Uneventful day

Hong kong – An otherwise eventful special general meeting among the stockholders of First Pacific Co. last Friday turned out to be one of the quickest in its history.

The stockholders were earlier convened to approve the proposed acquisition by First Pacific of Cirio’s 40-percent stake in Singapore-listed Del Monte Pacific. We all know by now that First Pacific lost in its bid to get into Del Monte because the Lorenzos who own Macondray and Co. (MCI) decided to exercise their preemption rights over Cirio’s stake. The Lorenzos sold their shares to a joint venture company owned by San Miguel Corp. and Butch Campos, giving the latter the right to exercise the Lorenzos’ right of first refusal. The combined stake of Cirio and MCI is 62 percent.

The meeting of First Pacific was convened and five minutes later, was adjourned without any resolution being passed.

It was a sad day for First Pacific but for managing director Manny Pangilinan, it is all in a day’s work and losing to SMC-Campos is not something to fret about.

Del Monte was simply not for First Pacific. It was not meant to be. After all, First Pacific attempted to buy out the Lorenzos in the past, but at that time, the latter were not interested in selling. The Lorenzos even wanted to buy out Cirio’s stake, but didn’t have the money.

As for Butch Campos, Pangilinan reportedly met with him a month back on the possibility of a joint bid for Del Monte but Butch wanted majority stake in the joint venture. Knowing First Pacific, it was not interested in being a minority. The joint venture with SMC gives Butch a bigger stake, but according to sources, SMC was given the option to become majority.

With its warchest still full, First Pacific has now trained its sights on other possible acquisitions.

Enjoyable vacations

Filipinos nowadays are quite pre-occupied with coping with the rising cost of living. It’s hard to be in a festive mood this Christmas season despite the 13th month pay and bonuses!

But almost all agree that the holidays are a welcome break and a much-needed respite from the daily grind. No doubt many are already looking forward to a more relaxing pace during the coming holidays.

And without a doubt, vacation plans are as varied as the number of islands that dot the Philippine archipelago.

For sure, thousands have already decided (mainly due to the nagging of their own children) to brave the throng of millions more from the rest of Asia, that are expected to swarm all over Hong Kong Disney during the coming holiday break.

Don’t get too excited about Hongkong Disney though. Only the first of three phases is operational and even the first phase fell short of expectations. Someone even said our very own Enchanted Kingdom is better, and cheaper of course.

During the recent South East Asian Games, we learned that most of the athletes took precious free time to visit the neighboring provinces in central and northern Luzon. And I’ve learned about how a number of them have actually talked of plans to revisit what they didn’t get enough of.

There’s the Mt. Pinatubo Wellness Spa set in the picturesque pastoral mountain ranges in Zambales. This open-air massage center is the first of its kind here in the Philippines and it uses lahar from Mt. Pinatubo for unique treatments like the sulfur spa or sulfur volcano ash spa.

Subic too made quite an impressive impact with its choices for whatever recreational activities you have in mind. The array includes diving the USS New York, The El Capitan and The Selanu Manu. You can parasail over Subic Bay or go jungle trekking then visit the butterfly garden and mini-zoo. They also have an arts center, riding stables, the country’s most modern yacht club, a nature parks and forest trails, the "heroes" hiking trail, a championship golf course, whale and sea lion shows and spa’s galore.

Further north, Pangasinan has some of the best beaches and is the site of the internationally famous Hundred Islands. And Baguio! With its cool mountain air, it’s everything cosmopolitan without the heat and traffic plus fresh, handpicked strawberries on the side. You get to experience the cool weather of Hongkong at this time of the year without leaving the country and without burning a hole in your pocket.

I could go on and on. But what is most evident is that we Filipinos have so much to discover in our own country. Many not more than a one to two hours drive away.

Just thinking about the endless possibilities makes everyone wish the Christmas break would be longer.

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