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MANILA, Philippines — Your favorite weekly food market is now in Ortigas Malls. Mercato Centrale has opened its doors at Estancia, Capitol Commons and The Strip at Circulo Verde.
AREIT [AREIT 34.00, up 0.3%] [link] declared a Q4/23 dividend of P0.55, payable on March 20 to shareholders of record as of March 4. The dividend has an annualized yield of 6.47% and a trailing 12-month (TTM) yield of 6.32%. The total amount of the dividend is P1303 million, which is 87% of the P1500 million in distributable income that AREIT reported for the quarter. Relative to AREIT's IPO price, the dividend increased AREIT's total stock and dividend return to 52.67%, up from its pre-dividend total return of 50.63%. The stock is up 1.8% year-to-date (YTD). AREIT’s full-year distribution ratio settled at 90.3%.
Last January 10, the SEC officially approved 11 Bitcoin spot ETF applications, significantly boosting confidence in the cryptocurrency market.
Larry Summers [link], the former US Treasury Secretary (under President Bill Clinton) and former Chief Economist of the World Bank, said that the US Federal Reserve may still need to raise rates before it can declare victory in the war against inflation. In statements to Bloomberg, he said: “People are a little bit in too much of a hurry to declare that we’ve done all the monetary policy that we need to do.” Referring to the big rallies in stocks and US Treasuries, Mr. Summers continued: “It makes me not as certain as many people that the job of containing inflation is over and that the war is done.” Mr. Summers also criticized the management of the country’s debts, and shared concerns that the labor market is perhaps too hot to be “consistent with sustainable inflation at 2%.”
I got this question in response to news that the House of Representatives approved two measures that seek to ban POGOs in the Philippines. POGOs, or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, are licensed and monitored by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), and have been controversial since their presence exploded during Rodrigo Duterte’s term as president. These shady organizations proliferated wildly in the early days, causing huge spikes in demand for commercial office space for the companies and residential condos around those offices for the workers who were largely Chinese nationals. Our commercial REITs were initially exposed to these POGOs in various degrees due to the tempting rents that could be (in theory) extracted from these companies, but some of the more risk-adverse REITs quickly moved to limit their exposure due to a long (and growing) list of problems with these POGOs. The most important problem was the chaotic management of the sector by PAGCOR and the President, which seemed to only attract “here for now” type companies that often struggled to pay their monthly rents or outright refused to do so. Of all the commercial REITs, all have (in some form) committed to reducing their POGO exposure over time. Three REITs have declared that they are POGO-free: AREIT [AREIT 33.90, down 0.6%], MREIT [MREIT 13.52, down 0.1%], and Filinvest REIT [FILRT 3.21, up 0.9%]. RL Commercial REIT [RCR 5.49, down 2.0%] said back in 2021 that 2.8% of their tenants were POGO, but have not (to my knowledge) provided any updates on the proportion of their tenants that are POGOs. DDMP [DDMPR 1.21, up 0.8%] reported in its FY22 Annual Report that it still had 37% of its total GLA rented out to POGO and PAGCOR-accredited tenants.
MANILA, Philippines — Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar is pushing for legislation that will mandate the regular review of the K-12 Basic Education Curriculum to ensure the “employability and competitiveness” of its graduates.
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ Grill Expert, Mang Inasal opens 2024 with top recognitions conferred at the 20th Philippine Quill Awards and the 59th Anvil Awards, two of the country’s top award-giving bodies in the field of business communication and public relations.
MANILA, Philippines — The new year is starting with a bang! The beloved cookie brand OREO is teaming up with the iconic universe of Pokémon to deliver a special edition cookie collection and merchandise that’s sure to delight both Pokémon trainers and cookie lovers.