Conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. could be preparing for another arbitration case with the government, this time on the much-delayed toll rate adjustment at two toll roads it maintains and operates.
Metro Pacific president Jose Lim said there are four years worth of inflation adjustments pending for the North Luzon Expressway and six years for the Cavite Expressway. Lim said in more precise terms, these would be equivalent to 19-percent and 23-percent increases in toll, respectively.
Lim said while these inflation adjustments were embedded in the concession agreements, the government had not acted on the company’s applications to have these adjustments implemented.
“In order to enforce our rights, we have issued a formal demand that may end up in an arbitration with the regulator,” Lim said.
Metro Pacific is already under arbitration with the national government for the non-implementation of water rate adjustments for unit Maynilad Water Services Inc. Jenniffer B. Austria
After Uber, Mober is here
A local start-up is upping the ante in providing a fleet of private vehicles for hire in the country, this time not only to ferry passengers, but also to move goods.
Mober creates a new economy of cargo pick-up and delivery for on-demand customers and entrepreneurial suppliers alike. “A time of opportunity, mobility, and enterprise has come for the Filipino people. The revolution for personal transport has taken place,” Mober says in a statement.
Mober provides a fleet of privately-owned vans at the disposal of entrepreneurs looking to move, ship, or deliver goods for their businesses.
Mober says there is no better venue for a shared economy of cargo vehicles to flourish than Metro Manila, a city that is infamous for traffic jams that cause daily billion-peso opportunity loss.
“Mober expands these services with such conveniences as choosing the type of vehicle to accommodate your cargo and getting immediate estimates of the cost for your travel through the app,” it says. Its fleet includes Urvan, Hi-Ace, or L-300. Alena Flores Mae S. Flores
Lamudi lists top property developers
Lamudi, a global property portal focusing on emerging markets, has recently come up with a list of 10 largest property developers in the country, measured by the value of their future projects. Guess who topped the list?
By its own reckoning and monitoring, Lamudi put Ayala Land Inc. as the biggest spender, with capital expenditures of P80 billion to P90 billion this year, narrowly exceeding SM Prime Holdings Inc.’s P80 billion.
“Though marked down a bit, the plan set by Ayala Land Inc. is still the largest in local real estate,” Lamudi said.
Third in the list is Megaworld Corp. with P65 billion, followed by Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. with P25 billion and Filinvest Land Inc. with P24 billion. Occupying the sixth to 10th spots are Robinsons Land Corp. with P17 billion, Federal Land with P15 billion, Rockwell Land with P13 billion, DMCI Homes with P12 billion and Shang Properties with P10 billion.
“While the industry had been doing well in the past couple of years on its own, even more vigorous growth in the immediate future is anticipated,” Lamudi said.
“Rapid urbanization coupled with the continued rise of the residential sector have been the key sources of growth for local real estate, and is one of the main reason for several developers’ leading the way for record capital expenditures in 2015,” it said. Roderick T. dela Cruz
TV ratings war yields different numbers
Depending on who commissioned the survey, results of national television viewership polls show that it is either ABS-CBN Corp.’s Channel 2 or GMA Network Inc.’s Channel 7 as the most watched channel on free television.
Citing Kantar Media, ABS-CBN said its average national audience share in September was higher by eight points than its rival GMA Network. ABS-CBN said its average national audience share stood at 44 percent, compared with GMA’s 36 percent.
ABS-CBN said its dominance was evident during primetime, or from six in the evening to 12 midnight, with an average national audience share of 50 percent, or 19 points higher than GMA’s 31 percent.
ABS-CBN said its primetime lead was sustained by top-rating programs, led by “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano,” which garnered an average national TV rating of 40.4 percent.
GMA, for its part, said it recorded a 37.4-percent total day household audience share in National Urban Philippines from Sept. 1 to 30, surpassing ABS-CBN’s 34.9 percent by 2.5 points and TV5’s 9 percent by 28.4 points.
GMA uses Nielsen TV Audience Measurement for its audience viewership rating. GMA said it led ABS-CBN in the morning block with 34.1 percent versus the latter’s 33.5 percent, as well as in the afternoon block with a commanding 45.2 percent compared to its closest rival’s 29.5 percent.
GMA Network said it continued to secure its dominant position in Mega Manila with a 44.6 percent total day share, besting ABS-CBN’s 26.8 percent by 17.8 points and TV5’s 8.3 percent by 36.3 points. Darwin G. Amojelar