Quick Take: PSE's new tech and 5 more market updates
Bloomberry [BLOOM 9.40 0.7%] [link] said that the commercial opening of Solaire North, its newest casino resort project, has been pushed back one quarter to Q1/24.
MB Quick Take: This is a minor delay in the grand scheme of things. It might have been a bigger deal back when gaming stocks were on life-support during the COVID years, but now that things are opening and gamblers are losing to the house at that nice, predictable rate, a small delay doesn’t seem as critical. All of the gaming tailwinds are still in place here.
Ovialand [OLI] [link] said that it will conduct a P2.0 billion IPO in the middle of this year. OLI is looking to raise money to increase its landbank for expansion of its “premium affordable” house and lot development strategy.
MB Quick Take: I’ve been covering OLI’s path to the market for years. It’s interesting to see that the size of the offering has increased. As is mentioned in the article, OLI is coming to market partially because OLI has gone as far as it affordably can on debt. The continually-rising rates probably made it more palatable to sell additional equity.
PSE [PSE 176.00] [link] says that it will reveal a “new technology” at its upcoming Investment Expo that will be aimed at retail investors to help those investors make informed investment decisions. Ramon Monzon, the PSE’s President, would not reveal any details about the initiative, only that it was “very interesting, educational, and informative.”
MB Quick Take: My core advocacy is for the democratization of access and information, so any new product that gives the common trader more info, or better info, is something that I support. While there is still a huge gap in access and information between the wealthy, connected investors and the “retail” traders, anything that narrows that gap is good. The continued existence of that gap (through things like the non-punishment of insider trading, for example) is something that we should all fight against, but improvements (regardless of how incremental) do need to be celebrated.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) [link] data shows that consumer debt is increasing at a rate that suggests “households are resorting to borrowing just to get by”. Total credit card loans breached P561 billion in January, and total “salary-based loans” increased 67% to P120 billion in the same period. Salary-based loans have been growing in popularity since April of 2022, when the aggregate value of those loans stood at only P79 billion.
MB Quick Take: This one gave me goosebumps. These are people who have been pushed to borrow money to meet their basic needs, and with the cost of goods projected to rise and continue rising indefinitely from this point, they are not going to be getting any relief. Notions of one-off ayuda stunts or the framing that we should feel relieved when inflation “mathematically” disappears thanks to the high-bar effect make me nervous about how this will play out over the next couple of years. Is this just a continuation of that disgusting k-shaped recovery that we saw after the COVID crash? Are all our gains against poverty in recent decades about to be washed away in this rising tide of prices? Make no mistake, there are plenty of implications for consumer-facing stocks in this little headline.
Phoenix Petroleum [PNX 8.10] [link] said that it “intends to settle the pending dividends” for PNX4 “this month or next”, but that it is prioritizing “operations” and has retained a financial advisor to help “shore up working capital”.
MB Quick Take: Non-payment of dividends is an incredibly large, bright, and flashy red flag. These are basic obligations that should be neglected in only the most dire of circumstances, and it’s my feeling that this is where PNX finds itself at the moment. How PNX has handled this situation has told me everything that I need to know about dealing with this group. New traders need to be aware that this is not normal, and it’s not business as usual.
International Container Terminal Services [ICT 207.00 3.5%] [link] FY22 net income up 42% to US $677 million, which Enrique Razon (ICT’s owner) attributed to a 20% increase in revenue. The revenue bump was the sum of a 9% increase in top-line container volume, and a bottom-line focus on “tight operational controls”.
MB Quick Take: If your bet is on the domestic middle-class, or on the continued recovery of China in any sense, then you probably know that ICT is playing middleman to both of those strategies. They are the largest port owner/operator in the Philippines, but they also have an impressive footprint in strategic locations around the world that service net-importers and net-exporters alike. They declared a regular and special dividend that is 4.8% of yesterday’s closing price of P207/share.
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Merkado Barkada's opinions are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock. These daily articles are not updated with new information, so each investor must do his or her own due diligence before trading, as the facts and figures in each particular article may have changed.
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