Zobel, Soriano beat ghost month jitters

This year’s Chinese ghost month started Aug. 22 and will last until Sept. 19.

But instead of being spooked from trading, Castilaloy cousins Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Andres Soriano III chose to make hay in what is supposed to be the cruelest month for the stock market.

According to regulatory disclosures, Zobel, the chief executive of the Ayala Corp., made over P71 million after disposing 79,427 Ayala shares on Aug. 24 at P899 a share.

The following two trading days, Zobel’s fourth cousin, the New York-based Soriano, raised a more modest P23 million, courtesy of share disposals in Enrique Razon’s International Container Terminal Services Inc., where Soriano is a director.

Even Razon’s golf buddy, ICTSI director Jose Ibazeta, could not resist from profit-taking, picking up P5.25 million from the market to tide him over during the rainy days.

A tale of two old media: Radio up, print down

Radio broadcasting as an industry is alive in the Philippines, bucking the slow implosion gutting old media and the newspaper industry.

Two listed, pre-war media companies provide evidence of the contrasting fortunes.

On one hand, the Manila Broadcasting Corp. has seen its net income double in five years to nearly P187 million in 2016. On the other hand, the newspaper group Manila Bulletin has seen its profit within the same five years plummet by three-fourths to P43 million by last year.

The starkest contrast can also be gleaned from the pay checks.

Broadcaster Joe Taruc, who carries a vice president title at the Elizalde-owned network, even outranked the five top executives of the Manila Bulletin with his 2016 compensation package of P11.34 million.

In contrast, the aptly surnamed Bulletin president Hermogenes Pobre, and four executive vice presidents — Emilio Yap III, Paciencia Pineda, Fe Barin and Herminio Coloma — took home last year only about P7.98 million combined.

Splash wins P142 M tax reversal

The tax court very rarely reverses itself, especially when it involves the very same justices reviewing their own decision.

But in a P142 million deliquency tax decision against the cosmetics company Splash Corp., appellate justices Roman del Rosario, Erlinda Uy and Cielito MindaroGrulla did just that.

The three magistrates last month “amended” their earlier decision against Splash on the basis of “an intrinsic legal infirmity” that they had missed in their original decision.

The infirmity? The Bureau of Internal Revenue had failed to issue a new letter of authority to the second set of BIR examiners who continued the investigation and uncovered Splash’s delinquency.

As a result of that audit, Splash was found tax deficient by P257 million, not including interests, for the year 2008.

That deficiency was later reduced to P142 million by the three Court of Tax Appeals justices in April, a decision that was eventually voided by the same three justices last month after Splash appealed.

Money talks

The restaurant group of Andrew Masigan, Advent Manila Hospitality has withdrawn its application to trademark “Isla Cafe by XO46 Bistro” upon the opposition of the Philippine Coffee Board, headed by chairman Nicolas Matti and president Pacita Juan.

Mining and real estate magnate Walter Brown, who is turning 80 next year, has transferred 43 million A. Brown shares to his wife, Annabelle.

Heard through the grapevine

Mining magnate Salvador “Buddy” Zamora plans to revive the shrunken PT&T network by partnering with a foreign operator to become the third telco player and compete with the Globe and Smart duopoly, a route that was earlier attempted but eventually abandoned by San Miguel’s Ramon Ang.

E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com