TANDUAY Holdings Inc., a listed company controlled by tobacco magnate Lucio Tan, has offered to buy for P85.06 million the 10.66-percent stake of Miguel Ossorio Pension Foundation Inc. in Victorias Milling Co. (VMC).

The foundation, the second-biggest stockholder of Victorias Milling, owns 170,133,159 shares in the country’s largest sugar mill.

In an interview Thursday, Tanduay Holdings president and chief operating officer Wilson Young said the offer was made because they are convinced of the mill’s ability to continuously register positive income and exit early out of its rehabilitation, which started in 2000.

Tanduay Holdings is an existing strategic investor in Victorias Milling after a P300-million cash infusion it extended to the mill in 2003. If Tanduay Holdings chooses to convert this into equity, Young said they will earn another 15-percent stake in Victorias Milling.

Philippine National Bank, a lender also controlled by Tan, currently owns 10.15-percent stake in the sugar mill.

Young said after booking a net income of P47 million in fiscal year 2006, Victorias Milling is expected to post a profit of P150 million in fiscal 2007.

In the mid-’90s, Victoria Milling encountered financial difficulties due to its failure to effectively contain rising overhead costs as sugar prices dropped and competition from both new and expanded sugar mills and refineries rose.

As a result, the company  was unable to service its maturing debt obligations. Hence, after going through different stages of legal proceedings, Victorias Milling came up with an alternative rehabilitation plan that was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 29, 2000.

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THE Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA) on Thursday said the partnership between Smart Communications Inc. and GV Broadcasting System Inc. was a “nifty way” of circumventing a law prohibiting a phone firm from engaging in broadcasting.

PHILIPPINE stocks Thursday rose for the sixth day, climbing the most in two months, after US productivity and labor data suggested a recession may be averted in the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest market for goods and labor.

TANDUAY Holdings Inc., a listed company controlled by tobacco magnate Lucio Tan, has offered to buy for P85.06 million the 10.66-percent stake of Miguel Ossorio Pension Foundation Inc. in Victorias Milling Co. (VMC).

GLOBE TELECOM asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Thursday to impose sanctions on Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) for forum-shopping even as the commission already said the latter is not guilty of it.

If things pan out, Smart Communications will start selling next year its international services to Italy-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). By then, the company would have hopefully worked out the kinks in its proposed Dubai expansion.