Business done easier

Teleconferencing has really come of age now that we have several multinational companies operating within our shores. It’s such a valuable tool now for these big companies whose concerns span several countries. For one, it’s immediate – there is no more down time spent on travelling which is easily two to four days if you are crossing continents. For another, it saves a lot of money that would have been spent on airfare and accommodations plus f & b.

Now there’s telepresence, and for those less than techno savvy like me (namely, those in my age bracket), this is teleconferencing brought a notch higher with clear imaging. It’s like talking to several people from say, New York, London and Beijing face to face by just simply dialing up. Then you are hooked to each place simultaneously and an instant conference is under way. You don’t even have to serve them food and drinks!

Globe Telecom partnered with American telecommunications giant AT & T for this project. This is actually not entirely new in the Philippines as a few multinational companies already make use of this technology in the privacy of their board rooms. What Globe has done is to make the technology and the facility accessible to more people via public rooms. Anyone who wishes to rent the facility can just make reservations for these public rooms which are open and manned 24 hours. AT & T has over a thousand of these public rooms spread across the globe, and bringing it to the Philippines was a brilliant idea from Globe. Now, doing business in the Philippines has just been made easier, more convenient with this new facility.

Agriculture joins IPO big-leaguers

Two of the companies we featured this week on the Biz Watch segment of Business & Leisure, your weekly business and lifestyle TV news and features magazine are big players in the local food industry. I am writing about them because many of our big businesses deal on technology, real estate development or manufacturing and very few choose to risk their millions and plunge into the agri-business, which is what the country needs if we are to achieve national food security. Though we are an agricultural country, the risks are high because of the severe typhoons that periodically visit the country and we are sorely lacking in the infrastructure needed for a risk-diminished agricultural concern to flourish.

AgriNurture was in the news recently because it is ready to embark on its IPO now, a year after its listing in the stock exchange. It is one of the very few fully integrated agricultural firms listed in the stock exchange. In their July 23 stockholders meeting, they discussed their stock right offering of one share for every share held prior to the follow on offering at P2.50 per share. In addition, the company is set to issue one warrant for every two shares (exercise price of P10.00) three years from the listing date. They expect to between P400-500 million from the stock rights, and another P1-1.5 billion from the follow on offering to fund their big acquisitions, expand their hectarage, consolidate their farm holdings and maximize their supply potential both for the domestic market and for the export market.

Whew, that is really going big into the food business. They are into distribution of fresh fruits (they are the biggest exporter of the Philippine mango), vegetables, frozen and canned food, rice, and corn.

This won’t get your goat

On a more modest scale, we had an initial talk with the owners of Ebenezer Farms, the father-and-son tandem of Jonie and Jeff Valencia who breed goats and sheep in their 7-hectare farm. They import full blood lines of goats from Australia and New Zealand, cross them with our puny ones, and come out with bigger, bulkier goats. Imagine that our native goats weigh around 15 to 20 kilos when full grown, whereas the Australian goats weigh in from 90 to 120 kilos. When crossed the first time, the offsprings weigh up to 35 k, doubling their weight already. Also, the native goats give out only 15 ml of milk, whereas the new crossbreeds can give as much as 2 liters of milk per session.

One can only appreciate the advantages to our local farmers, but what we really appreciate more is the readiness of Jonie and Jeff to share their knowledge and expertise with the Filipino farmers so they can improve their lot. I’ll have more on this for you when we do an actual farm visit for a TV feature.

Proud Pinoy

Don’t look now but there is a young Filipina, a wisp of a girl really, just graduated from high school who wrote a full novel, a psychological thriller that was published by Canada-based Eternal Press Nov. 2009. Nicole Fernandez Fuentes, daughter of Pia and Jomel Fuentes and granddaughter of Ellen Ramirez, who just turned 17 is now a freshman at the University of Asia and the Pacific. How many precocious young girls can churn out a full novel, and a very good one at that at age 16? The Philippines should be shouting out her feat and we should pat ourselves for having such a gifted writer in our midst. The book, “Keeping Her In The Light” had heart-warming reviews “A clever little story from first timer Nocole Fuentes. She caught me in the beginning and didn’t let go until the end” –Clayton Bye; “Ms. Fuentes does a good job differentiating his personalities and watching each of them interact with Allie and with each other was horrifyingly fascinating”—RD Whitney @ Book Wenches; “I was blown away. I was captivated and read the book in one sitting” — Super Mom @What You Reading Now; “She demonstrates early mastery of the intricate skills of writing thrillers. Her first work is a page-turner.” –Dr. Paul Dumol, Prof, Univ. of Asia & the Pacific).

Check out her paperback at Fully Booked at the Fort today Sept. 4 and tomorrow, Nicole will give a talk to the book store’s loyal patrons at 6 p.m. Kindle edition and paperback also available at Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Her-Light-Nicole-. Kudos!!

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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