-Months Loan Extension, Reallocation of Loan Proceeds, Increase in Loan Financing Percentage for Civil Works and Consulting Services, And Revision in the Results Framework and Appraisal Document for the Participatory Irrigation Development Project (PIDP) of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) with an estimated cost of P5.111 billion.

• The East-West Rail Project of the Philippine National Railways with an estimated cost of P46.439 billion.

• The Local Government Unit Investment Programme Supplement III (LIP III) of the Land Bank of the Philippines with an estimated cost of P231.210 million

• The Proposed One-Year Extension of Implementation Period and Validity Period for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) Loans of the Agrarian Reforms Communities Project II (ARCP II) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) with an estimated cost of P8.647 billion.

• The proposed Loan Cancellation of the Market Transformation Through The Introduction of Energy Efficient Electric Vehicles of the DoE with an estimated cost of P21.5 billion

Meanwhile, two projects awaiting deliberations at the ICC-Technical Board level are:

• The Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 North Extension Common Station of the DoTr with an estimated cost of P1.39965 billion.

• The Maritime Disaster Response Helicopter Acquisition of the DoTr and the Philippine Coast Guard with an estimated cost of P5.62954 billion.

Finally, the Philippine Travel Center Complex Project under the Department of Tourism Intramuros Administration costing an estimate of P1.75 billion is still pending for NEDA Board approval.

“Usually, whatever the ICC proposes to the NEDA Board, they will all be approved,” said Mr. Pernia.

To date, 17 projects have been approved by the NEDA Board since June this year. -- Danica M. Uy

Govt, 4 companies set to launch MRT station

The Transportation Department expects to complete the construction of a common station that will link Metro Manila’s overhead train system in Quezon City by the middle of 2019, after four conglomerates agreed to the government’s proposal.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the formal signing for the construction of common station for Light Rail Transit Line 1, Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and the planned MRT Line 7 was expected before the end of the year.

“It will be a go and we will finish it in two-and-a-half years. That has been pending for the last seven years,” Tugade said.

SM Group’s Hans Sy, Ayala Corp.’s Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, San Miguel Corp.’s Ramon Ang, Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s Manuel Pangilinan and Tugade signed an agreement in September to build the common station for LRT 1, MRT 3 and the planned MRT 7.

Under the agreement, the stakeholders agreed on the final location for the unified station for LRT 1, MRT 3 and MRT 7, which should be in the vicinity of EDSA and North Avenue.

The Common Station at the TriNoma will connect the LRT-1, MRT-3, and the future MRT-7 line. The project will also involve construction of head-to-head platforms for LRT 1 and MRT 3 with a 147.4-meter elevated “walkalator” to MRT 7 on North Avenue.

They also agreed to set  a reasonable timetable for the design, preparation, construction and commission of the unified station.

The Transportation Department and the Light Rail Transit Authority acknowledged SM’s naming and inter-connectivity rights to the united station as provided in its memorandum of agreement dated September 28, 2009.

The Public Works Department assured an underpass in the area would seamlessly integrate with the common station. The common station project started in 2009 but was put on hold by the Aquino administration.