BSP Rumored to Cut Reserve Requirements

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it might be is open to the possibility of lowering down the reserve requirement of banks to increase local liquidity and boost consumer spending, and also to help bring back consumer confidence.  Current reserve requirements for banks remain at 19% of total deposit liabilities and initial cuts by the BSP from 21% last November 2008. They say that this 2% cut in rates helped raise P60 B worth of liquity in loanable funds that banks could infuse into the economic system.

Aside from the rate cut made last November, the BSP has also reduced its overnight borrow rate by 125 basis points last December.  Currently, the borrowing and lending rates stand at 4.5% and 6.75%.

SMPH and AC advance on China Outlook

SM Prime Holdings(SMPH) and Ayala Corp. (AC) stocks both went rising yesterday as news of China’s bright outlook for the rest of the year broke out.

SMPH, the largest shopping mall operator in the Philippines,  made the most of the forecasts starting a little over two months ago, further fueled by their own forecasts that their planned expansion into China will bring in more earnings for the group.  SMPH rose 4% in yesterday’s gain since December 15, with it’s stock being the biggest gainer with a gain of 2.1%.

Meanwhile, AC got the biggest gain on yesterday’s trading with an increase of 5.4% in price, closing at P196.  This, was their biggest gain since January this year.  Speculations attribute this gain to the uptrend market in the US where analysts say “the stimulus package’s effects will be felt in the long haul, but short-term investors welcome the news with open arms.

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PLDT net income dragged down 4%

Just got word that the net income PLDT, or the Philippine Long Distance Compny (TEL), for its consolidated services was pulled down 4% as of end of 2008.  

This amounted to a consolidated net profit of P34.6 B, diving down fromthe previous year's P36 B total.  Majority of the decline is being attributed to a drain in cash flow for investments made in SPI Technologies and largely to the P1.6 B foreign exchange losses.  SPI Technologies is now the knowledge-processing arm of PLDT and was able to generate total revenues for 2008 amounting to P5.6 B.

Consolidated services revenues were actually up 5% mainly because of the increased demand in wireless services, data and ePLDT services.  Consolidated EBITDA (Earnings Before Income Taxes Depreciation and Amortization) improved to P87.6 B while its margin remained at 61%.

Smart was reported to have increased subscriber base by 560,000 in 2008, while Talk N Text subscribers swelled by 4.6 million.  They now have a total of 20.9 and 14.3 million subscribers respectively.

PLDT's consolidated liquid cash flow for the previous year remained robust at P47.9 B while consolidated CAPEX (Capital Expenditures) remained at P25.2 B, just a little under the P27 B guidance provided in early 2008.   The P1.8 B difference is mainly attributable to the maintenance projects of its Fixed Line business and is expected to be brought forward to 2009.

The consolidated Net Debt vs EBITDA was 0.4 while the Net Debt to Free Cash Flow ratio was logged as 0.8.

Phisix Intraday Chart - Mar 02 '09