Profriends partner with Globe in BPO Development

Property Company of Friends Inc., (Pro-Friends) remains a trailblazer in the Philippine real estate industry with its newest master-planned 25-hectare commercial, business and lifestyle township community called Downtown Lancaster, located right in the heart of the 1,400-hectare Lancaster New City in General Trias, Cavite.

Downtown Lancaster is composed of two major developments: Suntech iPark and The Square. Suntech iPark is Cavite’s first BPO office development which will house 17,500 BPO employees, while The Square is the commercial and retail section that will complement the needs of Suntech iPark and nearby residences. Downtown Lancaster will be delivered in phases: Phase 1 will cover the construction of four BPO buildings and seven retail buildings while Phase 2 will be the development of the remaining seven BPO buildings and ten retail buildings.

With this major development, Pro-Friends has turned to Globe Business, the information and communications technology (ICT) arm of Globe Telecom and preferred ICT partner of the country’s top BPO companies, for its connectivity requirements, specifically for its wireline data services. Globe Business is expected to provide secure, fast, and cutting-edge connectivity for thousands of BPO employees as well as the different commercial and retail establishments in Downtown Lancaster.

Formalizing the partnership between Globe and Pro-Friends are Globe Chief Technology and Information Officer Gil Genio (2nd from the left) and Pro-Friends Senior Executive Vice President Jocelyn Guzman (3rd from the left). With them are Globe New Projects Development Head Jessie Alano (leftmost) and Pro-Friends Vice President for Commercial and Retail Development Karen Parungo (rightmost).

“We put our trust in Globe Business because we believe that our employees and retail tenants will experience reliable and seamless service,” shared Pro-Friends Vice President for Commercial and Retail Development Karen Parungo. “We are very excited for the partnership and we look forward to the different ways Globe Business can help improve our operations.”

Globe Chief Technology and Information Officer Gil Genio noted that enterprise customers will soon benefit from the company’s network transformation program, which is set to modernize its wireline data network. “Customers like Pro-Friends which is expanding to build a BPO hub in Cavite will definitely experience connectivity that is up to par with first-world countries, as we embark on another infrastructure build that will enhance the internet experience within homes and businesses.”

In 2015, Globe Business has driven the revenue growth of leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) companies in the Philippines based on statistics by Call Center Focus. It has served the country’s top IT-BPO companies, seven of which were in the top 10 earners in terms of revenue in Philippine peso (Php) Billions. In addition, Globe Business also recorded an 81% penetration of IT-BPO companies that are provided with business products and solutions.

Source: Business Inquirer

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Profriends get boost from new partner

GT CAPITAL Holdings, Inc., the holding company for tycoon George S.K. Ty’s businesses, is raising its stake in mass housing developer Property Company of Friends, Inc. (PCFI) starting this year.

GT Capital President Carmelo Maria Luza Bautista said in a mobile phone message last week the conglomerate will exercise its option to increase its direct ownership in the real estate firm to 51%.

“The plan is to increase first to 42% within the first half of the year and then to 51% by the first quarter of next year,” Mr. Bautista said.

In August last year, GT Capital signed an agreement to acquire 22.68% of PCFI for P7.24 billion, subject to closing conditions, with an option to boost its stake to 51% within the next three years.

Profriends Group, Inc., which was planning on undertaking a P7.7-billion initial public offering (IPO), owns 98.51% of the issued and outstanding capital of PCFI, an affordable housing firm.

Asked if PCFI will pursue the IPO, Mr. Bautista said: “Not in the near future.”

Based on its previous filing, Profriends was planning to sell 385.750 million primary common shares, representing 11% of the company’s outstanding capital stock, at maximum price of P20 apiece to finance the development of its projects and land banking initiatives.

Profriends obtained the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the equity offering, but failed to secure the go-signal from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

Profriends had tapped First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) as its underwriter for the IPO. FMIC is the investment banking arm of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., which is part of GT Capital.

PCFI netted P2.1 billion last year after booking P7 billion in total revenues. GT Capital started consolidating its financial performance in September.

“GT Capital’s recent acquisition of PCFI further expands the group’s range of products and market presence in the property development sector,” Federal Land, Inc. Chairman Alfred V. Ty said in a statement last week.

Aside from Federal Land and Metrobank, GT Capital has interests in Toyota Motor Philippines Corp.; Toyota Manila Bay Corp.; Toyota Cubao, Inc.; Toyota Financial Services Philippines Corp.; Global Business Power Corp.; Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp.; and Charter Ping An Insurance Corp.

The conglomerate reported a 32% uptick in bottomline to P12.1 billion last year from P9.2 billion in 2015, driven by the strength of its automotive and power generation businesses.

Shares in GT Capital added P16 or 1.12% to close at P1,450 each last Wednesday.

Source: Business World

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GT Capital increases investments in Profriends

GT CAPITAL Holdings, Inc., the holding company for tycoon George S.K. Ty’s businesses, is raising its stake in mass housing developer Property Company of Friends, Inc. (PCFI) starting this year.

GT Capital President Carmelo Maria Luza Bautista said in a mobile phone message last week the conglomerate will exercise its option to increase its direct ownership in the real estate firm to 51%.

“The plan is to increase first to 42% within the first half of the year and then to 51% by the first quarter of next year,” Mr. Bautista said.

In August last year, GT Capital signed an agreement to acquire 22.68% of PCFI for P7.24 billion, subject to closing conditions, with an option to boost its stake to 51% within the next three years.

Profriends Group, Inc., which was planning on undertaking a P7.7-billion initial public offering (IPO), owns 98.51% of the issued and outstanding capital of PCFI, an affordable housing firm.

Asked if PCFI will pursue the IPO, Mr. Bautista said: “Not in the near future.”

Based on its previous filing, Profriends was planning to sell 385.750 million primary common shares, representing 11% of the company’s outstanding capital stock, at maximum price of P20 apiece to finance the development of its projects and land banking initiatives.

Profriends obtained the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the equity offering, but failed to secure the go-signal from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

Profriends had tapped First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) as its underwriter for the IPO. FMIC is the investment banking arm of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., which is part of GT Capital.

PCFI netted P2.1 billion last year after booking P7 billion in total revenues. GT Capital started consolidating its financial performance in September.

“GT Capital’s recent acquisition of PCFI further expands the group’s range of products and market presence in the property development sector,” Federal Land, Inc. Chairman Alfred V. Ty said in a statement last week.

Aside from Federal Land and Metrobank, GT Capital has interests in Toyota Motor Philippines Corp.; Toyota Manila Bay Corp.; Toyota Cubao, Inc.; Toyota Financial Services Philippines Corp.; Global Business Power Corp.; Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp.; and Charter Ping An Insurance Corp.

The conglomerate reported a 32% uptick in bottomline to P12.1 billion last year from P9.2 billion in 2015, driven by the strength of its automotive and power generation businesses.

Shares in GT Capital added P16 or 1.12% to close at P1,450 each last Wednesday.

Source: Business World

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ALI bags P4B ITS-South terminal project

MANILA, Philippines – Ayala Land Incorporated (ALI) has been awarded the P4-billion ($84-million) Integrated Transport System South Terminal project of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

In August, the firm sought a P278-million ($5.89-million) annual grantor payment (AGP) – a fee the government will pay the winning concessionaire. ALI's offer was lower than the amount sought by its rival, Filinvest Land, Incorporated.

“This is the second ITS Project that we have awarded. Our goal here is to give passengers coming from the south seamless transfers to other modes of transportation, as well as help decongest traffic in the metro,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said in a statement on Monday, November 16.

Under the 35-year concession agreement for the project, ALI will operate and maintain a terminal for Manila-bound commuters coming from Laguna and Batangas.

The firm will be responsible for the terminal's design and construction, to be situated in a 5.57-hectare property along FTI Compound in Taguig City.

Construction is scheduled to begin in August 2016, with completion expected in January 2018.

The terminal is expected to be operational by February 2018.
Source: Rappler.com

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Work where you live

Every Filipino visiting Tokyo should nurse an envy at the sight of a metropolis so well governed.

I frequented this city many times in the past. Each time I visit, the city seems to be cleaner and more efficient.

Tokyo has about the same population as Metro Manila, although it is easy to imagine her population shuffles about more intensively than people do here. The reason is simple: they can.

As a victim of Manila’s horrendous traffic jams, it was a thrill last week to actually go to four separate places in Greater Tokyo between lunch and dinner. In Manila, one can no longer have four appointments in different places in one afternoon.

Even during rush hours, traffic moves in Tokyo. The reason for this, apart from a thoroughly developed subway system, Tokyo just kept on building elevated expressways crisscrossing the metropolitan area. In many places, there are as many as four decks of elevated roadway in this city.

Five days in this city, I have not seen a single traffic enforcer. There is simply no need for them in a place where everyone so scrupulously observes the rules.

Even in small alleys, there are pedestrian stoplights. Needless to say, they, too, are scrupulously observed.

No one smokes in the streets of Tokyo these days. One may smoke only in specifically designated cubicles equipped with air filters.

No one litters in the streets of this city – not because there are stiff fines as in Singapore but because that is the right thing to do. Notwithstanding, the streets are washed every night.

Tokyo sets a high standard for how a metropolis ought to be governed. Future infra needs are anticipated and set in place before congestion happens. The Japanese are proud of their trains, and for good reasons. Japan Railways reports a cumulative delay of only a few seconds for all its train services each year. A breakdown in the rail system, which happens regularly with the MRT, will be a national scandal soothed only by the resignation of the top rail officials.

Because this is such a well-governed metropolis, productivity is imaginably high. Urban efficiency and high productivity constitute a virtuous cycle. The key to that is the quality of governance provided.

Metropolitan Manila and Metropolitan Tokyo are on two ends of the spectrum of urban governance. A four-hour flight took me from one extreme to the other.

The descent back to the Third World was quick. Back at the Manila airport, I saw passengers wrapping their baggage in duct tape to protect from thieves and extortionists. Phone calls dropped. Internet service was slow. The streets were grimy. Governance remains substandard.

Close to midnight, traffic was still at a crawl. I looked at the forlorn faces of commuters unable to get a ride. I knew I was home.  

Townships

If Metro Manila had a reliable rail service, it would be easy for much of the city’s working population to live out of the city.

An efficient rail system explains why there are few high-density housing complexes within Metropolitan Tokyo itself. Because Metro Manila failed to build an efficient mass transit system, the trend here is towards high-rise, high-density mass housing. Meanwhile, the urban transport system remains primitive, producing the traffic nightmare we now endure daily.

Since we are not about to build a comprehensive mass transit system in the foreseeable future, the next best solution to the problem is to build townships that are as self-contained as possible. One such township is the Lancaster New City now being built over 1,107 hectares in Kawit and General Trias in Cavite province. The Property Company of Friends or Pro-Friends is engineering this sprawling project.

For years, our housing developers have been building low-cost housing projects in the provinces surrounding Metro Manila. The economists at Pro-Friends, however, realized that people who buy in these housing developments continue to commute to the city for work, spending a large bulk of their income on transportation.

The Lancaster New City, with its scale, is planned to attract BPO companies to its property development so that jobs will be available to people who invest in housing in the community. BPO companies, after all, are trying to disperse out of the city to bring down costs and attract more talent.

With jobs brought closer to the homes, residents will now be spending less on transport and more for raising their quality of life. This is, no doubt, an attractive proposition for those wishing to flee the infernal traffic jams in the metropolitan area.

Pro-Friends, with this project, sets a new standard for property development. The challenge now is to build economically self-sustaining communities, reducing the need to travel to work and reducing the carbon footprint for residents.

It is an attractive proposition for me to be sure, considering how much gas I consume daily and how much exasperation I endure getting to and from work. It will be an attractive proposition for the younger generation seeking lifestyles with a smaller carbon footprint.

This economically contained township concept will have to be planned on a certain scale. It is a project scale that requires robust financing.

Fortunately for Pro-Friends and their ambitious township project, a large banking conglomerate found the idea of a self-contained community an attractive and viable one. This banking group took out a stake in Pro-Friends, bringing the Lancaster New City development several steps closer to completion.

With our banking system now able to finance large developments in a lower interest rate environment, it should be possible to replicate this township concept elsewhere.

Source: Alex Magno - http://www.philstar.com/

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Profriends sues hazards mapper

MASS HOUSING developer Property Company of Friends, Inc. (Profriends ) has sued an advocate of hazards mapping for cyberlibel over online posts alleging structural flaws and flooding hazards in a Cavite project.

Ervin B. Malicdem, a resident of Lancaster New City in Imus City, said in an Oct. 24 blog post on the Schadow1 Expeditions Web site that the real estate company filed a criminal complaint against him with the Mandaluyong City Prosecutor’s Office.

A copy of the 10-page complaint posted on the Web site read that litigation head Arnaldo C. Malabanan, Jr., sought to charge Mr. Malicdem with six counts of online libel for posting “derogatory materials against Profriends and its employees.”

The Sept. 24 complaint pointed to Mr. Malicdem’s Facebook post identifying portions of the Lancaster New City Cavite Zone 2 project as “completely High Flood Hazard areas.”

The complaint also cited a hazard map Mr. Malicdem posted alongside a composite image that aims to show “substandard drainage,” flood-prone areas, and a “road-level irrigation canal.”

These carried the annotation: “The real reason why there is flooding in our village. And the real status of our drainage system.”

The complaint also cited yet another post where Mr. Malicdem commented on supposedly substandard construction.

“At the pretext of helping supposed aggrieved purchasers of housing units from Profriends,... [Mr.] Malicdem took advantage of the social networking site and used it as a convenient tool to spread malicious and untrue claims...,” read the complaint.

The complaint said the posts were made on the “Profriends Victims” Facebook page. It also pointed out that as an “alleged victim himself,” Mr. Malicdem “developed ill will and hostility” that exposed the intention to injure the firm.

Profriends also “incurred damage such that there was a loss of sales in its projects, as well as an increase in the number of demands for refund from buyers,” it said.

Mr. Malicdem in his nine-page counter-affidavit dated Oct. 21 said he never identified Profriends. But his posts also said his advocacy for disaster risk mapping is “being smothered” by the developer, when private individuals like him could have used data on possible hazards.

“How can the people embrace disaster risk reduction when in the first place, the information is being gagged using a libel law?,” he said.

Profriends did not reply to this reporter’s request for confirmation and comment.

Source: http://www.bworldonline.com/

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Thousands Still Without Homes in Yolanda Areas

TWO years after super-typhoon Yolanda devastated Eastern and Central Visayas in 2013, only 16,544 housing units out of 205,128 targeted for the typhoon victims – very much less than one-tenth – have been completed, the House of Representatives was informed at a hearing the other day.

The principal reason, the Pag ibig Loans said, was that less than half of the P61.2 billion earmarked for the undertaking had been released by the national government. The amount released was P26.9 billion, out of the total P61.2-billion budget for the project.

Funding was only part of the problem. The other part was delay caused by difficulties in purchasing land for the housing projects. This in turn was blamed on conflicting presidential directives on safety zones, unsafe zones, and no-dwelling zones, governing the sites for the projects.

The NHA officials said they hope to complete the 205,128 housing units by 2017, but Rep. Rodel Botocabe, chairman of the House Special Committee on Climate Change, said that at the rate the work is proceeding, that deadline won’t be met.

The Senate Committee on Planning, Housing, and Resettlement headed by Sen. JV Ejercito had also met to look into the issue. He said he understood the problems of the NHA, principally because of the funding. He appealed to the heads of the NHA and the other government agencies and officials involved in the typhoon rehabilitation program to consider the feelings of the survivors – for whom every day remains a struggle for survival – and to do everything possible to speed things up.

The Yolanda housing problem is actually only a small part of the overall housing shortage in the country where, according to the Chamber of Real Estate and Retailers Associations (CREBA), some 5.5 million families are still homeless. It expects the shortage to balloon to 6.5 million by 2030. But that calls for a separate undertaking that will take hundreds of billions of pesos and an extended period of time. The next administration can perhaps draw up a program for this.
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Today, we must concentrate on the more immediate need to help the victims of super-typhoon Yolanda. It has been two years since over 6,000 people were killed in that calamity and thousands of families lost their homes and their livelihood. The plans to rebuild their homes were approved long ago. All possible means must be taken to complete them and end the ordeal of the homeless victims.

Source: Tempo.com

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Profriends battles Demolition Job

     

THE country’s newly minted Cybercrime Law may soon be tested. Word on the street is that a mass housing developer is contemplating filing online libel charges against those behind what it calls “vicious Internet and social media attacks” on its projects.

While the developer—Pro-Friends—has yet to file what could be an important precedent-setting case against those using Internet platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to disparage it, the firm has already set the ball in motion.

Pro-Friends, in fact, won round one of its effort to combat a “syndicated effort” to destroy its reputation when the Regional Trial Court of Mandaluyong City issued a warrant for the arrest of several persons for grave slander and oral defamation.

Interestingly, one Biz Buzz source pointed out that there’s a force associated with the family of a realtor-politician behind the concerted attacks on Pro-Friends, so business rivalry could be the root of this issue.

If this is true, to whom does the hidden hand behind the defamatory campaign against Pro-Friends belong?

In fact, what Pro-Friends calls a “demolition job” against it has been going on for sometime now. The property firm believes it isn’t a spontaneous outpouring of protest by disgruntled clients, but rather a “well-funded and orchestrated by unseen hands who want to run the property development company to the ground so they can have a monopoly of the market.”

“The black propaganda campaign has been stretched by hiring ‘professional protesters’ to mount lightning mass actions complete with placards carrying libelous slogans against Pro-Friends,” said one source familiar with the reality firm’s side of the issue.

If rumors are to be believed, this developer politician has even used his political power to initiate investigations in both houses of Congress to pressure Pro-Friends, supposedly in a bid to cripple its marketing program—all while the politician’s firm pirated key marketing people of the beleaguered real estate firm to work in his own.

Luckily for Pro-Friends, it was thrown a lifeline and a vote of confidence by GT Capital through a capital infusion of P7.24 billion, with the announced interest to acquire a controlling 51-percent stake in three years. 

Source: Business Inquirer

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