SMC brings in expats amid game plan to battle Globe, Smart duopoly
San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang has imported two expats to revive the conglomerate’s flagging telecom venture, ahead of an announced January 2016 launch to crack the Smart and Globe duopoly in the mobile and broadband fronts. According to the grapevine, a British executive, David Jonathan Blake, was headhunted from Maldives, where he was the chief financial officer of the island-nation’s pioneering telecom company until his recruitment, to become the chief financial adviser for the San Miguel telecom venture.
As well, an Australian telecom consultant was brought in from Sydney to revive the stalled network roll-out program for San Miguel’s wi-Tribe internet venture with its Qatari partner.
The twin hires come amid last week’s announcement that San Miguel was seeking an early exit from rehabilitation of its subsidiary and wi-Tribe parent Liberty Telecoms.
The San Miguel president had earlier indicated that the conglomerate, unlike the stalled wi-Tribe roll-out at the start of the decade, had already integrated the infrastructure within Metro Manila, Calabarzon and key provincial cities to create a credible third alternative to the two dominant players Globe and Smart.
“I assure you when we switch on our mobile broadband, everybody will be very happy because you will not have any problem anymore,” RSA told an investment forum in March, alluding to network congestion and poor signals besetting both Globe and Smart.
Soriano’s third bundle of Alegre
And speaking of San Miguel, retired chief executive Andres Soriano III, who would rather go sailing in the Mediterranean rather than stew in Makati’s rage-inducing traffic, has a new toy that is being battle-tested this racing season.
Also called Alegre, his third yacht to sport the same name, Soriano and his crew will see action beginning today in the Valencia Sailing Week in a new TransPacific 52 built by Botin Partners of Spain.
The previous and longer, 72-footer, Irish-built Alegre won the MiniMaxi world championships in 2014 and, before that, the first Alegre, a 68er, won the Middle Sea Race, the Giraglia regatta and Copa del Rey, twice.
Launched in early April, the lighter and sleeker Alegre had just finished a tough warm-up at the recently concluded Gaastra Palma Vela, trailing three other, more tuned TP 52s.
After Valencia, Soriano and his crew will continue on with the 52 Super Series 2015 season to Porto Cervo (Italy) on June 9-13 for the Week of the Straits, Puerto Portals (Spain) on July 14-18 for the TP52 World Championship, Palma de Mallorca (Spain) on Aug. 4-8 for the Copa del Rey before finally concluding in Cascais (Portugal) for the Cascais Cup on Sept. 16-20.
The Firm and CMT in fresh hostilities
A fresh round of hostilities has broken out again between The Firm and the breakaway Cruz Marcelo Tenefrancia, despite the latter having already decamped from the contested building in The Fort.
According to the grapevine, The Firm (now known as Villaraza & Angangco Law) last week filed a summary procedure for unlawful detainer (in plain English, an ejectment case) against CMT’s security agency, Flagstar, which continues to guard not only the vacated four floors out of the building’s twelve but also the 52 basement parking slots still being claimed by CMT.
CMT has already transferred to the nearby Hanjin building, but left a 24-7 security contingent apparently as leverage against the landlord, a joint venture of The Firm and the Standard Chartered Bank of South Africa, amid another court-ordered mediation proceedings between CMT and The Firm.
According to the grapevine, another scuffle erupted the other week after the CMT guards prevented a building crew from installing the V&A Law logo within the lobby.
Despite the guards’ vigilance, V&A had already successfully installed a bigger signage outside.
Heard through the grapevine
The Bench clothing empire lost out in its bid to trademark its fragrance line called “Fierce” after the American retailer Abercrombie & Fitch sued, maintaining that the local retailer is a copycat of its men’s cologne called, what else but, Fierce.
Even with the lawsuit, Bench had already launched and still markets its own version of Fierce for actress Anne Curtis, in like fashion with US singer Beyonce’s own Fierce fragrance that A&F also opposed.
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