Libro de familia

Just to make sure there is no confusion, all 17 males who currently answer to the name Amable Aguiluz have a second name.

The first Mr. Aguiluz, who wanted to start a family tradition, had eight children, seven of whom are sons christened Amable II to VIII. The third generation starts with Amable IX, the son of Amable V who answers to the nickname King and who founded the AMA Educational Systems.

The fourth generation starts with Amable XVII, the son of Amable IX who answers to the nickname Miguel and who founded the ACA Franchising Group.

By the way, ACA’s newest baby called Ink for Less is expected to hit 200 outlets when it celebrates its second anniversary by the end of the year.

The ink refilling station is currently being franchised at P300,000. Total investment cost, inclusive of the franchise fee, is between P800,000 and P1 million, depending on the location.

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If Nestle Phils. president and chief executive officer Salvador Pigem seems happier these days, that’s because his wife and youngest child are finally joining him in the Philippines.

Mr. Pigem has already packed most of his stuff, including his precious libro de familia (which contains important family documents such as the birth certificates of his three children) and is expected check out of his temporary domicile, which boasts of a fine wine cellar (an important factor for anybody who hails from Barcelona, Spain).

u u u

Bank notes 1: When Citibank recently hosted, uh, uninvited clients inside its Makati branch (there were a couple more outside), Citibank vice-president for branch operations Patrick Cheng followed standard bank procedure that placed its people above everything else.

Besides, the assistance of bank personnel was unnecessary.

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Bank notes 2: Equitable PCI Bank has temporarily pulled out all its advertising materials because of a complaint registered by a competitor before the Advertising Board.

The complainant-bank alleges that E-PCI has used a phrase earlier used by the other bank.

E-PCI has to show before the AdBoard that the phrase in question is not the exclusive intellectual property or copyrighted by the other bank.

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Bank notes 3: That Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. plans to increase its stake in another commercial bank, China Banking Corp., to 17 percent raises some interesting questions.

The most immediate one, of course, is whether the RCBC stake plus the 1.3-percent stake of Malayan Insurance Co. (both of which are majority owned by Alfonso Yuchengco, who still has lots of leftover change after selling his shares in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.) would affect Henry Sy’s continued accumulation of shares, which currently stands at 38 percent.

The talk for quite some time now is the eventual consolidation of ChinaBank and Mr. Sy’s Banco de Oro Universal Bank. As everybody knows, BDO recently acquired the branch network of Banco Santander.