AOC and RSA together again?

Contrary to rumors circulating in business circles, it would seem that Ramon S. Ang (RSA to employees) and Antonio O. Cojuangco Jr. (better known as Tonyboy) are still in good terms. Both reportedly parted ways “on a sour note” as partners in the banking and broadcast business. The two were seen being chummy with each other and engaged in animated conversation during the Tokyo visit of P-Noy.

Whispers that the former business partners had a falling out started a couple of years ago after San Miguel Corp. (with RSA as president and COO) acquired majority control of Tonyboy’s

Bank of Commerce. Speculations of enmity were further fanned when SMC fielded its own basketball team to the Asian Basketball League - which already has in its roster the Philippine Patriots co-owned by Tonyboy and businessman Mikee Romero. (The ABL is a new regional basketball league with the Patriots dominating the first season before being dethroned by the Chang Thailand Slammers recently.) RSA and AOC however said they welcome the “friendly rivalry” and see no harm in fielding two Philippine teams in the regional ball-club.

Both businessmen are involved in large businesses, with Tonyboy disclosing expansion plans for AirAsia (the Philippine unit of Malaysia’s AirAsia Berhad) with the acquisition of four more new Airbus A320 aircraft to beef up its existing fleet. Dubbed as “the mother of all budget airlines,” AirAsia plans to start direct flights from Clark to San Diego as soon as it gets the necessary permits from both the US and Philippine governments. On the other hand, RSA reportedly made an offer to purchase several Exxon Mobil units in Malaysia to widen SMC’s reach in the petroleum industry. SMC owns a majority stake in Petron, and RSA has earlier admitted plans to expand the giant conglomerate’s participation in the regional oil and gas sector.

Given these two men’s wide business interests - who knows, they may be singing “together again...”

Chevrolet tops satisfaction ratings

A survey conducted by JD Power Asia Pacific showed Chevrolet getting the highest rating in customer satisfaction on after-sales service in the Philippines. In its recent 2011 Philippines Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) study, JD Power (a global marketing information and customer satisfaction research firm) compared the amount of waiting time for customers when picking up their vehicles after service is completed, with 10 minutes being the satisfaction benchmark.

 Now on its 11th year, the study examined five factors that contribute to overall satisfaction of owners after visiting authorized service centers for maintenance or repair work during the first two years of ownership. According to the order of importance, these factors are: service quality, vehicle pick-up, service initiation, service advisor and service facility.

Chevrolet drove off with the highest honors, emerging the top among 11 brands ranked in the study which also discovered that “advocacy and loyalty are closely related to satisfaction levels with the overall service performance of the dealer.” Those who said they were highly satisfied promised to “definitely” return to the same dealership for post-warranty service. Mohit Arora, executive director of JD Power Asia Pacific-Singapore, noted that for new vehicle owners in the Philippines, “the amount of wait time to receive their serviced vehicle punctuates their impressions of the way work is managed at dealerships. Manufacturers and dealerships today realize the bottom-line impact of satisfying owners and are investing in driving service excellence.” Arora also explained that those who promptly serve customers are likely to get higher customer satisfaction and will receive positive recommendations for their service center.

 Those who continue to believe in American cars should definitely take note of this survey.

Aboitiz Power signs MOU with Marubeni

Aboitiz president and CEO Monchu Aboitiz signed a memorandum of understanding with Marubeni Corp.’s Shigeru Yamazoe to develop a 400-megawatt power plant in Pagbilao to be located beside the existing 700-megawatt coal-fired station in Quezon province. Expected for completion in 2015, the project which costs about $600 to $700 million will also run on clean coal generation technology that Aboitiz Power has been pushing for.

Known for advocating “Cleanergy,” Aboitiz Power believes that people and businesses can power their activities through cleaner and renewable sources of energy that would have the least possible effects on the environment. “We are very pleased to work with Marubeni at optimizing the capacity of the Pagbilao power station. This is part of our overall goal of providing power solutions that are competitively priced,” Monchu remarked.

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