Prized Forbes houses now jointly owned by Zobel-RSA
The alliance between Ayala heir Inigo Zobel and San Miguel president Ramon S. Ang appears to have been carved in several stones.
According to regulatory disclosures, Zobel has folded the corporate ownership of the former Silverio property at 82 Cambridge Circle in North Forbes into Top Frontier Investment Holdings, Zobel’s joint venture vehicle with RSA that, in turn, controls the San Miguel conglomerate.
As well, these prized properties in Forbes and neighboring Dasmariñas Village now appear as part of the wide-ranging corporate investments of Top Frontier.
- 50 McKinley Road, where the San Antonio Plaza and the strip mall with Rustan’s supermarket stand.
– 34 McKinley Road, next door to the Qatar embassy.
– 4912-4914 Pasay Road and Edsa on the Dasma side, where the Petron gas station is.
Top Frontier also reported owning other residential properties in other A-list subdivisions, including: – A vacant property on 512 Acacia Avenue in Ayala Alabang. – An unspecified house and land on Ilongot St. in La Vista, Quezon City.
– Lot on 341 Northwestern St. in East Greenhills, which used to be the address of one Emmanuel Yao Mendoza.
– Another unspecified land and building along Ortigas Avenue in Wack-Wack.
– House and lot on 403 Columbia St. in East Greenhills that used to be the address of a certain Soledad Sy. – 52 Mercedes St. corner Aries St. in Bel-Air 3, Makati. – A vacant property on 118 Esteban Abada St., Varsity Hills, Quezon City.
Top Frontier reported a 2019 comprehensive income of P42.7 billion, with P6.9 billion of that “attributable to the shareholders of the parent company.” Zobel owns 60 percent of Frontier. You do the math.
Coronavirus looks positive for Luisita refinery
The sugar refinery in Hacienda Luisita appears positive on coronavirus.
According to the Central Azucarera de Tarlac, revenues for the first quarter of the year increased by 11 percent to nearly P908 million, thanks in part to an 18 percent jump in alcohol price.
A traditional supplier of industrial alcohol, the Luisita-based refinery did not say if the company had apportioned some of its production towards the manufacture of sanitizers and disinfectant alcohol in the still ongoing battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
“CAT envisions more challenging times ahead and is using this opportunistic period to strategically manage inventory, minimize operating costs and re-evaluate capital expenditure,” the company said.
Manila opens door to US blueberries
Expect to see more fresh blueberries in more supermarket shelves. This after Philippines agreed, amid US lobbying, to allow more imports of fresh highbush blueberries, initially from the state of Oregon.
“With formal market access in place for the entire Philippine market, multiple trade contacts forecast US sales could reach $500,000 this season and exceed $1 million in succeeding years if there is a concerted marketing effort to increase consumer awareness on the availability, quality and health benefits of US fresh blueberries,” the US Department of Agriculture said.
The Manila opening came after Oregon sent a trade mission to Vietnam and the Philippines in 2014, and invited a Philippine agricultural delegation to Oregon last year.
Previously, imports of fresh blueberries had been intermittent and largely confined to Rustan’s and membership shopping chains like S&R and Landers.
A local online grocer sells the frozen fruits, but imported from Europe, at P395 per pound, while Landers offers a 300-gram pack from Canada’s British Columbia for P219.75, with the warning that “the product may melt during delivery.”
Another online local seller offers “organic wild” blueberries from the Mountain Province at a wallet-lightening P650 for a 250-gram pack.
Heard through the grapevine
A second wave of “early retirement” cases is coming at the Philippine Airlines, with Cebu Pacific and AirAsia also opting for the retrenchment route like the bigger foreign airlines, amid the prospects of a slow, patchy revival of air travel.