Carlsen Wins The Chess Masters Final

Can we see a Pinoy SUPER GM soon? 

Magnus Carlsen won the 5th Chess Masters Final in a tie-break playoff with Fabiano Caruana after both players drew their final round games in Bilbao.

Caruana took a quick draw with black against Paco Vallejo, who seemed happy to make a quick exit after announcing his retirement from chess after yesterday's painful loss to Karjakin.

Carlsen had to work a little harder before earning a draw against Lev Aronian, but the result never seemed in much doubt.

The tie-break was played over two games at the rate of 4 minutes plus 3 seconds increment.  Carlsen won with the black pieces in the first game and then took advantage of Caruana blundering a piece early in the second game to seal his triumph.

Vishy Anand seemed determined to finish his disappointing tournament on a high in a no-holds barred fight with Sergey Karjakin, but a draw left the world champion back in 5th place.

So in the end Magnus Carlsen made a remarkable comeback in the second half of the tournament in Bilbao to claim victory, repeating his success in last year's edition, also in a tie-break, against Vassily Ivanchuk.

Fabiano Caruana missed out on the tournament victory after a great start in Sao Paulo, but hislive rating continues to soar, now placing him at world #5 ahead of Anand and Karjakin.

Hopefully Paco Vallejo will reconsider his hasty retirement decision.  The popular Spaniard was always going to be the underdog in this tournament, but his play was enterprising and deserved a little more luck as a reward.

World champion Vishy Anand had a very disappointing tournament, and has been playing below par for quite some time.  Can he regain his form and confidence before his next title defence, expected in October/November 2013?

CHESS.COM

Donaire Scores KO, Wins Boxing Chess Match Against Nishioka

Carson, CA - Three weight division world champion Nonito Donaire continued his domination of the 122 pound weight class with a smashing TKO win over Japanese world champion Toshiaki Nishioka. The win improved the Filipino Flash's record to 30-1 (19 KO) while the challenger dropped to 39-5 (24). 

The fight was very tentative as both fighters started to feel each other out for the early rounds. It was a boxing chess match without the fireworks in the early going. The challenger proved a tough nut to crack as he was determined to place his right glove over his face to protect it from the champion's bread and butter left hook. However, Nonito proved that he was the superior fighter as he danced and punched his way around the challenger. 

In the 6th round, the champion saw an opening and dropped the Japanese with a powerful left uppercut. The challenger appeared to be hurt and briefly exchanged with the champion. In the 9th round, Donaire baited Nishioka to come in and as the challenger jabbed, the champion released a powerful right straight that landed flush on the jaw. Nishioka beat the count but after several furies from the champion, the referee mercifully stopped the fight. 

With the victory, Donaire is poised to strut his stuff even more with more lucrative fights looming in the horizon. Opponents mentioned are the ever-durable Jorge Arce of Mexico and flashy Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux. 

This is the third fight of Nonito in the 122 pound division. He previously held world titles in the 112 and 116 pound divisions. 

Philippines new ‘darling’ of global investors

The Philippines is one of the current “darlings” of global investors seeking better returns in emerging market economies and offers even bigger potential returns in the future, according to a ranking official of foreign investment firm Religare Capital Markets Ltd.

The company, which specializes in equities investments in India and the Asean region, has decided to set up operations in the country within the year to better take advantage of the nascent Philippine economic boom.

“The Philippines is a market where people want to put money into,” Religare’s global head of equity capital markets John Sturmey said in an interview with the Inquirer. “The story here is certainly better than how it was a few years ago. Everyone is saying good things about the Philippines.”

Religare, which has the bulk of its operations in India, Singapore and Hong Kong, is hoping to tap into the growing demand from the local corporate market for investment banking and equity deals.

The appetite of local corporations for more capital on both the equity and debt sides jibes with the massive amount of liquidity found offshore as central banks in the United States and Europe try to revive their economies with cheap funds, leaving investors awash with cash and few options for better returns in their home markets.

“Investors are looking for places where they can make money,” Sturmey said, pointing out that Philippine companies used to have initial public offerings worth only $60 million. “Now we see $300-400 million deals,” he said.

Religare’s equities head also said that ongoing challenges being faced by China and Hong Kong—the twin darlings of foreign investors over the past decade—also bode well for alternative investment sites like the Philippines.

“Hong Kong and China are offering less opportunities,” he said. “They’re ‘over-banked’ since there are a lot more financial institutions chasing after fewer and fewer deals.” This has made it less attractive for firms like Religare, which would have to contend with thinning profit margins.

At the same time, the China and Hong Kong markets have ongoing difficulties with corporate governance issues, which are encouraging investors to look to other emerging market nations.

Previous to its announcement that it would set up shop locally, Religare has already participated in the initial public offering of Puregold Price Club Inc. late last year as a junior partner of lead underwriter UBS (most of Religare’s senior officials are former UBS bankers). More recently, Religare also initiated research coverage on local IT gaming firm Philweb Corp.

Sturmey said that Religare was particularly interested in the spate of “re-IPOs” being undertaken by local corporations as part of the Philippine Stock Exchange’s thrust to increase the free float of listed companies.

“These re-IPOs present good opportunities to people like ourselves,” he said. “The Philippines has great companies here but they’re trading $10,000 a day [in total value turnover].”

The Religare official expressed confidence in the local market, saying the country was “in the best place it’s been for decades, with a very strong macroeconomy and a solid political situation.”

“It’s always been overlooked for many years, even by the big banks,” Sturmey said. “The bigger question is, whether it’s sustainable.”

PDI

RLC properties dominate Ortigas Center

ORTIGAS CENTER is home to many skyscrapers, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and establishments, where Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) first established its indelible mark in the real estate industry. It is also where the first mixed-use development in the area was constructed and what we know now as Robinsons Galleria.

Considered to be one of most important business districts in Metro Manila, the Ortigas Business District is where the historic Robinsons Galleria is located. The four-level mall is home to over 500 shops, dining facilities, banks, travel agencies, appliance centers, service outlets, parcel delivery stations, computer centers, a full-line supermarket and department store, and the multi-theater Robinsons Movieworld. In front of the mall is the historic Our Lady of Edsa Shrine.

Near the mall

Annexed to the Mall’s podium are two office buildings—the Galleria Corporate Center and Robinsons Equitable Tower; two deluxe hotels—The Holiday Inn Manila and Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria; and Galleria Regency, a residential condominium.

Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria offers upscale amenities, comprehensive business support, recreational facilities and meeting expertise specially designed to suit any business traveler’s needs while Holiday Inn Manila is a four-star hotel with 285 well-appointed rooms.

The Robinsons Equitable Tower at the corner of ADB Avenue and Poveda Street is one of the most popular landmarks in Ortigas. No other business address in the Ortigas Business District is as masterplanned as Robinsons Equitable Tower. The 45-story building boasts of world-class architecture with dramatic aluminum and high-performance glass curtain walls and punched windows.

Another building in the complex is the 30-story Galleria Corporate Center with spacious office areas.

BPO buildings Cyberscape Alpha with 26 stories and Cyberscape Beta with 36 stories are strategically located and within easy access from Edsa and Ortigas Avenue. The two buildings will expand RLC’s available office space for lease by 80,000 sq m, with each tower accounting for 40,000 sq m. Cyberscape Alpha is located between Sapphire and Garnet Roads while Cyberscape Beta is between Topaz and Ruby Roads.

Residential properties

RLC’s residential properties in the area include East of Galleria, The Pearl Place Residences and The Sapphire Residences. East of Galleria on Topaz Street is a 45-story condominium where expats and other residents live. The project was completed and delivered on time and is now fully occupied.

Other RLC properties in the Ortigas Business District are The Pearl Place Residences, located on Pearl Drive corner Gold Loop and The Sapphire Residences at the corner of Sapphire and Garnet Streets. The Pearl Residences has 34 residential floors on top of a multi-level podium, while The Sapphire Residences, is the perfect setting for your live, work and play lifestyle.

RLC has also completed Sonata Private Residences and will be turned over to its new owners. Sonata Private Residences is situated in the heart of booming Ortigas Center with easier access to business hubs, schools and commercial establishments like Robinsons Galleria, SM Megamall, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Edsa Shangri-La Hotel and other prominent establishments.

Ortigas provides instant access to things that matter most in your active and busy schedule. It is the place to be for the young and rising professional and those who want a more relaxed lifestyle minus the long and difficult commutes while being at the middle of the action.

INQ.net

Things to consider when selecting a property

Moving to a new house, condo, office space, or purchasing a lot to build on is considered a milestone event. When you move to a new place, the patterns you are comfortable with change: familiar faces fade away: visual landmarks shift; and daily routines are altered. As such, the change brings lots of excitement, but with it, lots of stress and anxiety too! More than the change itself, the physical and financial preparation needed for such a move can take so much out of you. It truly is one of the most stressful events in life.

One easy way to reduce the stress and the anxieties is to do your due diligence. People, who are not in the business of buying or selling property or are not in the related technical fields, not knowing what to look for or consider, can make the process daunting. The worst is the feeling of uncertainty as to whether it is really the space that will work for you or not—or whether it will cost you an arm and a leg to make it do so. And the even bigger question is: Is it a worthy investment? To avert those anxieties, there are a few things to investigate when considering to buy or lease.

• Firstly, look into the terms of lease or ownership, deed restrictions, and the design and construction guidelines as these will determine whether your selection will actually accommodate your needs. It even helps to engage a design professional to do a preliminary study on the feasibility of the property.

• Check on the longevity and integrity of the building management or association. Are they indebted? Do they have a good pot of savings set aside to use for the larger and more expensive long-term improvements? Are they fraught with squabbling directors or owners? Are they strict in imposing lease and construction restrictions? The value of a property will eventually increase or decline depending on how well the quality of its environment is maintained.

• Investigate utility line provisions. Is there an available power line to tap into? Is the power load provision commensurate to the amount of power you will need? As an example, some of the older office spaces are not designed to house BPOs which are dense, with a large number of people per square meter of space, translating to more equipment and more power use. They will likely require an upgrade of the power feeder lines (if the building can even bring it in) in order to accommodate their requirements. More work, more cost.

• Other utility concerns relate to the type of air-conditioning system provided and if it works with your lifestyle or operation. Also check whether there has been sufficient space provided to locate both indoor and outdoor units in terms of both floor space and ceiling heights. There likely will be, but will you be happy with the parameters you have to work with? Possibly low ceilings and oddly located air conditioners? Or worse yet, an expensive system  which is solely what the building can accommodate?

In office buildings, plumbing lines are usually provided for an executive toilet and pantry, but is this tapping point located in the area where you need them? In most buildings, you can’t relocate them. Is there sufficient water pressure for the lot, townhouse or condo unit you want to buy, even when all the units have already been occupied? Does the property development support your commitment to being sustainable and provide you with opportunities for using gray water or harvesting and storing rain?

• Consider other provisions too. Are the roads wide enough to allow a free flow of traffic for when the area is well lived in?  Does the development require a good number of car parks to be provided per household so that cars do not park along the streets at night (or even during the day!)? Similar concerns with buildings: Are there sufficient elevators so that you don’t wait forever for a ride, especially during peak hours? Are the basement car parks well lit? Are the ramps comfortably maneuverable?

I could go on and on, and maybe I should have written a checklist. But I  hope these snippets can help you in cutting down what could be expensive or disastrous surprises. Don’t jump the gun. Do your homework.

By Isabel Berenguer Asuncion

Philippine Daily Inquirer

JG Summit Holdings keeps top rating with PhilRatings

MANILA, Philippines—Taipan John Gokongwei’s JG Summit Holdings has held on to its top-notch standing with local credit rating agency Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings).

In a statement, PhilRatings said its grade on JG Summit, one of the country’s most diversified conglomerates, was a reflection on the firm’s “strong liquidity, sound capitalization, very good management, and the solid market position of its core businesses.”

“It also takes into consideration the positive outlook for the domestic economy, in general, and the industries included in JGSHI’s investment portfolio, in particular,” PhilRatings said.

PhilRatings grades are based on available information and projections at the time that the rating review is ongoing.

PhilRatings cited that the JG Summit’s principal source of cash continued to be operating activities, amounting to P8.1 billion in the first half of 2012.

At the end of June this year, the group’s current debt of P42.1 billion was amply covered by total cash/cash equivalents (P29.7 billion), financial assets available-for-sale investments (P60.3 billion), and financial assets at fair value through profit or loss (P13.5 billion).

“Internally generated cash will be used to fund expansion activities, as the JG Summit Group pursues its expansion strategy,” PhilRatings said.

The research firm said JG Summit “has demonstrated its ability to provide direction for sustainable growth, while management has shown expertise to manage large-scale operations,” citing the success of subsidiaries like Cebu Pacific, Universal Robina Corp. (URC), and Robinsons Land.

PhilRatings said the three firms enjoyed strong positions in their respective industries.

In particular, URC’s brands have become “household names in the Philippines,” PhilRatings said. Robinsons Land, for its part, remained one of the country’s leading real estate developers in terms of revenues, number of projects, and project size.

The third jewel in the JG Summit crown, PhilRatings said, was Cebu Pacific, the leading low-cost carrier in the Philippines.

The airline remained as the preferred domestic carrier, with a market share of 46.5 percent for the first quarter 2012. “It pioneered the ‘low fare, great value’ strategy in the local aviation industry, targeting passengers who are willing to forego extras for fares that are typically lower than those offered by traditional full-service airlines,” PhilRatings pointed out.

What to ask your agent before buying property

In 2009, an estimated 85 percent of cases being filed with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board legal office involved refunds of installment payments on real estate properties. The refunds of installment payments included subdivision and condominium developments in Metro Manila.

What may have become an all-too-familiar scenario in the HLURB halls have been complainants filing cases against developers who didn’t complete their projects, despite receiving payments even during the pre-selling phase.

HLURB legal officer Mike Denava lamented that prospective buyers should oblige their sales agents (even of reputable developers) to show documents pertaining to the project and the developer before giving the downpayment.

Aside from that, Denava and fellow officers from HLURB advise the following, before buyers commit to pay for properties:

1 Do an honest-to-goodness reality check. Will your resources allow you to maintain a monthly amortization? Look into your source of income, whether you can afford to pay equity and the monthly installments.

“We have seen many cases of overseas workers who bought preselling properties but could no longer maintain the monthly amortization even before the house and lot or condominium was turned over because their contracts abroad were not renewed,” said Denava.

2 Check if the broker/agent is registered with the HLURB and especially ensure that the property being eyed has not been sold to other buyers.

3 Make sure that the developer has a License to Sell for the particular project. Ask the seller or broker/agent of the developer if the project is registered and has a license to sell issued by the HLURB. This can be verified in the HLURB website (www.hlurb.gov.ph).

Runel B. Taningco of HLURB’s Information and Communications Technology Division advised prospective buyers to go over the HLURB list of projects that have failed to show any license to sell and have violations on record. He revealed that most of the entries on the list involved preselling projects.

For the list of the projects in Metro Manila and Rizal that have cease and desist orders, check out http://hlurb.gov.ph/ wp-content/uploads/home/ project%20with%20CDO/ CDOENCR.htm. For nationwide projects outside of Metro Manila and Rizal, check with the HLURB regional operations at http://hlurb.gov.ph/about-us/.

“We try to put everything in the website guidelines. We try to update as frequently as possible. Preselling (violations) should be reported to us. Without reports/complaints, we cannot issue CDOs (cease and desist orders). (Our) regional offices maintain monitoring groups: status of developments of projects that were issued licenses to sell,” explained Taningco.

He added that there have been incidents where buyers did verify preselling projects at HLURB, but only after they had already been paying for the property for more than a year.

Buyers are also advised to read Presidential Decree 957, or the Subdivision and Condominium Buyer’s Protective Decree (as amended by PD 1216). The decree involves regulating the sale of subdivision lots and condominiums, and provides penalties for violations.

An Inquirer Property reader once commented that “no pre-selling should be the rule, unless the project is at least 80 percent complete.” The reader went on to say that “as it is, the delay in the delivery of the units and the documentary proof of ownership is the common practice by most developers.”

4 Personally visit the subdivision/condominium, where the house and lot or condo unit to be purchased is located. Check if the materials of the house or condo unit conform with the development standards and approved construction specifications submitted to HLURB. Check also who would pay the cost of the water and electric meters, the subdivision perimeter fence, and so on. Check also who would eventually operate the subdivision/ condominium’s water system.

5 If the project has a License to Sell, you may already enter into a contract to sell with the owner/developer. However, there are things which must be checked before signing the contract:

• The date of completion of the project as indicated in the License to Sell;

• If the property is mortgaged from the HLURB;

• The facilities and amenities represented in the advertisement flyers/brochures are in accordance with the approved subdivision and condominium plan on file with HLURB.

6 Before signing the Contract to Sell:

• Don’t sign any blank form of the CTS.

• Read thoroughly all the contents of the CTS, especially the terms and conditions in fine print.

• Secure a copy of the CTS and all other documents that you signed.

• Make sure that the CTS would be registered by the owner/developer to the Register of Deeds.

• Pay directly to the owner/developer or the marketing agent authorized by said owner/developer;

• Ask official receipts on all payments for your file.