The Wutz Up in the Philippines!

Ayala Corp., the country’s largest business group, on Wednesday disclosed that its business process outsourcing investment arm has acquired a US-based “strategic research and decision support firm”.

The acquisition of Grail, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts was done through Integreon, owned by Ayala’s BPO investment arm LiveIt Investments. Grail was acquired from Monitor Group, a global advisory, capability-building and capital services firm.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Among Grail’s clients are Microsoft, cosmetics giant Estee Lauder and majority of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies.

Read more>>

Japan firm eyes Lopez holding firm.

MANILA, Philippines–The Ayala conglomerate is interested in investing in the Lopezes’ geothermal crown jewel Energy Development Corp. (EDC) as part of its foray into the renewable energy business.

ndustry sources told the Inquirer that Ayala Corp. was studying the possibility of coming in as a minority stockholder in EDC, but could not say whether the 175-year-old conglomerate had started active negotiations with the Lopez family for a portion of EDC’s holding company Red Vulcan Holdings Corp.

Read more..

Ayala-led Manila Water Co. will soon be awarded the water concession for the Boracay tourist haven this month, the Tourism department yesterday said.

Tourism chief Joseph H. Durano said the government had decided to privatize the island’s water system and that Manila Water would be awarded the concession contract after the Holy Week break.

After that, the utility primarily in-charge of providing water to Metro Manila’s eastern zone should begin upgrading Boracay island’s water and sewerage system.

read more…

Ayala Corp., the country’s biggest and oldest conglomerate, said consolidated net income for 2008 slumped 50 percent from P16.2 billion to P8.1 billion.

Total revenues rose by half a percent from P78.77 billion to P79.11 billion.

The lower income resulted from the P2.4 billion drop in equity earnings from affiliates and the P5 billion drop in other income which represented earnings from sale of a building in 2007.

Read Full Story

For two years until end of 2008, nearly P130 billion worth of bonds was issued by fewer than 50 companies. The amount looks impressive but according to Cesar Crisol, managing partner of Philippine Dealing Exchange, it is nowhere close to the size of bonds issued in the trillions (of pesos) by neighboring countries. The size of the Philippine bond market is a suggestion that it is still far from being fully developed.But there are signs that there is a slowly growing market for bonds, Crisol says, even as he mentions a host of problems.

Vicente “Teng” Castillo, president of PDEx, chimed in and said the bond market is growing slowly.

Read Full Story