A 1-2-3 sweep

Based on excise taxes paid to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, San Miguel Corp.’s Red Horse is now outselling the better-known San Miguel Pale Pilsen.

Not that SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang is overly worried, with Red Horse at number one, San Mig Light at number two, and San Miguel Pale Pilsen at number three.

Then again, that San Miguel’s flagship brand can be beaten (even by a sister brand peddling a more affordable product) is great news for competitors such as Asia Brewery, Inc. president Michael Tan.

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Did you know 1: Even with 22 titles, Summit Publishing’s Liza Gokongwei is still not satisfied. Another magazine is about to be launched.

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Did you know 2: This investment bank easily cleared at least $2 million, helping package the initial public offering of a company in the first half of the year. The investment bank subsidiary, which is based abroad but is headed by a Filipino, was not overly concerned that the IPO, which supposedly generated a lot of foreign investor interest during its international roadshow, has had a lackluster performance from day one of its listing at the Philippine Stock Exchange.

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Did you know 3: The 30-percent stake of the Zobel family in business paper, BusinessWorld, is still up for sale – for the right price, of course.

The worth of the passive shares, which the late father Enrique Zobel purchased as a show of support to good friend, BW’s late publisher Raul Locsin, is currently valued at less than half the cost of the mansion in Boracay that EZ’s heir, Iñigo Zobel, just built.

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Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. has cause to worry.

Aside from making sure that prices remain stable – its primary mandate under the amended Bangko Sentral Law – the central monetary authority has to ensure that the banking system is stable.

Among themselves – and certainly with Say Tetangco within hearing distance – bankers have been saying for some time now that the industry wasn’t as financially healthy as it should be.

Just take the commercial banking industry, which can easily reduce the number of players by about half to 20 without a significant reduction in the quality of service (and that includes loans granted) given to the general public. One way to strengthen the industry, of course, is for the Bangko Sentral to jack up the capital requirement, forcing the weaker banks to either close down or to merge with stronger banks.