Alibaba shares surge more than 6 pct on Hong Kong debut

HONG KONG - Shares in Chinese online retail giant Alibaba soared more than 6 percent on their Hong Kong debut Tuesday, after raising at least $11 billion in the city's biggest IPO in nearly a decade.

Alibaba, which already is listed in the United States, had set the price for each share at HK$176, but the stock jumped 6.25 percent to HK$187 as it began trading on the Hong Kong exchange.

The company called the listing a vote of confidence in the city which has been wracked by months of sometimes violent protests and the China-US trade war, which have sent the local economy into recession.

Asia's most valuable company has said previously it could raise almost $13 billion via the initial public offering, which was originally planned for the summer but was pushed back due to the headwinds hitting the city.

Alibaba's list price came in below an HK$188 indicative ceiling originally announced.

With 500 million shares offered to investors, the company has said it would raise HK$88 billion ($11 billion). Eight is considered an auspicious number in China.

If it chooses to use its over-allotment option to sell a further 75 million shares, Alibaba could bring in HK$101.2 billion ($12.9 billion).

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Saudi Aramco prospectus flags risks, gives few details on IPO size

DUBAI - Saudi state oil giant Aramco will sell 0.5 percent of its shares to individual retail investors and the government will have a lockup period of a year on further share sales after the initial public offering, its prospectus said on Saturday.

The more than 600-page prospectus did not include details of how much of the company would be floated in total or of any commitments from anchor investors.

Sources have said the company could sell 1 to 2 percent on the Saudi stock market in what could be the world's largest listing.

Offering for the shares will begin on Nov. 17, the prospectus said.

Aramco fired the starting gun on the initial public offering (IPO) on Nov. 3 after a series of false starts. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking to raise billions of dollars to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil by investing in non-energy industries.

Among the risks highlighted in the prospectus were the potential for terrorist attacks and the potential for encountering antitrust legislation, as well as the right of the Saudi government to decide maximum crude output and direct Aramco to undertake projects outside its core business.

Aramco may also change its dividend policy without prior notice to its minority shareholders, it said. For a factbox on risk factors, click

Aramco's oil facilities were targeted on Sept. 14 in unprecedented attacks that temporarily shut 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of output - more than 5 percent of global oil supply.

LOCKUP PERIOD

The prospectus said the government will have a "statutory lockup period" for disposing of any shares after the listing for six months, and a contractual lockup period for 12 months.

Aramco cannot list additional shares for a period of six months after trading starts, and will also be restricted from issuing additional shares for 12 months.

The offering for institutional investors will begin on Nov. 17 and end on Dec. 4, while retail investors will be able to bid for the shares from Nov. 17 to Nov. 28, the prospectus said.

"Aramco IPO is an opportunity that shouldn't be missed, the largest company in the world....holding Aramco shares is an absolute gain," a Saudi with a twitter handle named Abdulrahman wrote.

Aramco has been in talks with Gulf and Asian sovereign wealth funds and wealthy Saudi individuals to secure top investors of the IPO, but no anchor investor is yet to formally agree to a deal.

The Russia-China Investment Fund is working to attract Chinese investors for Aramco's planned IPO, the head of Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Thursday.

Bankers have told the Saudi government that investors will likely value the company at around $1.5 trillion, below the $2 trillion valuation touted by Prince Mohammed when he first floated the idea of an IPO nearly four years ago.

Initial hopes for a 5 percent IPO on domestic and international bourses were dashed last year when the process was halted amid debate over where to list Aramco overseas.

Aramco said the timetable was delayed because it began a process to acquire a 70 percent stake in petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

The prospectus said Goldman Sachs was named as stabilizing agent for the deal.

Analysts from banks working on the Riyadh bourse have projected a wide valuation range between $1.2 trillion to $2.3 trillion.

At the top valuation of $2 billion, Aramco could potentially raise $40 billion, topping the record-breaking $25 billion raised by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014.

The valuation would be almost twice that of Microsoft, currently the world's most valuable listed company, and seven times that of Exxon Mobil Corp, the biggest listed oil major by market capitalization.

"Due to its size and likely free float, Aramco should be eligible for fast-track inclusion in both the FTSE and MSCI Emerging Market indices within 10 days of the IPO," said Dominic Bokor-Ingram, senior portfolio manager, frontier markets, Fiera Capital (Europe).

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Microsoft topples Apple, returns to the top of the world

WASHINGTON -- Microsoft is back at the top of the technology world following an extraordinary comeback to close the gap with Apple, some 3 years into a transformation of the onetime leader by chief executive Satya Nadella.

Microsoft regained its title as the world's most valuable company when it closed Friday at a higher market value than Apple for the first time since 2010, after a brief move ahead of the iPhone maker earlier in the week.

At Friday's close, Microsoft's market capitalization was $851.2 billion, having tripled in value since Nadella took over in early 2014.

Apple's valuation stood at $847.4 billion, having dropped some 20 percent in the past 8 weeks. Not far behind were Amazon ($826 billion) and Google parent Alphabet ($763 billion).

In the 1990s, Microsoft held the crown as the top tech firm and most valuable company as it powered the revolution in personal computers with its Windows operating system.

But in recent years, it appeared headed to obscurity after spectacular failures in mobile computing, while Apple, Google and Amazon saw their fortunes rise.

Analysts say patience, diversification and the willingness to jettison failing ventures helped fuel Microsoft's surge.

"Microsoft is firing on all cylinders right now," said Jack Gold, technology analyst with J. Gold Associates.

"Satya Nadella has been doing a fantastic job in leading them away from dead-end areas and being more innovative."

THRIVING IN THE CLOUD

Microsoft still draws considerable revenue from Windows, the software that powers the vast majority of PCs.

But it has leveraged its position to bring business customers to its cloud computing platform known as Azure, and has developed a steadier revenue stream from its Office software suite for both consumers and enterprises.

"Azure has been really big for Microsoft," Gold said.

For companies already using Microsoft systems for PCs and servers, "it's easy for them to stick with Microsoft, and that's the advantage for Microsoft."

Microsoft has become far less dependent on a single product than in the past, with strong growth from its cloud services and revenues from its Xbox gaming business, Bing search, Surface tablets and PCs, as well as the professional social network LinkedIn acquired in 2016.

It won a $480 million contract with the US Army last month to supply HoloLens devices that will help troops train using augmented and virtual reality.

It is also competing with Amazon and others for a multibillion-dollar contract for Pentagon cloud services.

The diversified revenue stream is in contrast with Apple, which still relies on iPhone sales for the vast majority of revenue and profit.

"Microsoft is pretty well-balanced across a number of different categories," said Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research.

"For Apple, we've reached peak smartphone and it's a very challenging market. Longtime observers of Apple knew this would happen at some point, and the question is how quickly they can transition to services."

Microsoft's emphasis on business services makes the company less visible to consumers, but "it means they are not subject to the whims of tech fashion, and their revenue base is more solid and more stable," O'Donnell said.

LEARNING FROM FAILURE

A big part of Microsoft's transformation came when it decided to throw in the towel on its Windows mobile phone business after acquiring the device business of Nokia but failing to get a foothold in the sector dominated by Apple and Google-powered Android smartphones.

"I think Satya Nadella exercised extraordinarily good judgment," said Roger Kay, a consultant and analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.

"He ceded the consumer business to Apple and focused on the corporate sector and the cloud."

Microsoft's failures in mobile may have actually helped it by forcing the company to work with rival operating systems, analysts say.

Apple, meanwhile, has largely required its own devices for its services, a strategy which Gold called "troubling."

"That's the same path Microsoft went down a decade ago," he said. "Apple is going to have to change that."

The company appeared to move a step toward opening its services in the past week, agreeing to offer its streaming music on Amazon's Alexa-powered devices.

"Apple has a great track record when it comes to reinvention," said a research note from Gene Munster and Will Thompson of the investment firm Loup Ventures.

It anticipated that the company's "next reinvention does not involve product replacement; rather, it will require a shift in mindset to consuming Apple products as a service."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

PH leads smartphone adoption in SEA, thanks to low-priced Androids

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is once again proving its dominance in the mobile space as the local smartphone market boasted the highest growth rate in Southeast Asia for the first quarter of 2012, according to market research firm GfK.

In a recent report, GfK Asia said the highest growth for the region’s smartphone market was witnessed in the Philippines during the period, as the overall Southeast Asian smartphone market value expands by 62 percent.

Pressed for more details, GfK Asia Regional PR Manager Seraphina Wee told InterAksyon.com that smartphone volume growth in the country grew by a large 203 percent in the first quarter, or triple the original figure during the same period in 2011.

“The increasing availability of smartphones from major manufacturers catering to different price & consumer segments, as well as the growing receptiveness and smartphone literacy of consumers in Philippines [contributed to this growth],” Wee said.

Of all the smartphone types being shipped to the country, the GfK official revealed that Android-powered smartphones continue to dominate the short list, comprising more than 80 percent of smartphone volumes for the first quarter.

In the region, the Google-backed platform commands a strong 50 percent of the overall smartphone market, the GfK report said.

Dominated by a low-income group of mobile users, smartphones from Samsung and local brands such as Cherry Mobile enjoyed the highest rates of adoption in the country, with models retailing for as low as P5,000.

But despite the glowing numbers, the Philippines continues to trail traditional leaders in the region in terms of smartphone penetration: Malaysia and Singapore with 88 percent, and Indonesia with 62 percent.

With Southeast Asian markets nowhere near saturation, GfK Asia Account Director for Digital Technology Gerald Tan said the growth spurt should continue for the next couple of years, especially as prices of smartphones continue to stabilize within the region.

“With much of the populace still not owning a mobile phone, there is no better place for global mobile phone brands to focus their sales and marketing efforts,” he added.

source: interaksyon.com

Spain mulls hiving off bank bad loans

MADRID - Spain's government said Monday it is studying a scheme to remove the massive weight of bad property-related loans crushing the banking sector.

The proposed solution would allow banks to split off their bad loans and place them into a separate agency, an Economy Ministry official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The agency would not be a 'bad bank' -- a special vehicle used in other countries such as Ireland to help stabilize the banking system and the economy -- because the state itself would take no part, the official said.

Banks who joined the scheme would have to set aside financial provisions that recognize the sharply reduced market value of the loans, extended during a huge property bubble that imploded in 2008.

"What we are speaking about is a type of agency where several banks could come together or one could do it perhaps with an outside partner, so they can externalize their property assets," the official said.

"It is so banks can go back to doing their work as banks and someone else can take care of selling the assets.

"Conditions will be imposed and one of them will be that the banks have to make the requisite provisions for those assets. We think that the provisions should be close to the market value of the assets."

The state would not take part but foreign investors could be invited to join, the official said.

"It is an idea we are considering, one possibility," the source stressed.

Bank of Spain figures on Friday showed commercial banks held problem real estate loans worth 184 billion euros, some 60 percent of their property portfolio at the end of 2011.

Central bank figures show that the ratio of bad loans -- those at least three months in arrears -- hit an 18-year high in February of 8.15 percent of total credit extended, the highest since 1994.

Another financial source close to the matter, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the study was "still a bit green.

"They are looking at what is the most appropriate solution to remove the property assets from the banks' balance sheets," the source said.

"What seems clear is that it will not be a 'bad bank' because there will be no public money behind it."

The conservative daily El Mundo said the Bank of Spain had appointed BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory division and management consults Oliver Wyman as advisors on cleaning up Spanish banks' balance sheets.

BlackRock had helped to design the Irish 'bad bank,' the National Asset Management Agency which took over the banking sector's bad debt as part of a wider bailout for Ireland, the newspaper noted.

Neither BlackRock nor Oliver Wyman were immediately available to comment.

source: interaksyon.com

Defense maintains Corona properties properly declared in SALN

MANILA, Philippines -- Lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona maintained on Monday that his properties had been properly declared in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

The two witnesses of the defense -- the registrar of deeds of Quezon City and the city assessor of Makati City -- testified on the condominiums and lots owned by Corona and his wife, Ma. Cristina, and the fair value and assessed market value of these properties.

Corona’s condominium unit in The Columns in Makati City had an assessed value of P726,000 at the time a Deed of Sale was executed in 2004.

Mario Badillo, Makati City assessor, said the property had a fair market value of P1.2 million since 2008, the same value Corona declared in his SALN.

The assessed value is used in computing real estate taxes, while the fair market value refers to the price agreed upon by the buyer and the seller.

For the Quezon City properties, Carlo Alcantara, registrar of deeds, said the Coronas sold their Ayala Heights property in 2010 for P8 million.

Their 1,200-square meter property in La Vista Subdivision, which they acquired in 2003, and had an assessed market value of P450,000 and a fair market value of P3 million, was sold to their daughter Ma. Carla Castillo in 2010 for P18 million.

On the other hand, the title to a condominium unit owned by the Coronas in Burgundy Plaza, which they acquired in 2003, had an annotation showing the parking lot does not belong to the couple, but they are allowed to use it.

source: interaksyon.com