Newly listed Splash Corp. is signing this week a property joint venture with Vista Land, which is majority owned by the family of Senate President Manuel Villar. The property is located near Asian Development Bank in Ortigas Commecial Center.

This will be the first property project of Splash, which is majority owned by Rolando and Rosalinda Hortaleza, who made money from skin-whitening products and are now exploring the American health and wellness market with virgin coconut-oil products.

As everybody knows, the Hortalezas have received in the past year or two buyout offers from major multinational companies engaged in consumer goods. Highly patriotic, the couple turned down all offers.

Rumors that Trade and Investment Development Corporation of the Philippines, which is better known as Philexim, may merge with SB Guarantee and Finance Corp. has gained ground with the appointment last Wednesday of Francisco Magsajo as Philexim president and moving his predecessor, Virgilio Aquino to SB Corp. as chairman to replace the resigned Mel Alonzo.

Clearly, there will only be one surviving entity.

Aquino has been hanging on to Philexim without Palace paper since the start of the year. Philexim’s marketing gains under his predecessor, Joel Valdes, have pretty much been wasted.

Chito Magsajo used to be president of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Better yet, he’s spent ages at the Philippine National Bank (PNB), particularly its international operation, under former PNB presidents such as current Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom Edgardo Espiritu, former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Gabriel Singson, and current Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila.

Did you know 1: John Gokongwei Jr. is building another hotel near The Medical Center inside the Meralco compound. Gokongwei currently owns two hotels in the area, both managed by Intercon Group’s niche market brands, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza.

Did you know 2: The 20,000 Filipino caregivers in England have a slight problem. You see, the Border and Immigration Agency has increased the minimum wage for caregivers from £5.53 per hour to £7.02 pounds.

Current employers of these caregivers, however, have to agree to the wage increase or the caregiver is up for deportation because they’ve just lost their jobs, right?

Lafarge Semento is currently saving 13 percent in energy cost by using carbon-neutral rice husks to fire kilns in its Rizal and Bulacan plants.

In the long term, the company hopes to save P384 billion in energy cost and to prevent 68.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollutants by investing P250 million in equipment using alternative fuels such as rice husks. Before the money is shelled out, the company has asked World Wildlife Fund (Phils.) headed by Lorie Tan to do a feasibility study.

Lafarge Semento is part of Lafarge Cement Services Philippines Inc., which reports to its head office in France.

CALL them the crème de la crème of Philippine Web design.

They took center stage as the best works of local web site designers were honored in glitzy and glamorous rites during the 10th Philippine Web Awards (PWA), which techies refer to as “the Webbys.” It was Friday night at the Teatrino Bar and Restaurant, Promenade, Greenhills Commercial Complex, San Juan City.

New tech services firm takes shape

PUBLICLY traded Pacific Online System Corp. (POSC) and Diversified Financial Network Inc. are forming a joint venture to provide technical-service solutions to domestic and foreign businesses.

ORACLE Philippines recently launched the Oracle Global Development and Delivery Center in the country.

Francis Ong, managing director of Oracle Philippines, said the center is a milestone for Oracle’s Philippine unit and will benefit the country in terms of technology development. “Oracle has invested in a dedicated business unit based at this center that will develop cutting-edge solutions for the utilities industry and the public sector in the Philippines and also globally. This center will contribute to the efforts of the global product development teams,” Ong said in a statement.

COMPANIES have so far raised P88.43 billion from initial and additional offerings, surpassing last year’s record of P57.2 billion, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported over the weekend.

A MOVIE production company was the biggest surprise of the week ending November 23 when it continued rising and closed at P1.04.

The performance of Premiere Entertainment Productions Inc. may puzzle the public investors because the company reported a net loss of P2,009,508 in the first nine months of 2007 and a deficit of P395,304,695.

Newly listed Splash Corp. is signing this week a property joint venture with Vista Land, which is majority owned by the family of Senate President Manuel Villar. The property is located near Asian Development Bank in Ortigas Commecial Center.