AYALA Land, Manila Water Announce New Presidents

Fernando Zobel de Ayala, Chairman of Ayala Land, Inc. and Manila Water Corp. announced last March 2 several movements in both companies’ senior management line-up effective after the respective companies’ annual stockholders’ meetings in April. The movements have been
approved by the respective companies’ Board of Directors:

• Jaime I. Ayala, current Ayala Land President, will return to Ayala Corporation
• Antonino T. Aquino current Manila Water Corp President, will take over Ayala Land as President
• Rene Almendras will take over as Manila Water President

Zobel said, Jim Ayala, who "led Ayala Land (ALI) to unprecedented growth and profitability, will rejoin the holding company, Ayala Corporation, as Senior Managing Director and a member of its Group Management Committee.”

Under Ayala's leadership, ALI has achieved 130% revenue growth and 80% earnings growth over five years. It has increased residential revenues 2.5 times on the back of a revamped portfolio of market-leading products and brands; doubled mall and office gross leasable area with exciting new malls and office campuses; successfully launched two new sustainability oriented cities, Bonifacio Global City and Nuvali; and made significant forays into new business lines, such as leisure and tourism, and new geographies, such as Thailand and China.

Zobel further adds, “The Ayala Group is entering an unprecedented global economic environment with a strong balance sheet, and Jim’s strategic expertise, executive track record and M&A experience will be useful in the Group’s pursuit of new opportunities.”

Antonino T. Aquino, currently President of Manila Water Corp, will succeed Ayala as President of ALI. Aquino has been with the Ayala Group for the past 28 years in various capacities, and was formerly a Senior Vice President of Ayala Land.

Zobel said “At Manila Water, Tony Aquino has presided over one of the most remarkable transformations of a public service company.” Under his leadership, Manila Water was able to upgrade Manila’s East Zone’s water distribution
system which now supplies 24 hour water supply to more than 5 million people from less than a million people with 24/7 water supply in 1997. Shareholder value increased more than 10 times during the same period.

Zobel further notes, “Under his leadership, Tony Aquino has made MWC one of the most awarded and celebrated success stories in Philippine corporate history. Tony now returns to ALI with a mandate to keep its leadership position in a rapidly changing world while deepening its reputation for large-scale, innovative, sustainable communities.”

Rene D. Almendras, currently Group Director of Business at Manila Water will succeed Aquino as President of Manila Water. Almendras joined the Ayala Group in 2001 as Head of ALI’s Visayas-Mindanao Group and concurrent President of two listed companies, Cebu Holdings, Inc. and Cebu Property Ventures and Development, Corp. He also served as Group Head of Sales and Marketing at ALI, eventually setting up and concurrently heading the Operations Transformation Group and Strategic Procurement prior to moving on to MWC in 2007.

At MWC, Almendras took on the Company’s largest operating unit as Group Head
for Business, which serves as the direct link of MWC to its customer base, and has done extremely well. Over the past two years, he has instituted major structural changes to better service MWC customers and introduced new processes to increase productivity and efficiency. These have contributed in a major way to the achievement of the 100% customer satisfaction rating in the Company’s latest customer satisfaction survey.

Zobel concludes, “Ayala takes pride in its deep bench of senior executives and are very fortunate to count Jim, Tony and Rene among them. Through these movements, we are able to strengthen the holding company, enable our operating companies to continue on their trajectory of performance, and provide our executives with new challenges and opportunities.”

Source: ALI Press Release dated March 2, 2009

Philex Now A Gold Mine

Philex Mining Corporation, the Philippines' largest mining company, is now more a gold mine than a copper mine, according to Dr. Walter W. Brown, Philex Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Since the price of gold has been testing US$1,000 per ounce recently, and copper prices have seen weak levels in the last few months as a result of the declining demand in the housing market and automobile sectors in the US and European community, the value of Philex concentrate shipments of golg and copper have reversed with the latest shipments now showing that gold accounts for 72% of the value of the concentrates while copper accounts for only 28%

Since the last quarter of 2008 up to today, the gold values in the concentrate shipments of Philex have consistently outstripped the copper values. This trend is expected to remain as the world recession continues to hit the entire developed world and has begun to spill over to the developing world. Gold, which has traditionally been regarded as a safe haven during turbulent economic times, has been testing new price highs while copper, which is very dependent on the housing and automobile markets have seen prices decline by more than half since its highs in 2008. Thus, Philex is a good natural hedge against base metal prices because gold prices are expected to stay up during this financial turmoil. As the financial turmoil subsides, gold prices are expected to soften while copper prices will firm us as the world recovers from recesssion, Brown pointed out.

Philex is currently drilling and developing only gold and copper deposits with gold values(in dollars per ton of ore) higher than the dollar value of the copper in the ore. Typically, these gold/copper projects take at least three years to develop.

Recently the Board of Philex Mining declared a stock dividend of 25% to be presented for shareholder's approval at the special meeting to be help on April 21, 2009.


Source: Philex Press Release dated Feb 25, 2009

Asean Stock Exchanges Agree to Electronic Linkage

THE PHILIPPINE STOCK EXCHANGE (PSE) announced in a press release that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the other ASEAN Exchanges to create a trading linkage allowing investors from the ASEAN countries to buy or sell ASEAN-listed securities through their local brokers. The MOU was signed last month during the 7th ASEAN Exchanges CEOs Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

The electronic linkage project will commence with the creation of an electronic linkage currently referred to as the “ASEAN Common Exchange Gateway” will initially link Bursa Malaysia (BM) and The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) followed by the Singapore Exchange, Ltd. and the Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc.
The linkage will also include Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).

The gateway, expected to be launched in 2010, will be an entry point to be set up in each exchange for brokers and investors to trade securities listed on any of the ASEAN exchanges.

Mr. Francis Lim, PSE president and chief executive officer said “We welcome with much enthusiasm this project to set up an electronic linkage among the ASEAN Exchanges. Not only will the project mean a more meaningful partnership with our ASEAN counterparts but it will also lay the foundation for an integrated and harmonized ASEAN stock market.”

Lim cited the benefits of an integrated and harmonized market for securities among the ASEAN Exchanges, saying that this trading linkage will position the ASEAN as an asset class and a viable investment destination.

Lim added: “This linkage provides exciting opportunities for our market participants to expand their investment horizon to ASEAN markets. Any Filipino investor can now buy Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai and Singaporean securities with the same ease as buying Philippine securities and vice-versa. The trading linkage can also provide opportunities for investors outside ASEAN to easily trade ASEAN securities.”

Lim concludes: “This project is not just an integration of the ASEAN stock markets, but more importantly, reflects our vision of taking the PSE onto the global platform of a wider investment community. With this intra-ASEAN initiative, we’re taking along with us the growth of our listed companies, investors, market participants as well as the economy of the ASEAN countries.”