September 1, 2010

GLOBE Asiatique has yet to start bookbuilding on Friday for its initial public offering, but already the aggressive real estate company has suffered a stunning setback that threatens to sink its capital-raising exercise.

The Pasay City Regional Trial Court on Friday issued a writ of preliminary attachment on Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings, president Delfin Lee, his son and chief financial officer Dexter Lee and a related real estate developer, based on a P1-billion fraud complaint filed by creditor Philippine National Bank.

PNB had lent nearly P1.4 billion to the lowcost developer since 2005, funding the real estate developments of the company which, in turn, used the homebuyers’ contracts to sell and related receivables as collateral for the facility.

The Lucio Tan bank said it was forced to declare Globe Asiatique in default after it discovered that at least 111 supposedly housing buyers were either non-existent or outright fraudulent.

“In falsely representing that (they have) valid and subsisting contracts to sell, defendants (Globe Asiatique and the Lees) evidently had no intention to pay for their loan obligations,” PNB told Pasay RTC Judge Pedro de Leon Gutierrez.

To placate PNB, Globe Asiatique proposed to apply its outstanding loan availments amounting to P151 million from contingent loan proceeds it hoped to receive from another subdivision project, a proposal that the PNB found inadequate.

Two months ago, Pag-IBIG Fund also announced that it had discovered 400 fraudulent housing loan applications in Globe Asiatique’s Xevera subdivision project in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

Those fraudulent loan applications, in turn, triggered the release of P300 million of Pag-IBIG money to Globe Asiatique.

Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee admitted the irregular housing loan applications, but insisted the company had already canceled the contracts and promised to make restitution to the government funding agency.

To defend itself from the PNB lawsuit, Lee also hired Marcos Ochoa Serapio & Tan, the former law firm of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

Globe Asiatique hoped to raise anywhere from P806 million to P1.24 billion for its listing, P300 million of which it planned to settle shortterm promissory notes it had obtained from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. for working capital.

RCBC earlier this year also agreed to extend a P2.5-billion loan to finance Globe Asiatique’s condominium venture, the GA Sky Suites in Quezon City. In return, Globe Asiatique awarded the P780-million construction contract for GA Sky Suites to RCBC’s sister company, EEI Corp.

The younger, Ateneo-educated Lee had also hoped to cash out, depending on the final share price, anywhere from P220 million to P340 million, from the secondary offering component of the IPO.

That multi-million windfall, part of the younger Lee’s inheritance, may now have been jeopardized as well.

August 30, 2010

ADD reboundable among the traits of GMA publicist Dante Ang.

Ang has just been contracted as a communications consultant by the new bosses of the cash-cow Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, with no less than chairman Margie Juico vouching for him.

“I knew him when I was still single as he was and is a friend of the family,” Juico said of Ang. “And I trust him.”

Juico, who was one of the closest aides of the late President Corazon Aquino and now of P.Noy, said Ang presented a communications plan to the PCSO board that slashed the agency’s budget by P100 million a year.

The plan was approved and so was Ang’s consultancy.

What is not generally known is that, instead of supporting Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s candidate Gilbert Teodoro, Ang helped in the P.Noy campaign after having cut off his ties with his political patron with a year left in her Malacañang tenure.

In any case, Ang is in good company.

Another PR consultant, Danilo Gozo, who served as the longest Pagcor director—seven years—under the GMA administration, is set to be appointed, knock on wood, as director of the Government Service Insurance System.

Like Ang, Gozo resigned from the gaming agency a year before GMA’s term ended; he was immediately drafted by Mar Roxas for his media team.

Gozo’s other card: he served as deputy press secretary under the Aquino 1 administration.

August 30, 2010

Those who bought Japan-made SUVs from January to July 2010 should be entitled to a duty-free windfall because of the free-trade treaty that kicked in this year, according to the Board of Investments.

To a buyer of a Mitsubishi Pajero, that translates into about P700,000 rebate.

Strangely, the Bureau of Customs is opposing the policy-making Board of Investments in its interpretation of the implementing rules of the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement.

According to the grapevine, Angelito Alvarez, the revenue-strapped new customs commissioner, is supporting his staff recommendation that the effectivity of the Jpepa rules only became effective starting August 2010, after their enactment and publication.

Mapua president Reynaldo Vea and a lady companion braved the emotionally-charged atmosphere in Hong Kong, flying into the Chinese territory Friday afternoon despite a massive rally being mobilized on Sunday against the Philippine government.

A group of four ticketed passengers are entitled to four airline seats, right? Not necessarily.

Despite already having paid for their airfares, three out of a family of four decided to forego their weekend trip to Hong Kong in deference to the territory’s sensibilities triggered by Monday’s tragedy.

One contrarian out of the four decided to go anyway, so as not to totally waste the small fortune handed to Cathay Pacific.

Instead of having the entire row to himself, the lone ranger found to his surprise the three adjoining seats occupied by other passengers.

It certainly was not a great way to start a flight.

August 25, 2010

DISMISSED Citibank Binondo private banking officer Francis Bryan Ang flew to Hong Kong on the afternoon of July 30, a Friday, and returned to Manila two days later, a Sunday.

It was not clear why the banker made a quick trip to the regional financial center while his career was imploding amid criminal and civil charges being filed by Citibank on what appears now to be a parallel Ponzi scheme perpetrated among the clueless multimillionaire clients of its Binondo branch.

Manila Councilor Bernie Ang, Ang’s father, spoke briefly to reporters Monday, but only to clarify that his 36-year-old son was “not guilty [and] not in hiding.”

Francis Bryan, a resident of Princeton St., Wack Wack Village, will come out at the proper time, “a powder keg ready to explode,” the father said.

The father maintained that it was Francis Bryan, a Xavier alumnus, who had actually tipped off his bank superiors about certain “anomalies” in the Binondo branch and that his son had even threatened to expose the same to the media.

In the meantime, the son was erasing whatever leads and connections the press could connect with him.

His TeamBryan Web page, detailing his unsuccessful bid last year for the presidency of the Alumni Association of Xavier School, was taken down last week and all references to his team, along with running mate, retired San Miguel executive Ramon Lapez Jr., removed from the Internet.

Banco Filipino had to issue a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange to deny that its vice chairman, former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr., ever said that the Bangko Sentral had granted permission to the suspended thrift bank from filing the annual financial reports.

“Our reason for not being able to file…is mainly due to the fact that our financial statements from 2002 to 2008 are yet to be completed by our external auditor,” said assistant bank manager Avelino Saba Jr., adding that the troubled bank’s business plan that had been approved by the Bangko Sentral “is yet (sic) for implementation.”

“Mr. Agustin must have misquoted the source,” Saba wrote PSE disclosure head Janet Encarnacion, in reaction to the Aug. 13 Cocktales item.

Actually, the source was none other than Yasay himself, volunteering that information on the witness stand before Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pimentel, who is trying the P3-billion libel suit filed by Banco Filipino against yours truly.

Yasay even added that he signed no contract or any appointment paper whatsoever—this he said also on oath—when he accepted an offer to become a Banco Filipino consultant starting in 2002.

Before that particular hearing, Yasay and fellow Banco Filipino lawyer, former Human Rights Commissioner Abelardo Aportadera, were doubling in laughter inside the courtroom listening to another Banco Filipino counsel, Tirso Gavero, detailing the alleged sexual proclivities of late Marcos Minister Manuel “Manda” Elizalde Jr.

But details of that talk are so tasteless for Cocktales to repeat them in rint.

Former Bataan Representative Felicito Payumo clarified that although his name was included in the witness list for the Terminal 3 arbitration proceedings, he never went to Singapore at all.

Payumo said only his written testimony was obtained for the Singapore hearings, he being the principal author of the Build Operate Transfer Law upon which the original Terminal 3 contract was based.

“I was careful to emphasize that the B-O-T Law did not give direct government guarantee to the loan of the project proponent [Piatco],” Payumo said.

In addition to developing a number of real estate projects and a mountainous resort in Bataan, Payumo is also the chairman of the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga, which is owned by his in-laws.

August 23, 2010

ECONOMIC diplomacy and foreign relations are not P. Noy’s strong cards, and that is probably why Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima had already obtained Palace approval for the appointment of US lobbying firm Apco to lay the public relations groundwork for next month’s visit of President Aquino to the United States.

According to the grapevine, Purisima had already persuaded Bangko Sentral Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. to share the costs of the US lobbyist’s contract, and to charge the consultancy expenditure to the government’s investor relations program.

Though quite late in the day, Apco, in whose board sits Philippine-friendly former US congressman Stephen Solarz, has also been retained to prepare the communications requirements for the Vietnam and Asean trips of Aquino.

It was not immediately clear how much Apco was charging the Aquino administration for the 11th-hour consultancy arrangement, which includes such mundane tasks as preparing background press materials and arranging press interviews of the Aquino delegation.

The Malaysian experience may provide a regional yardstick.

The government of Prime Minister Najib Razak was forced to reveal earlier this year that it had already spent RM$77 million (about $24 million) for Apco’s services; an Apco disclosure, on the other hand, put the figure much lower, saying it was being retained by Kuala Lumpur for about $70,000 a month, plus $20,000 in expenses, to promote Malaysia’s image and strengthen Malaysia-US relations.

In any case, Manila would have a ready and competitive benchmark.

The lobbying contract that then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had contracted with another US lobby firm, Burson-Marsteller, had cost the government $1 million a year.