June 29, 2007

THE humongous Mall of Asia will get its first hotel ironically not from mall owner Henry Sy Sr. but from a cherry-picking niche player, the Microtel chain.

According to the grapevine, a 150-room Microtel will groundbreak by the third quarter beside the seaside church right across the Sy mall, and construction is being rushed so it could open in 10 months.

Actually, the Sys will still be a partner of sorts to the flagship Microtel project since the taipan still owns the land on which the 15-storey-hotel will be built, with Microtel leasing the property for 30 years. Read the rest of this entry »

June 29, 2007

Construction magnate Felipe “Philip” Cruz Jr. has filed theft and malicious mischief charges against Philrealty after the listed company, worried by constant complaints from neighboring Magnolia, finally removed the rusting boom and crane left dangling by Cruz’s men on the rooftop of the unfinished 32-floor condominium in the former Pepsi compound in New Manila. Read the rest of this entry »

The Nokia E90 Communicator will still be officially launched in the Philippines mid-July — apparently at about the same time in the United States, as a US website vendor says the new “brick” will only hit the shelves by July 25, while another US retailer says the new business phone is available “on order” — but two shops in Makati’s Park Square have them on stock now for at least a couple of weeks now.]

US websites are quoting the new Nokia wonder at the $900-range, pre-tax; the Park Square stores, at P45,000.

June 27, 2007

HE beefed up the officer corps of the Philippine National Bank when he was brought in by taipan Lucio Tan to turn it around.

Now that he is at the helm of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Lorenzo Tan has quietly been creaming the PNB ranks to strengthen his management team at the Yuchengco bank.

Ever since he officially joined RCBC on February 1, Tan has already pirated, or has accepted the applications of, the following:

o Ismael Sandig, executive vice president and head, retail banking. Sandig left the Union Bank to join Tan in PNB, then jumped to East-West when Tan got temporarily waylaid out of banking to preside over the local Sun Life insurance group;

Read the rest of this entry »