Pinoy Entrepreneurs

Heavily-indebted state grains agency National Food Authority (NFA) raised P9 billion through the sale of 10-year Treasury bonds (T-bond) in an auction yesterday and will use a tap facility to secure another P1.5 billion more from the same debt paper.

“We will request for the opening of the tap window for another P1.5 billion,” NFA assistant administrator for finance and administration Celia Tan said.

Banks’ offers for the float totalled P10.43 billion with the awarded debt papers bearing a coupon rate of 6.375 percent.

The NFA will seek a total of P27 billion this year to cover losses mostly from subsidy schemes on rice prices that could reach P30 billion.

The NFA said it would need P16.5 billion more outside the float that could be raised through the sale of more debt papers or through direct loans.

Average rate of the debt paper stood at 5.96 percent, lower than the 5.42 percent of the benchmark five-year PDST-F, which is defined by the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEX) as the “average of the best 60 percent of firm bid rates posted by market-making banks for 12 tenors at 11:16 a.m. daily.”

Tan told reporters after the auction that proceeds of the bond sale will be used for their operational requirement as well as prepayment of loans.

She said the pricing was “very good” and the appetite was high after total bids reached P10.4 billion against their initial target of P5 billion.

The NFA hopes to raise another P1.5 billion from the tap window either tomorrow or Thursday for government securities eligible dealers (GSEDs).

“We will refresh the opening of the tap window for us to get another P1.5 billion,” she said.

Tan said they have other options like bilateral loans to get funds but they prefer selling debt paper.

“The rate is good (so we want to maximize this),” she said.

Source: TheDailyTribune
Photo Credit: John Javellana

TOKYO
Japanese share prices closed down on Thursday on profit taking amid quiet trade, dealers said.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index lost 72.71 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 9,668.96. The broader Topix index of all first section shares fell 3.51 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 910.99.

KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysian shares rose 0.81 per cent on Thursday due to bargain hunting on selected blue chips, dealers said.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index gained 8.57 points to end at 1,063.97.

Advancers outnumbered decliners 363 to 217.

A trader said market activity was lower than recent averages, at 1.3 billion shares, due to the traditional school holidays and a scarcity of large funds activity.

Even though volume was not very large, there was a bit of bargain hunting today after yesterdays losses, with market speculation of possible corporate deals fuelling buying interest in some stocks, a dealer told Dow Jones Newswires.

The bourse was expected to trade in 1,045-1,070 range Friday.

Advancers included Tenaga, which rose 3.3 percent to 7.80 ringgit, while Bumi-Commerce added 1.2 per cent to 8.65.

HONG KONG
Hong Kong share prices closed 0.40 per cent lower on Thursday, as investors sold up following recent rallies, dealers said.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 73.70 points to end the day at 18,502.77. Turnover was 83.04 billion Hong Kong dollars (S$15.4 billion).

SHANGHAI
Chinese shares closed down 0.41 per cent on Thursday due to profit taking after four consecutive sessions of gains, dealers said.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers A and B shares, was down 11.35 points to 2,767.24 on turnover of 179.5 billion yuan (S$37.9 billion).

The Shanghai A-share index fell 11.91 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 2,904.74 on turnover of 179.0 billion yuan, while the Shenzhen A-share index rose 0.37 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 967.71 on turnover of 83.3 billion yuan.

Source: AFP, BERNAMA

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine exports in January are seen to plunge by a third, the median average of analysts’ estimates said.

Owing to the downturn experienced by the Philippines’ major trading partners, exports will continue to drop by double digit levels, a GMANews.TV poll of three economists said.

January exports likely contracted by 31 percent, slightly better than December’s unprecedented 40 percent slump, the poll said.

However, David Cohen of Action Economics expects December’s export levels to match January’s figures. Cohen’s forecast is a 40 percent export decline in January.

While he remains open to the possibility of an export recovery in the second half, there is “no guarantee that local shipments sold abroad will increase.

For his part, Victor Abola, an economist at the University of Asia and the Pacific, expects a 24-percent decline in January.

“The global downturn is expected to hit us hardest in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year, Abola said.

But the worse case scenario was given by the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) which gave a forecast of 48.1 percent slump.

Exports earnings are expected to plunge “after purchases from key markets collapsed, DBS said in its research note.

Exports data will be announced by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday.

Import data from Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand showed a marked acceleration in the year-on-year decline in imports from the Philippines, said DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank.

DBS said that Japan, the Philippines’ second largest export market, bought 36.4 percent less than a year ago while China, its third export destination cut imports by a “massive 71.3 percent.

In December 2008, the NSO said, exports posted its weakest at a 40.4 percent drop. It even surpassed the 25.75 percent decline recorded in August 2001.

Electronic products, which accounted 50 percent of the export revenues in December, fell by 47.6 percent year-on-year to $1.34 billion from $2.55 billion.

Reference: GMANews.TV

MANILA, Philippines – A legislator proposed to install devices that would monitor the number of text messages in all Philippine cellphones, a move that could earn additional revenues for the government.

Besides allowing prepaid subscribers to determine their phone credits (or “load”), the metering system would also provide accurate figures of earnings of telecommunications firms, a legislator said.

If two billion text messages are sent in a day, a five-centavo text fee will translate to P100 million a day in government revenue, Quezon Province Representative Danilo E. Suarez told reporters.

The said amount, which translates into P3 billion a month or P36 billion a year, can be used to put up computer labs with 50 internet-ready PCs in all public schools, he added.

The same funds could even help put up computer labs for private schools at no cost to them, he said.

Under his proposal, the NTC will order telecommunications to remit five centavos for every transaction.

For their part, mobile operators would be unable to pass this fee on to consumers since texts will be pegged at 50 centavos.

Suarez filed House Resolution 282, which intends to look into the possibility of installing metering devices to monitor revenues of telecommunication firms in their database such as e-loading, sale of pre-paid cards, text messaging, and interconnection fees.

“I think there are several layers of revenue streams not being captured,” he said, adding that his proposal “is not a tax but a fee.”

Meanwhile, the metering device could be acquired by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) for $30 million, he said.

“This is not a tax but a fee. If I go to legislative process, this will be already goodbye. I can only ask National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to impose fees for their own use so we can monitor the revenue,” he said.

In turn, computer labs established by the said funds “will help promote user-confidence with students in all levels,” he said. “The computer lab can also be used as an instructional facility for adults who are interested to learn about computers and the Internet.”

For his part, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) President Edgardo G. Lacson said consultations with mobile phone firms on “financial, technical and practicability of the plan must be conducted to identify other concerns that might disrupt the service.”

“Putting a metering device among the telcos is no different than the cash registers in the supermarkets, food establishments and retail stores and taxi meters. It does not ssem to violate the privacy of personal communication,” he told GMANews.TV. -

Reference: GMANews.TV