Biz Buzz: Seeking vindication

British expat Simon Boulstridge Bailey, the former president of Salisbury BKT Securities Corp. who was recently detained by the fugitive search unit of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for a forgery case filed in the United Kingdom, is now seeking voluntary deportation.

According to a fellow stock broker familiar with Bailey, the 54-year-old expat is ready to respond to charges regarding Belgravia Asset Management (BAM), where he was employed up to 2008 prior to his stint in Hong Kong.

“BAM is embroiled in lawsuits involving its owners and management after the time of Simon’s tenure and a takeover ensued. It’s sadly a personal case and nothing to do with Salisbury BKT Securities,” the broker said.

“Hopefully he can return soon to Manila after giving his testimony and clearing his name.”

Bailey was accused of conspiring with another suspect in forging documents in order to misappropriate for themselves the stock investments of a deceased business partner.

But sympathizers said his signature had been faked and the questionable transactions had been done without his knowledge.

“The whole thing is very unfortunate for him and let’s hope it blows away real soon,” the fellow broker said.

Salisbury BKT ranked sixth largest at the Philippine Stock Exchange in terms of year-to-date volume.

Serving mostly institutional investors, its clients include some of the largest international fund managers.

Salisbury has filed an application with the PSE to name

Jimmy Yaokasin Jr. as its new nominee. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

Phoenix vs Petron, part 2

Phoenix Petroleum of businessman Dennis Uy yesterday said it had accepted the decision of the Department of National Defense to disqualify it from a P4.5-billion fuel supply contract for the military, without resorting to “unfair tactics and malicious media reports to break the rules.”

This comes after Biz Buzz reported on Wednesday on the protest filed by Petron Corp., which said the DND’s bids and awards committee omitted key items of information which eventually led the country’s largest petroleum refiner and distributor to be disqualified, too. (The deal was eventually awarded to Petron after a review by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.)

Nonetheless, Phoenix Petroleum said the publicity surrounding the issue “causes undue pressure to the bids and awards committee to decide in favor of Petron.”

“The intent of the government’s bidding process is to benefit the government with the lowest price that meets standard service levels—which, as a local independent company, we strived to do,” said the company’s lawyer, Raymond Zorilla. “Malicious and unverified reports such as this story discourage the business community, especially small players who attempt to challenge bigger, entrenched companies.”

“We regularly participate in biddings in good faith, and we follow the rules and proper process,” the Phoenix official said. “We do not use connections to gain favor for our business. In particular, the mention of Dennis Uy is malicious in that it imputes irregularity if it would be awarded to our company.”

He added: “We pose these questions: We as one of the bidders were not informed of the results. How did media know about it? If we are using our influence, why do we not win the biddings? If price is the main consideration, why did we not win despite submitting the lower price?”

“By providing a competitive bid, we add value to the customer —in this case, the government. This year, with a competitor, the other company’s price was lower by P100 million than the budget,” he said. “This would have been unlikely had there not been a competitor.”

Phoenix Petroleum pointed out that Petron has been the sole provider of fuel for the Defense Department for the past 43 years. Phoenix joined the bidding in 2017 but was disqualified. It joined again this year, but was disqualified along with Petron, the company added.

“We accepted and respected the decision of the [committee] on the disqualification and formally communicated to them through a letter dated June 8, 2018,” Zorilla said. “From there- on, we did not receive any communication from DND on the next steps. It was only through [Biz Buzz] that we learned that the disqualification had been reversed and that the contract would be awarded to Petron.”

“We do not have information on the outcome of the bid and have not made any action on it, as we respected the earlier decision of the [committee],” he added. “The requirements of the 2018 bidding, including the WPP reference, were clearly discussed by the technical working group, with representatives from interested bidders. These meetings were properly minuted, which can be requested from the DND.”