PILIPINAS Shell Petroleum Corp. is a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. As one of the Philippines’s so-called Big 3 oil companies, it is also one of the more profitable, having piled up retained earnings of P9.342 billion at one time, or as of December 31, 2004. This was the year when Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corp. and Caltex Philippines Inc. had combined surpluses, or retained earnings, of P22.309 billion.

 The amount of P22.309 billion in accumulated retained earnings was what the Big 3 had left as of end-2004 after they distributed cash dividend of P11.819 billion from 2002 to 2004. Of the three, Petron had the biggest retained earnings of P11.764 billion. Caltex had P1.203 billion as of end-2003. Only two, however—Petron and Pilipinas Shell—dipped into their surpluses and made their stockholders happy with P5.156 billion and P6.663 billion cash dividend from 2002-2004. It really pays to be big and profitable.

The financial performance of the three oil companies is being told here to bring into focus what is not much known to the public: that it is time private companies, especially those raking in big profits, also practice what is now generally known as corporate social responsibility, or CSR. Which Pilipinas Shell has been doing for 25 years now—giving back to the public a portion of what it earns here through development-oriented projects, which if finances through Pilipinas Shell Foundation Inc. (PSFI). 

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PSFI will mark its 25th year as a nonstock corporation registered Commission on August 19, 1982 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Its Sanayan sa Kakayahang Industriyal, or SKIL, one of PSFI’s earlier projects, makes out-of-school youths employable after a few months training on machine repair and electrical work. In 1985, it followed this up with an agricultural training program for the children of small farmers to improve the productivity of their small farms, which maybe the only source of livelihood of the family. Sanayan sa Kakayahang Agrikultura is a more appropriate and timely humanitarian project in a country where the farmers are neglected and government places more emphasis on more industrial developments and less on agricultural progress. Someday, SAKA’s one-year farming course, which emphasizes scientific farming technologies and entrepreneurial skills, may even help in reducing the Philippines’s too much dependence on imported rice to support its growing population that has topped 88 million.

 Having seen SAKA’s  success—one program helped sugar farmers in Negros provinces in 1985—Shell Foundation expanded the program to include the promotion of the use of organic fertilizer by farmers as part of an advocacy to reduce production costs and help preserve agriculture ecosystems. 

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These two projects and the others which Pilipinas Shell Foundation undertook in later years must have cost a lot of money, which does not worry PSFI because it has money for charitable causes. A report filed with the SEC listed the foundation’s total assets at P155,012,111 and available fund balance of P110.168,024 as of December 31, 2005. In 2005, PSFI received P84,574,863 in donations and grants, up from P8,296,733 in 2004. The amount represents 46.801percent of total revenues in 2005. (Revenues here consist of recoveries from partner agencies and program sponsors; gains on sale of short-term investments; and interest and other income.)

Pilipinas Shell Foundation’s funds come from major donors such as Pilipinas Shell, Shell Philippines Exploration B.V., Mirant Foundation Inc. and Global Fund. In 2005, Pilipinas Shell gave P78.30 million to the foundation and additional P75 million “as seed money for other programs.”

 As a nonstock, nonprofit entity, PSFI is exempt from paying taxes. The amount, which should have been remitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, goes to the foundation’s various projects for which it spent P170,719,554 in two years—P90,505,660 in 2005 and P80,213,894 in 2004. The top recipients of financial assistance from the foundation in 2005  were Mirant solar project, which got P24,024,997; social development programs in Palawan, P15,365,161; Global Fund—tropical disease foundation, P15,279,016; and Oriental Mindoro Malampaya Sustainable Development Program, P10,929,554.

FILINVEST Development Corp. (FDC), a publicly traded holding firm controlled by the Gotianun family, is joining the list of companies that will conduct follow-on offerings possibly this year.

Navara may push Nissan back to top

UNIVERSAL Motors Corp. launched Monday its totally new Nissan Frontier model, the Navara, pinning hopes that the vehicle will help the company reclaim the top spot in the local pickup truck market.

PUBLICLY-traded information technology and online gaming firm IPVG Corp. is raising P400 million from the sale of up to 50 million common shares via private placement or direct offering of securities to a limited number of financial investors.

NEW YORK-BASED ParTech Inc. sees the Philippines as significant market for a portfolio of point-of-sale (POS) systems for the restaurant, hospitality and retail sectors.

PILIPINAS Shell Petroleum Corp. is a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. As one of the Philippines’s so-called Big 3 oil companies, it is also one of the more profitable, having piled up retained earnings of P9.342 billion at one time, or as of December 31, 2004. This was the year when Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corp. and Caltex Philippines Inc. had combined surpluses, or retained earnings, of P22.309 billion.