Century & Umbria bosses support liberalizing foreign investor rules

Foreign direct investment, we should not restrict it. We should make it easier. — Nouriel Roubini

A growing consensus among business groups and entrepreneurs support progressive proposals by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Philippine Ambassador to the US Joey Cuisia who are pushing for amendments to restrictive economic provisions of the Philippine constitution, particularly the 60-40 ownership rule.

At the Jan. 30 breakfast forum of Harvard Business School alumni at Shangri-La Makati, guest speaker Ambassador Joey Antonio of Century Properties Group shared his success ideas and also said during the animated open forum: “I support proposals for Charter change 1,000 percent! I think we should remove restrictions on foreign ownership of Philippine real estate for certain classes, especially residential and not agricultural. Why are we afraid of foreigners owning buildings here when they cannot bring them out? Look at New York and London where foreigners can own real estate. The Arabs and the Russians are buying there; why not reform our rules here?”

At the Jan. 31 launch of the one-hectare Umbria Commercial Center project in Biñan, Laguna held at Edsa Shangri-la Hotel, president Andrew Jonathan Ng and managing director Anton M. Hechanova of developer Piccadilly Circus Landing, Inc. both support reform initiatives “to soften the rules a bit” on foreign investors. They also call for improvement of the peace and order situation to woo more investors. Andrew Ng also added: “I hope the government can help make our Philippine peso more stable, because recently its exchange rate has been fluctuating.”

Both the prime-movers behind Century Properties and Umbria — representing two different scales and generations of Philippine property developers —seek to be innovative in order to stand out from the numerous competition.

In the case of Umbria, the 31-year-old Andrew Ng and the 44-year-old Anton Hechanova said business is about innovation, so their project “is not the traditional box-type mall, but a community strip lifestyle center… it is al fresco, with places for pedestrian activities, like Bonifacio High Street for Biñan.”

Umbria will have 16,000 square meters of gross floor area and 10,000 square meters of leasable space for 80 commercial units. Its elegant contemporary design is by architect Jonathan Gan. Groundbreaking will be in March, and completion will be in September or October this year. Umbria is 10 minutes from Alabang and only one kilometer from the high-end Brentville subdivision of Filinvest Group.

Branding, realty bubble and ‘be cautiously optimistic’

Joey Antonio, developer of innovative high-end condominiums Trump Tower, Acqua, Centuria Medical, Milano, Azure, Knightsbridge and Gramercy, explained why he invests a lot in brands, even in realty.

He said, “I believe branded products are better to sell than unbranded, this is true whether for products or services. Look at Belo Medical Group and the success of its branding. Behind a good brand is a legacy. Look at Hermes or Gucci bags used by women; it’s not only the name but the quality behind the brand which has survived the test of time.”

Antonio continued: “Branding is very important not only to products, but also to a city. There are five items which can make Manila a great destination. First, there’s the airport. It’s so blatantly obvious. I urge you Harvard Business School alumni to use your influence with our political leaders. Let’s all form a petition to say: ‘Hey, guys, stop the nonsense. Who’d like to come here if their plane has to fly above the airport for 30 minutes before landing, because our runways are congested?’”

When I asked Century Properties boss Joey Antonio whether there is danger of a real estate bubble, especially with high prices and such a high supply of condos, he replied: “A real estate bubble starts with unregulated credit, and secondly, the people who borrow more than what they can pay, like if they buy their third vacation homes or like in Spain where condos are built in the middle of highways but with no buyers. Bangko Sentral Governor Say Tetangco told me we’re cautious here in the Philippines and they have limited banks’ real estate loans to only 20 percent of their total portfolios. A realty bubble will only happen if there’s uncontrolled credit.”

His views on the rosy real estate and stock markets continuing their bull run? Ambassador Joey Antonio candidly responded: “I have guarded optimism, because, you know, the news headlines can change… Our real estate industry is always buzzing with optimism, but be cautious. We’ve been through four cycles in real estate ever since 1986, so one must be risk-averse and be cautiously optimistic.”

Jackie Chan to donate 100% of wealth, free movies at Shangri-La mall

Congratulations to Star Cinema for its first foreign film with Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac movie which is entertaining, fun, family-oriented, action-packed and has a good story revolving around developing nations’ quest to recover cultural treasures looted by Western colonizers. Said to be his last action film, Jackie Chan earned two Guinness World Records for “Most Stunts Performed by a Living Actor” and “Most Credits in One Movie” since he is co-producer, director, scriptwriter and lead actor.

The story starts with the true history of China’s Summer Palace, which was looted in 1860 by British and French troops in the Second Opium War. Among its treasures were bronze heads of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals designed by European Jesuit priests for the Chinese emperor and created in 1750.

Today, two of the Chinese zodiac bronze statues — the Rat and the Rabbit — are in the private collection of French industrialist Pierre Berge, co-founder of the Yves Saint Laurent Couture House and former partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. In 2009 when the tycoon auctioned the two relics at Christie’s in Paris, 44-year-old Chinese art collector Cai Mingchao of Fujian placed the winning bid but announced he refused to pay on “moral and patriotic grounds.”

In 2007, Macao billionaire Stanley Ho bought one of the looted Chineze zodiac bronzes — the Horse — for US$8.84 million at an auction by Sotheby’s and he donated it back to China.

Last year in Beijing, philanthropist Jackie Chan, after receiving an award, announced that he plans to donate 100 percent of his estimated US$130 million to charities. He believes if his only son is capable, he could make his own money, but if he isn’t capable, then the son would just waste his money.

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Congratulations to businessman Ricardo Leong and his wife Dr. Rosita Leong — parents-in-law of Cebu Pacific Air boss Lance Gokongwei — for helping organize with Ateneo de Manila University Celadon organization the 7th Spring Film Festival of Chinese-language movies from Feb. 1 to 10 at Shangri-la Mall. Due to the support of Credit Suisse, Shangri-la, Confucius Institute, Chevrolet, Teresa Marble, Limketkai Center, Footzone, ChaTime, Richprime and others, admission is free for all films.

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