Biz Buzz: Toyota’s ‘long standing’ partners. Literally.

The President is never late. The guests are early.” Thus said former President

Joseph Estrada— supposedly—when asked years ago about his penchant for arriving late in official functions when he was this country’s head of state.

Well, during Wednesday’s 30th anniversary celebration of Toyota motor Philippines at the Grand Hyatt Manila in Bonifacio Global City, the VIP guests who came to witness the event were very early. At least two and a half hours early, in fact.

That included Akio Toyoda who, as the president of Toyota Motor Corp. — the world’s largest automobile conglomerate, flew in from another engagement in Europe just for the event. Alas, he, too had to wait for the delayed arrival of the guest of honor, President

Duterte, who finally arrived at the ballroom of the swanky new hotel at almost 7:30 p.m. (guests were required to be inside the venue by 5 p.m. due to security measures).

Biz Buzz learned however that Mr. Duterte had actually arrived almost an hour earlier, but was “ambushed” and pulled into a meeting by one local government official who had “ur- gent matters” to discuss with the Chief Executive. We’re not sure exactly what was discussed but it may or may not have had something to do about the previous day’s news that rogue police officials were discovered to have been operating in the mayor’s particular city.

But tired feet notwithstanding, the long wait failed to dampen the spirits of the guests that evening, including many Japanese businessmen who were excited—some were downright giddy—to see the President and take videos and photos of him up close.

As a bonus, Mr. Duterte stuck to reading his prepared speech which clocked in at five minutes and 30 seconds, much to the delight of the VIP guests who had been standing for over two hours in the ballroom. (Incidentally, the President’s speech when he inaugurated the same hotel late last year also clocked in at under six minutes.)

As additional bonus, the President reassured the businessmen, both foreign and local, that the government would protect their investments as long as they followed the law and gave back to their communities. That definitely made the businessmen forget about their tired feet and brought out the applause. —DAXIM L. LUCAS

Speaking of which...

Toyota Motor Philippines vice chair Alfred Ty revealed fascinating details during the group’s anniversary celebration which underlined the progress that the brand had made over the last three decades.

He pointed out that in the first year of Toyota’s operations in the Philippines, it sold a mere 15,000 units. Fast forward 30 years later and Toyota topped the local auto market with 184,000 units sold last year.

Because of this, the Philippines is now the ninth largest market for Toyota anywhere in the world (and it should be noted that this brand is everywhere, literally).

More importantly, however, Ty unveiled the company’s strategy for sustaining this impressive sales growth figure. In addition to its tried and tested strategy of selling cars to end users, Toyota will soon unveil a scheme that will sell more vehicles to ride-hailing firms and their vehicle operators.

This is because more and more people nowadays are opting to use ride-hailing apps to book vehicle services rather than buying their own cars.

To take advantage of this trend, Ty said the group would soon unveil a “value chain” package that would allow operators to acquire vehicles through flexible financing packages (read: financed by Metrobank), give them the convenience of maintenance services and a trade-in facility to eventually replace the vehicles with newer models. Now that’s what you call a disruptive business model. —DAXIM L. LUCAS

Toll road settlement

Shares of infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. have been weighed down by uncertainties on tariff adjustments in key businesses such as toll roads and water.

As far as the toll road business is concerned, however, there appears a light at the end of the tunnel as a “broad shape of settlement” had already been agreed upon in principle, MPIC president Jose Lim said yesterday.

Lim declined to discuss details of the “settlement” until the resolutions were passed but noted that the Toll Regulatory Board would hold a high-level meeting soon where tariff was in the agenda.

“We have received signals from both the DOTr (Department of Transportation) and DOF ( Department of Finance) that they will support a settlement on this issue," Lim said.

Apart from seeking long-delayed tariff hikes, MPTC is also seeking compensation for revenue losses arising from inaction on tariff adjustments amounting to billions of pesos since 2012-2013.

Based on earlier indications, the government was willing to approve the rate hikes on a staggered basis, except for election years (next one is the mid-term elections in 2019).

Asked whether MPTC will withdraw the arbitration case filed by MPTC in 2016, Lim said the authorities had not made this a condition to the settlement but noted that once the government had agreed to settle the issue, there would be no more need for the arbitration case.

Thus, the group sees it possible for MPTC to be able to effect rate increases in key toll roads like North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and Manila-Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) within this year.

“The resolutions, once passed, will only require publication and notification for collection, in which case, that allows us to implement toll rates so we’re hoping DOTr or TRB will be able to pass this resolution,” he said.

For its part, the government wants to see substantial progress in the capital expenditure programs announced by the MPIC group. —DORIS DUMLAOABADILLA

Logistics play

MPIC, which is building capacity to become a major player in logistics, has sealed a deal to acquire an initial 12-percent stake in Air21 of businessman and former Customs Commissioner Al

berto Lina. The agreement gives the Manuel V. Pangilinan- led group to eventually raise its stake up to 100 percent. This initial foothold repre- sents a stake in five different companies under Air21.

“We thought it’s an entry point that will allow us to know the business more, because currently we need to understand the business first and know more information,” said Mari

lyn Aquino, president/CEO of MPIC logistics arm MetroPac Movers Inc.

MPIC is building its capability to handle the last-mile logistics chain in anticipation of a boom in e-commerce, but its main focus now is to build warehousing assets, where demand is high and margin is good. This includes building cold chain facilities and address demand from the agri and aquaculture sectors.

The group has acquired a 20hectare “mega-DC” (mega distribution center) in Cavite and another 30 hectares in Northern Luzon.

“Our program is to build capacity in the next two years and hopefully after we’ve built this capacity, we are in position to take the leading position in warehousing,” Aquino said.

“Warehousing is a business that’s very stable and we’re putting most of our resources in that business but we’re developing in-house organic growth to deliver the last mile, “she said.

In Visayas and Mindanao, the group has established a footprint in

Davao and Cebu. In Davao, there’s an opportunity to expand its presence as a business partner has offered a 10- hectare facility.

So, just in its second year of operation, Aquino noted that MetroPac Mover was already the second largest player in the local warehousing space. As its capacity is seen to double in the next two years, it expects to grab the leading position.—