Author: Iselle Chua

The Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) has cleared the way for 3.79 million unbanked registrants to the national ID system to be part of the formal banking system as of May this year, in step with President Duterte’s goal of financial inclusion for all Filipinos. In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the LANDBANK said the onboarded 3,794,882 applicants for transaction accounts comprise 47 percent of the 8,047,034 individuals who had already registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) from 852 sites in 32 provinces. As of May 2021, LANDBANK president-CEO Cecilia Borromeo said 1,071,177 of the…

Filinvest REIT Corp. (FILREIT, formerly Cyberzone Properties, Inc.), the real estate investment trust (REIT) of Filinvest Land, Inc., has received a Permit to Sell from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its initial public offering of up to ₱12.6 billion. The base offer of the IPO is 1,634,187,850 common shares, with an overallotment option of up to 163,418,785 common shares at an offer price of ₱7.00 per share. At the current price, the projected dividend yield as stated in the REIT Plan is 6.3% for FY2021 and 6.6% for FY20221. FILREIT’s offer period is slated to run from July…

SEOUL, South Korea – AIZEN, an AI-focused fintech company based in Singapore, today has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire an e-commerce merchant cash management platform in Korea as part of its vertical date economy integration strategy. There are different types of retail e-commerce sites in Korea: open markets like Naver Smart Store; social commerce like Coupang; existing retail giants; and MZ-favored vertical platforms such as Musinsa, Brandi, and Zigzag. A seller typically diversifies their sales channels from nine to ten malls on average, and each mall settles the sales payment within nine to eleven days.…

What a fulfilling event for Cirtek Electronics Corporation (CEC)’s community garden to have finally reaped a produce of various green, leafy vegetables from its Garden of Life. After four (4) months of collective effort and labor in nurturing what used to be an idle garbage dump area of land, the dedicated employees now gathered the fruits of their cultivated garden. What is more heart-warming from this endeavor is the opportunity to share these products by selling to the employees for a very cheap price and by donating most of these to those who are required to undergo quarantine. This so-called…

Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc. (ACR) has listed with the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation (PDEx), an initial ₱1.4 billion of the Alcantara -led company’s Commercial Papers (CP) Program valued at up to ₱3.0 billion. The securities will be offered in one or more tranches within three years from 25 June 2021. Multinational Investment Bancorporation was the issue manager, arranger, and underwriter for the issuance; while Acuña and Francisco Law served as the transactional legal counsel, and AB Capital and Investment Corporation acted as the facility agent. Earlier this year, the issuance received a PRS A plus (corp.) issuer credit rating…

Leading building solutions provider Holcim Philippines, Inc. is investing Php 210 million in projects to reduce the fuel consumption and increase mineral additive usage of its cement plants in Bacnotan, La Union and Lugait, Misamis Oriental, as part of efforts to raise business and sustainability performance. Horia Adrian, President and CEO of Holcim Philippines, said the projects are part of the company’s commitment to continuously invest in its facilities to support the country’s progress and better serve customers. Furthermore, the projects will contribute to the company’s goal of making operations more sustainable. “More efficient operations will help us deliver better…

JAKARTA, Indonesia –  GoTo Group, the largest technology group in Indonesia and the “go to” ecosystem for daily life, today announces the appointment of Jacky Lo as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective June 7, 2021. Lo, who will be based in Jakarta and will report to GoTo Group CEO Andre Soelistyo, was previously the CFO of OneConnect Financial Technology, a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions and an affiliate of Ping An Insurance of China, for which he led its New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listing in 2019. Before that, he was the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Yum China…

DoubleDragon Properties Corp. subsidiary, DDMP REIT INC, sets the final offer price for its REIT IPO at ₱2.25 per share. The price is set at the top end of the range due to strong demand during the bookbuild process. At the price of ₱2.25 per share, the Projected Dividend Yield as stated in the REIT Plan is 5.07% for FY2021 and 5.45% for FY2022. The DDMP basket is seen to be a compelling REIT offering since it will include the land, a premier corner lot located along the main thoroughfares of Macapagal Avenue, EDSA Extension and Roxas Boulevard, where the…

Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company, has named Peter Kelaher as its country president for Australia and New Zealand. In his new role, Kelaher, who is currently Senior Vice President and Head of Property and Casualty (P&C) for Australia and New Zealand, will have executive operating responsibility for the company’s general insurance business, including commercial P&C, traditional and specialty personal lines, and accident and health insurance.  He will oversee all facets of the business including strategy, product and business development, underwriting and service operations, and profit and loss performance. The appointment is effective immediately. Kelaher…

Philippine-listed food and beverage kiosk operator Fruitas Holdings has secured 20 more locations for its community stores and is in final lease negotiations on another 20 locations. It is set to meet its target of expanding its community store network from 30 as of end-2020 to 100 by end of this year ahead of schedule. Fruitas opened a Soy & Bean community store in Malhacan Road, Meycauayan, Bulacan on January 21. This was Fruitas’ first community store outside Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. It also opened its second Soy & Bean community store in Makati last January 29, in Island…

Pakistan-headquartered digital lending platform Finja has closed $9 million of a $10 million Series A1 financing round, according to an announcement. This latest round brings in new investor ICU Ventures, with all previous institutional investors participating again including BeeNext, Vostok Emerging Finance, Quona Capital, and Gray MacKenzie Engineering Services. Under the terms of the financing, the company has the flexibility to raise an additional $1 million as part of this round. Finja subsidiaries operate under dual licensing regimes of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for its lending and digital payments…

A court in Kuwait has sentenced the female employer of slain overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Jeanalyn Villavende to death by hanging, according to the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait “According to the lawyer engaged by our Philippine Embassy in Kuwait, Fawziya Al Sabah, the Court’s decision was fair and in accordance to the law and Sharia as the accused assaulted OFW Villavende for days, and imprisoned her in a room until her death,” said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido Dulay. The husband of the employer was also sentenced to four years imprisonment because he tried to cover-up the crime. Villavende, who hailed…

Chinese biotechnology platform ImmVira Group Company has announced raising Series C funding led by Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund (GBA Fund). Octagon Capital, China Merchants Capital (through Hui Kang Equity Fund), WinDigital Capital, LanTing Capital, and OrbiMed were co-investors in the funding round, the company said. The Company’s existing investor GL Ventures, the venture capital arm of Hillhouse Capital, who invested in Series A Plus and Series B financings, also participated in this Series C round. O’Melveny & Myers acted as Company counsel with UBS and CICC as Financial Advisors. Founded in 2015, ImmVira is dedicated to the development of oncolytic…

Chinese digital healthcare technology firm DXY has raised $500 million financing led by Trustbridge Partners and backed by Tencent Investment and GL Ventures, according to an announcement. With the fresh funding, DXY will strengthen collaboration with professional doctors and enterprises so as to give play to the expertise of all sides and be a guide for healthy life, said DXY Founder and Chairman Li Tiantian. As Chinese people’s awareness of health and consumption rises and changes, the medical and health industry is accelerating its development in the online landscape.  In July 2020, DXY released a “dual-core strategy” that connects its…

Chinese AI industrial robotics startup Mech-Mind Robotics (Mech-Mind) has recently completed its B+ round of fundraising. Backed by Sequoia Capital China and Source Code Capital, the B+ round raised almost US$15 million, bringing the total amount raised across all rounds to approximately US$40 million. The success of this round reflects Mech-Mind’s rapid development, enormous potential, superior quality, and advanced technological solutions, the company said. Mech-Mind Robotics utilizes cutting edge deep learning, 3D vision and motion planning technology to put intelligence into industrial robots. The startup provides an all-in-one solution for industry end users looking to harness artificial intelligence in industrial robots. “We…

HONG KONG – Hang Lung Properties announced that Grand Hyatt, a luxury hotel brand under Hyatt, has been appointed to operate the company’s new luxury hotel in Kunming, Yunnan’s capital city in Southwest China. The new Grand Hyatt Kunming hotel is scheduled to open in mid-2023. Grand Hyatt Kunming will become part of the mixed-use Spring City 66 development in the heart of Kunming that comprises a shopping mall, a 66-story Grade A office tower, and luxury branded residences. Featuring 332 guestrooms and suites, state-of-the art amenities and extraordinary dining varieties, the hotel will cater to the most discerning corporate…

Philippine-listed food and beverage kiosk operator Fruitas Holdings Inc (FHI) announced the opening of its first franchised store in Dubai, marking its overseas expansion The store, operated under the Fruitas House of Desserts brand, started operations on December 1, 2020. The first Fruitas Holdings overseas kiosk is located inside BurJuman, a prime shopping mall in Dubai. The Fruitas House of Desserts outlet in Dubai offers several product lines such as fruit shakes, pearl shakes and milk tea, fresh fruit desserts, halo-halo and fresh lemonades. Fruitas offers fresh beverages and Filipino desserts to both locals and overseas Filipinos living in the…

Microsoft’s venture fund M12 has lead the Series A funding in Andor Health, the company that harnesses machine and human intelligence to change the way care teams connect and collaborate. Financial details of the funding round were not disclosed but Andor Health said M12’s investment comes as it has shown quick growth and success with ThinkAndor, its artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered virtual health program. “I am proud that Andor chose M12 to lead their Series A round. Their ML-powered virtual patient care platform is already demonstrating positive ROI for their customers, mitigating appointment drop-off and saving physicians time during…

Online Education Services (OES) has expanded its operations in the US, UK, and South African through a majority stake investment in Construct, an online learning design firm. Both companies combined serve learners in more than 190 countries to enable a fast, financially viable, and student-focused offering in online education. They work with education partners to develop world-class online programs that provide a rich and immersive learning experience. “The investment in Construct builds on our purpose to deliver quality online learning for partner universities and organizations, and their students, regardless of location,” said Denice Pitt, CEO of OES. “Our shared people-first focus…

Cebu-based retailer Metro Retail Stores Group, Inc. (MRSGI) posted a net loss of P421.87 million in the nine months of 2020, a reversal of the P398.19 million net income recorded in the same period last year. The net loss is driven by 12.1% decline in revenue to P22.22 billion from the previous P25.28 billion as MRSGI’s general merchandise business dipped by 47.1% against the same period last year, reeling from the impact of the pandemic and relate disruptions on consumer spending and customer traffic. Blended same store sales likewise contracted by 16.6% over the same period last year due to…