ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion
BusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph
A broader look at today’s business
n
Saturday, August 23, 2025 Vol. 20 No. 314
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
P25.00 nationwide | 14 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
STAKEHOLDERS ASIA CUTS RATES STEEPLY TOURISM SOLD ₧152B IN TOURS, AS TARIFFS HIT GROWTH SERVICES LAST YEAR–TPB
IN this November 6, 2024, file photo, former Greece Tourism Minister and current Member of the Hellenic Parliament Haris Theoharis visits the Philippine Stand at the World Travel Market in London, meeting briefly with Tourism Promotions Board COO Maria Margarita Montemayor Nograles. STELLA ARNALDO
By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo Special to the BusinessMirror
P
RIVATE tourism stakeholders generated some P152 billion in actual sales from foreign and local travel buyers in 2024.
TARIFF HANGOVER Shipping containers sit at the Manila North Harbor on Thursday, August 7, 2025. The Philippines, once boosted by frontloaded exports ahead of US tariffs, now faces slowing trade momentum as the impact of higher levies drags on growth and central banks across Asia cut rates. AP/AARON FAVILA
By Swati Pandey & Claire Jiao Bloomberg
C
ENTRAL banks in Asia have started cutting interest rates more aggressively than expected, and others may join the fray in the coming months, as they seek to counter the drag on growth from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The shift emerged this week, as Indonesia and New Zealand surprised markets with their dovish tilts, underscoring how policymakers are bolstering their defenses against the US trade war. Attention turns to South Korea and the Philippines next week for any hints of softening. While such moves would typically pressure their currencies against the dollar, raising inflation worries, further easing expected from the Federal Reserve next month would offer some relief. Focus is now on whether Chair
Jerome Powell will reinforce those predictions in his remarks Friday at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole gathering. A softer US dollar has allowed most Asian currencies to strengthen against the greenback this year. “The clear prescription is to ease monetary policy” outside the US, Nathan Sheets, chief economist at Citigroup Inc., wrote in a note this week, adding that impact of tariffs will be a drag on wages and prices. Growth across Asia is expected to slow into the second half of the
year, now that Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are in effect and the boost from export front-loading fades. Morgan Stanley economists, who calculate the US tariff rate for Asia has climbed to 25 percent from just 5 percent at the start of the year, expect a wave of cuts. They project a further 125-basis-points rate reduction for the Philippines through 2026, and 50-basis-point cuts for South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia and Taiwan. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand this week highlighted that the weaker demand will hurt wages and soften prices, and signaled more cuts ahead than markets had initially priced in. Bank Indonesia’s surprise cut prompted Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. to see a lower terminal rate for the current easing cycle, while Citigroup Inc. moved up its next cut expectation. The shift in expectations is also showing up in financial markets, with three-month swaps in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines all declining in August—an indica-
This was disclosed by the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), the marketing arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT), at the recent first hearing of the Senate Committee on Tourism, which is chaired by Senator Joseph Victor “JV” G. Ejercito. Of the total sales last year of 159 respondents, 15 percent or some P23 billion were attributed to their participation in TPB-led travel trade shows here and abroad. Actual sales generated last year were higher than the reported P11-billion sales leads reported earlier by the TPB. The bulk of last year’s sales leads, at P918 million, were accounted for by global travel fairs like ITB Berlin and the World Travel Market in London. TPB Chief Operating Officer Maria Margarita Montemayor Nograles later explained to the BusinessMirror that the actual sales reported by tourism stakeholders were accumulated “from previous years. So even the sales leads of 2024, we will see actual sales of that in the next few years also. Although we also see some sales leads in 2024 came in last year.”
tion of mounting dovish wagers. In the Philippines, the swap market is signaling nearly 40 basis points of cuts in the coming six months, compared with just 10 basis points of easing seen in June. Traders are betting the RBNZ will soften by 43 basis points over that time horizon, compared with 33 basis points in June. Asian economies showed surprising resilience in the first half of the year, as trade negotiations kept optimism alive and a rush of shipments to beat the looming tariffs propped up exports. But a payback is approaching with higher levies in force, according to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., which warned that Thailand and Vietnam are likely to be affected the most in Southeast Asia. “In terms of policy responses, we expect central banks to continue to do the heavy lifting through policy rate cuts while the fiscal support remains more targeted,” OCBC economists led by Lavanya Venkateswaran wrote in a note this week. “The fortunes from frontloading are likely to come to an end and weigh on export growth.”
DOT-Osec budget use ‘unsatisfactory’
PRIVATE travel sellers in the Philippines who usually participate especially in international travel trade shows have explained that it may take one to two years before they see the actual fruits of their selling meetings with potential foreign buyers, Many of the latter now see the country as a “new” destination, after their clients have Continued on A2
PHL casino firm Hann delays IPO, citing a weak market By Neil Jerome Morales Bloomberg
HANNLIVEONLINE.COM
P
HILIPPINE casino operator Hann Holdings Inc. has postponed its initial public offering originally scheduled for September, Chief Executive Officer Dae Sik Han said, as global uncertainties keep the nation’s stock market among the region’s worst performers. Hann was planning to raise up to P11.8 billion ($207 million) by selling 500 million common shares at up to P23.60 apiece. There is an option to sell 50 million more secondary shares, the company has said in its prospectus. The offer period had been planned for September 9 to 15, with listing set for September 23. The deferment was due to prevailing market conditions and sentiment, according to people familiar with the matter. Hann still intends to do an IPO when conditions are more favorable, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing information that isn’t public. The Philippines’ benchmark stock index has fallen nearly 4
percent year-to-date, bucking the 16.3-percent gain of the MSCI AC Asia Pacific index. CEO Han affirmed that the postponement was because of existing market conditions. The company operates Hann Casino Resort located in Clark Freeport Zone, a former US military base turned business and tourism hub north of the Philippine capital. The proceeds from the share sale were allotted for Hann Reserve, a 450-hectare luxury estate that will include an 18-hole golf course, international hotel brands and luxury villas. Given the current market, a
postponement of the IPO “seems the best option for Hann,” said Alfred Benjamin Garcia, research head at AP Securities. “I can only assume that the bookbuilding is not going well and there’s not enough demand to get them the valuation they want.” Hann isn’t the only Philippine company to push back its IPO timetable this year. Utility firm Maynilad Water Services Inc. has also moved its IPO to October from July to accommodate potential cornerstone investors. The Philippines has only seen one IPO so far this year, that of fuel trader Top Line Business De-
velopment Corp., which raised the equivalent of around $13 million. Brick-and-mortar casinos in the Philippines are facing lower revenues amid slower foreign tourist arrivals, including high rollers and a boom in online gaming. Gross gaming revenues from integrated casino resorts fell 11 percent to P44.1 billion in the second quarter, while those from electronic games surged 92 percent to P59.3 billion, data from the gaming regulator show. But the nation has put in place some curbs on access to online gaming amid growing concerns over addiction.
LOVE BUS ON DAVAO STREETS
Remember the iconic Love Bus of the 1970s, on which many a memory was made? The government on Friday revived the Love Bus in Davao and Cebu, pilots for a program to gift major cities a free bus ride system. Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman led the roadshow to the iconic blue-painted bus with the same red-colored heart formed by the word Love Bus in both Cebu and Davao, giving relief to commuters in early morning and evening rush hours. Story on page A3 News. MANUEL T. CAYON
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 57.2280 n JAPAN 0.3858 n UK 76.7599 n HK 7.3237 n CHINA 7.9703 n SINGAPORE 44.4179 n AUSTRALIA 36.7289 n EU 66.4474 n KOREA 0.0409 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.2498 Source: BSP (August 22, 2025)