Biz Buzz: Why St. Luke’s dropped Davao
It looks like there won’t be any St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) branch rising anywhere outside Metro Manila in the foreseeable future.
In 2017, SLMC announced a plan to build a hospital at Ayala Land’s Azuela Cove in Davao. The site had been boarded up to prepare for construction but eventually, the project was scrapped.
SLMC president and chief executive officer Dennis Serrano said while they had previously looked into establishing a hospital facility in Davao, subsequent market research showed that demand for premium health care was still concentrated in Metro Manila. This compelled them to scrap their earlier prospect.
“Many of our patients in the outlying [areas] in Luzon, in Mindanao, in Visayas, when they need to be taken care of, they come to Manila,” he said. They had wanted to change this trend by bringing St. Luke’s closer to the provincial market, but noted that research findings did not support this goal.
“While it was a health-care decision, it was also a business decision,” he added.
Despite this setback, Filipinos looking for quality healthcare still have something to look forward to as the SLMC has embarked on a P24-billion expansion to improve its services and widen its reach.
This expansion includes the construction of a new P18 billion-hospital at the Aseana complex in Paranaque to be finished by 2029, as well as the P6 billion renovation of its Quezon City branch, which will be completed either by 2027 or 2028. —Alden M. Monzon
NU Bacolod coming
If the SM Mall branches are expanding, so are its schools, apparently.
Sy family-owned National University (NU) is opening its 11th campus in the country, this time in ‘chicken inasal capital’ Bacolod City.
“In Bacolod, we hope to provide quality, updated, innovative education to the young Bacolodnons—both in content and in instructional method that reflect the NU standard of quality education,” said Renato Carlos Ermita Jr., NU president and CEO.
Both the Bacolod campus and East Ortigas campus in Pasig City will open in August.
Next year, Las Piñas and Cebu will also have their own NUs.
Of course, this is all part of NU’s massive goal of having 20 campuses by 2028 and a whopping 100,000 students by 2027.
NU, which has also been catching up on UAAP cheerdance championship numbers, currently has 55,000 students, from around 40,000 two years ago.
With three years left and a gap of 45,000 students, we’re curious to see whether NU will be able to reach its goal without, of course, sacrificing quality education. Abangan! —MEG J. ADONIS
‘COD’: Bad for RE
Filipino e-commerce shoppers may know the acronym COD as “cash on delivery,” but industry sources in the renewable energy (RE) market said “cause of delay” may be best to describe some local government units (LGUs).
Contrary to the Marcos administration’s push for ease of doing business, RE providers have to deal with the tedious process of securing permits for some of their projects.
Completing all the necessary permits sometimes takes a minimum of six months, said the sources, who are known players in the RE space.
They, however, kept mum when asked which provinces are hard to deal with.
Their wish for the upcoming State of the Nation Address of President Marcos: that government will streamline the permitting process.
They even backed the Department of Energy’s plan to integrate LGU permits into the energy virtual one-stop shop (EVOSS) system, the online platform for processing of energy project permits.
The Marcos government is aiming to grow the share of RE in the power mix to 35 percent by 2030. — Lisbet K. Esmael
Citicore cozying up to SM
CCiticore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) wishes to score more deals with billionaire Ramon Ang, with its officials hoping that their newly-announced Bataan solar farm venture won’t be the last.
“Anything is possible kapag na-happy ang San Miguel sa amin, baka dumami (If they are happy, there mayl be more),” CREC president Oliver Tan said in a chat with reporters.
He said that in any partnership, more tie-ups would “naturally” come if both parties are satisfied.
It was earlier this month when CREC disclosed to the public its joint venture with San Miguel Global Light and Power Corp. (SGLP), a unit of SMC Global Power Holdings, the power arm of Ang-led San Miguel Corporation.
According to Tan, they are targeting to start ground works by the latter part of the year, with the completion eyed by 2025.
“We’re doing the engineering design. The timetable is: once we secure all the remaining permits, we look to start construction before year-end,” he said.
Both companies did not reveal the intended investment for the project, but industry experts estimated that producers must shell out P40 million to P50 million per megawatt.
According to the previous disclosure to the local bourse, a “special purpose entity” would be created, with CREC initially holding 49 percent while the rest would go to SGLP. CREC will subscribe additional shares during the construction phase, subsequently leading to equal share in the ownership arrangement. — Lisbet K. Esmael
Tribute to Big John
Tycoon John Gokongwei Jr. lives on, not just in the business empire he had built but literally in some of the consumer brands under the group that pay homage to his nickname.
After rebranding convenience store chain Ministop as Uncle John’s, Robinsons Retail Holdings. Inc. has brought to the market a new potato chip brand named after late tycoon. We’re talking about Big John’s potato crisp, packaged in vertical tubes like Pringles. Prominently displayed at a Marketplace branch, the new potato chip brand comes in four flavors: original, cheese, sour cream and onion and Japanese seaweed,
Asked about this new brand RRHI chief Robina Gokongwei-Pe told Biz Buzz that this is a private label offering of the retail network. It is exclusively manufactured, of course, by affiliate Universal Robina Corp., the maker of local popular snack foods like Chippy and Chiz Curls and licensee of Japanese brand Calbee.– Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
The sky’s the limit
When the Philippines and South Korea agreed to increase weekly seat capacity for flights, it was a welcome development not only for passengers but for airlines as well. The local carriers are excited to expand their South Korean network.
The cap, however, is only imposed on Manila-Incheon flights. Elsewhere in the country, it appears that sky’s the limit.
“Right now, we believe that we have a very liberal policy on developing our air space. We are open skies outside of Metro Manila,” Transportation Undersecretary Roberto Lim said.
This opportunity allows airlines to further increase their flight capacity, especially to destinations where demand is high.
Now, the question is: Will the airlines provide more flights to South Korea and other parts of the world soon? Let’s see! — Tyrone Jasper C. Piad
