Riding on the phenomenal success of the “AlDub” team of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, mobile content provider Xurpas Inc. has teamed up with Eat Bulaga producer Tape Inc. to launch a mobile game.
Xurpas said in a statement AlDub, which broke a world record of 41 million tweets in a single day, may also set a new record in the mobile game space, with the launch of a game called “AldubYou: Ang Hamon ni Lola Nidora.”
“We’re absolutely excited to work with a property as massive as AlDub,” said Xurpas chairman and chief executive Nix Nolledo.
Nolledo said the “AldubYou” mobile game is just the start of the rich portfolio of digital content that Xurpas will be building for AlDub.
The partnership is expected to boost Xurpas’ revenues, considering that mobile games are the largest revenue contributor to the company’s business.
Tape senior vice president Jenny Ferre said the game was tightly integrated into Eat Bulaga’s top-rating ‘Kalyeserye.’ Jenniffer B. Austria
Another Tan expected to head BAP
BDO Unibank Inc. president and chief executive Nestor Tan could possibly become the next Bankers Association of the Philippines president, succeeding his younger brother, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. president and chief executive Lorenzo Tan.
The imminent succession is among the hot topics among bankers’ these days, as BAP’s next annual membership meeting is scheduled in the first quarter next year.
“Next BAP president? I don’t know… That is what people are talking about. I’m now the first vice president and naturally… Maybe…,” Tan told reporters during BDO’s media appreciation party on Friday night in Makati City.
Lorenzo was re-elected for the second time as BAP president during its annual membership meeting and board election on March 23, 2015. He was first elected president in 2013 and re-elected in 2014.
Nestor was elected first vice president, Union Bank chairman Justo Ortiz as second vice president, Development Bank of the Philippines president Gil Buenaventura as secretary and Roberto Panlilio of JP Morgan Chase Bank as treasurer. Cesar Virtusio remained executive director.
BAP currently has 35 commercial banks, 21 local banks and 14 foreign bank branches as its members. Julito G. Rada
Del Monte attempts to raise $360m
Del Monte Pacific Ltd. is making another attempt to raise as much as $360 million through the issuance of dollar-denominated preferred shares. The shares aim to convert a substantial amount of its debt from short- to medium-term, which would significantly improve the group’s current ratio and liquidity.
The fruit producer already filed an application with the corporate regulators in 2014 to issue 36 million preferred shares at an indicative price of $10 per share to refinance a bridge loan with BDO Unibank Inc., which partially funded the company’s acquisition of US-based Del Monte Foods.
This would have been the first dollar-denominated preferred shares offering to be listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange. Del Monte, however, decided to defer the fund raising activity because of volatile market condition at that time.
Another reason why Del Monte did not push through with the deal was because the company was required to secure prior Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approval, as the transaction would affect money supply in the local financial system.
Bangko Sentral reportedly did not want investors in the first dollar-denominated preferred shares offering to buy dollars from the local banking system to invest in the offering.
To ensure that the second attempt of Del Monte to issue dollar-denominated preferred shares would succeed, underwriters involved in the transaction said the company needed to assure Bangko Sentral that investors in the fund raising activity would not source their funds from the local financial system.
So where will the investors in Del Monte’s preferred shares offering get their dollars to invest in the financial instrument? Maybe from other channels outside the banking system, such as the currency black market, if that exists in the country.