We are sorry, the requested page does not exist
Solaire shines at prestigious IAG Academy Awards
Bloomberry Resorts Corporation’s Solaire Resort Entertainment City is pleased to announce a successful evening at the IAG Academy Awards, held last night. The resort garnered significant recognition, including winning the much-coveted awards for Best Regional Asia-Pacific Integrated Resort, Outstanding CEO, and Best Gaming Floor. These accolades are an affirmation of Solaire’s relentless pursuit of excellence and a testament to its commitment to delivering unparalleled experiences to its customers. In a glittering ceremony that brought together the most illustrious names in the industry, Solaire shone brightly, further cementing its position as a leader in the gaming and hospitality sectors. The Hall of Honor Outstanding CEO award was a nod to the visionary leadership of Enrique K. Razon, who has been steering Solaire’s course in the industry, consistently directing the organization towards growth and innovation. Superior gaming environment Meanwhile, the Best Gaming Floor accolade acknowledges the resort’s superior and vibrant gaming environment that offers a unique blend of excitement and sophistication to both seasoned and novice players alike. The highlight of the evening was when Solaire Resort was conferred with the Best Regional Asia-Pacific IR award, a prestigious recognition that highlights the resort’s unwavering commitment to providing an integrated and holistic entertainment experience to guests from all over the world. This award is a validation of the exceptional quality of facilities and services that Solaire has to offer, setting a benchmark in the region for luxury, entertainment, and hospitality. Collective efforts of the Solaire team Speaking on the wins, Thomas Arasi, president and chief operating officer, said, “These accolades reflect the collective efforts of the passionate and dedicated team at Solaire. Our unwavering commitment to excellence and our continuous pursuit to redefine luxury and entertainment in the region have brought us here. I dedicate these awards to every member of the Solaire family who works tirelessly to create magical and memorable experiences for our patrons.” As Solaire continues to pave the way in redefining world-class standards, these awards serve as both an honor and a responsibility to further elevate the level of service and experience offered to its clientele. The resort reaffirms its commitment to its patrons by promising to consistently innovate and offer unrivaled experiences that exceed expectations. The post Solaire shines at prestigious IAG Academy Awards appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
PSEi bucks Asia dip, ends in green
Local stocks closed the week in positive territory yesterday, with the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index finishing at 6,222.94, up by 39.87 points or 0.64 percent......»»
Heart Evangelista proclaimed top influencer in intl’ fashion metrics
Heart Evangelista shared on her Instagram stories how she has essentially been named the number one fashion influencer in the Asia Pacific region in terms of Media Impact Value. MIV is a data measuring tool by the company Launchmetrics where the company is able to “measure and benchmark the impact of all media placements and mentions across different Voices in the Fashion, Luxury, and Beauty industries." This allows fashion brands to measure the ROI of their marketing campaigns. Heart Evangelista has a following of 11M on Instagram and 2.88M on YouTube and 6.9M followers on Tiktok with an accumulated 51.9M likes. She takes her followers on a behind-the-scenes look during fashion week in Paris and Milan on her vlogs, while her Tiktok reels feature short, fun clips of Heart at her most fashionista. Evangelista generated $1.27M across 11 placements according to the data. Asia, in the last decade or so, has been the valued emerging market in terms of fashion and luxury brands, as this is the region that brings in not only the most newly minted young millionaires but billionaires as well, according to figures in 2020 from data firm Wealth X. The story featured prominently in Women’s Wear Daily, amid a backdrop assessing how much power influencers still wielded in the industry. The American publication has long been considered the fashion bible of the industry worldwide. The post Heart Evangelista proclaimed top influencer in intl’ fashion metrics appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
SMPC bags Silver in FinanceAsia poll
Integrated energy company Semirara Mining and Power Corporation or SMPC was recognized as one of the best energy companies in the Philippines, bagging the silver award in the 2023 Asia’s Best Managed Companies Poll by FinanceAsia. The annual poll serves as a prestigious benchmark of Asia’s top-performing companies, showcasing organizations that have demonstrated superior performance and corporate behavior over the past year. The poll is conducted based on nominations from Asia’s influential community of investors and financial analysts, putting a spotlight on companies that have shown exceptional management, financial performance, and corporate social responsibility. Way to go In her acceptance speech during the awarding ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong, SMPC president and COO Maria Cristina Gotianun said the recognition served as a reminder of how far the company had come. “Last year, we marked our silver anniversary under the DMCI group. Our journey has been a challenging one, but we have emerged stronger and more resilient because of the support of our stakeholders,” Gotianun shared. “We are grateful for their trust, and will continue to work hard to meet their expectations,” she added. FinanceAsia is a leading publisher of financial news in the Asia-Pacific region. The annual Best Managed Companies poll is one of their most respected features, honoring the best companies in Asia across multiple sectors. The post SMPC bags Silver in FinanceAsia poll appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Losing cash while holding it
Consulting firm Manulife Investment Management or MIM has presented a financial paradox in that an investor loses money kept in the vault for too long. Investors are increasingly concerned about market risks because of factors such as the increases in US Federal Reserve interest rates, individual banking crises, and increasingly serious geopolitical risks. As a result, many investors are reluctant to invest in the market, and some even sell their stocks and bonds to minimize losses. In response, banks offer higher deposit rates to appeal to investors, who choose to hold money in the form of term deposits. MIM, however, warned in a report that holding cash may seem like a good option during periods of market volatility, but cash remains vulnerable to inflation, especially in the current macroeconomic environment. Inflation erodes the purchasing power of cash, meaning it will buy less with it in the future. A simple calculation to prove the difference between holding cash versus stocks: Between 2011 and 2021, the return on cash (as measured by the annualized return of the three-month US Treasury bill) was 0.47 percent. Adjusted for inflation, which was 2.17 percent on average during those 10 years, the return was minus 1.7 percent. Put simply, $100,000 in Treasury bills in 2011 would have had $84,243.26 of buying power 10 years later. Conversely, over the same 10-year period, a $100,000 investment in the S&P/TSX composite dividend index, the stocks benchmark in Canada, would have resulted in $200,797.37 of buying power, thanks to its inflation-adjusted annualized return of 7.22 percent. In addition, investors should also consider how real interest rates (i.e. bank deposit rates minus inflation) affect their returns. From January to February 2023, the annual nominal interest rate on three-month term deposits in most Asian countries or regions varied from 2.5 percent to 5.4 percent. Then there’s deposit rates However, when adjusted for changes in the consumer price index during the same period, the real three-month time deposit annual interest rate ranged from negative 5.2 percent to 1.09 percent. “History tells us that equities, bonds, and some income-oriented investments have the potential to deliver higher long-term returns than cash and could potentially outstrip inflation,” MIM’s report stated. From 2009 to 2022, compounded annual nominal returns for Asian equities and bonds were 8.15 percent and 4.38 percent, respectively. Real estate investment trusts in the Asia-Pacific region generated an annualized return as high as 11.38 percent. The post Losing cash while holding it appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
World warming at record 0.2C per decade, scientists warn
Record-high greenhouse gas emissions and diminishing air pollution have caused an unparalleled acceleration in global warming, 50 top scientists warned Thursday in a sweeping climate science update. From 2013 to 2022, "human-induced warming has been increasing at an unprecedented rate of over 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade," they reported in a peer-reviewed study aimed at policymakers. Average annual emissions over the same period hit an all-time high of 54 billion tons of CO2 or its equivalent in other gases -- about 1,700 tons every second. World leaders will be confronted with the new data at the critical COP28 climate summit later this year in Dubai, where a "Global Stocktake" at the UN talks will assess progress toward the 2015 Paris Agreement's temperature goals. The findings would appear to close the door on capping global warming under the Paris treaty's more ambitious 1.5C target, long identified as a guard rail for a relatively climate-safe world, albeit one still roiled by severe impacts. "Even though we are not yet at 1.5C warming, the carbon budget" -- the amount of greenhouse gases humanity can emit without exceeding that limit -- "will likely be exhausted in only a few years," said lead author Piers Forster, a physics professor at the University of Leeds. That budget has shrunk by half since the UN's climate science advisory body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), gathered data for its most recent benchmark report in 2021, according to the Forster and colleagues, many of whom were core IPCC contributors. Unintended consequences To have even a coin-toss chance of staying under the 1.5C threshold, emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other drivers of warming generated mostly by burning fossil fuels must not exceed 250 billion tons (Gt), they reported. Bettering the odds to two-thirds or four-fifths would reduce that carbon allowance to only 150 Gt and 100 Gt, respectively -- a two- or three-year lifeline at the current rate of emissions. Keeping the Paris temperature targets in play would require slashing CO2 pollution at least 40 percent by 2030, and eliminating it entirely by mid-century, the IPCC has calculated. Ironically, one of the big climate success stories of the last decade has inadvertently hastened the pace of global warming, the new data reveal. A gradual drop in the use of coal -- significantly more carbon intensive than oil or gas -- to produce power has slowed the increase in carbon emissions. But it has also reduced the air pollution that shields Earth from the full force of the Sun's rays. Particle pollution from all sources dampens warming by about half-a-degree Celsius, which means -- at least in the short term -- more of that heat will reach the planet's surface as the air becomes cleaner. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Earth System Science Data, the new study is the first in a series of periodic assessments that will help fill the gaps between IPCC reports, released on average every six years since 1988. Deadly heat "An annual update of key indicators of global change is critical in helping the international community and countries to keep the urgency of addressing the climate change crisis at the top of the agenda," said co-author and scientist Maisa Rojas Corradi, who is also the environment minister of Chile. Co-author Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a co-chair of the 2021 IPCC report, said the new data should be a "wake-up call" ahead of the COP28 summit, even if there is evidence that the increase in greenhouse gases has slowed. "The pace and scale of climate action is not sufficient to limit the escalation of climate related risks," she said. Researchers also reported a startling rise in temperature increases over land areas -- excluding oceans -- since 2000. "Land average annual maximum temperatures have warmed by more than half a degree Celsius in the last ten years (1.72C above preindustrial conditions) compared to the first decade of the millennium (1.22C)," the study reported. Longer and more intense heat waves will pose a life-and-death threat in the coming decades across large swathes of South and Southeast Asia, along with areas straddling the equator in Africa and Latin America, recent research has shown. The post World warming at record 0.2C per decade, scientists warn appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
CIAC conducts Mactan-Cebu airport studies
CLARK FREEPORT — To further improve the agency’s oversight functions of the Clark International Airport, the Clark International Airport Corporation has conducted benchmark studies regarding the success of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport operations. According to CIAC president Joshua Bingcang, the agency’s management team held a benchmarking dialogue and information exchange with officials of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority in Lapu-Lapu City last 24 May. He added that both agencies are attached under the Department of Transportation and independently assigned to exercise oversight functions over privately-run airport operations. “We have similar roles in helping our respective private airport operators succeed, so we have chosen Cebu airport and MCIAA management as benchmark, to determine performance standards and to identify best practices in airport operations, tasks which the MCIAA so far are performing effectively, and which we intend to replicate,” Bingcang said. Mactan-Cebu Airport was named as Asia’s Best Airport among 200 airports in the Asia Pacific under the ‘5 million passenger category’ in the 2023 Routes Asia Awards and is currently operated by the GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. “While the private consortium Luzon International Premier Airport Development Corp. operates the Clark airport,” said Bingcang. “Our functions must align with the evolving needs and expectations of passengers and stakeholders of the Clark airport so we have created an oversight team to further study and compare Clark airport operation’s metrics using the MCIAA’s monitoring practices in evaluating the performance of its private airport operator.” “In turn, we’ll collectively analyze what the effective measures are, and which processes may improve efficiency to boost revenues for the Clark airport’s private operator LIPAD,” he added. The CIAC’s oversight roles include the assurance that the airport facility is operated and maintained safely and securely in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards and must conform to regulations set by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and other safety and security rules. As of 15 May, the Clark airport services 17 international flights over 11 destinations and nine domestic routes with 14 flights. The post CIAC conducts Mactan-Cebu airport studies appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Next five years set to be hottest period ever: UN
It is near-certain that 2023-2027 will be the warmest five-year period ever recorded, the United Nations warned Wednesday as greenhouse gases and El Nino combine to send temperatures soaring. Global temperatures are soon set to exceed the more ambitious target set out in the Paris climate accords, with a two-thirds chance that one of the next five years will do so, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said. The hottest eight years ever recorded were all between 2015 and 2022 -- but temperatures are forecast to increase further as climate change accelerates. "There is a 98-percent likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period as a whole, will be the warmest on record," the WMO said. The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries agree to cap global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 -- and 1.5C if possible. The global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15C above the 1850-1900 average. The WMO said there was a 66 percent chance that annual global surface temperatures will exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for at least one of the years 2023-2027, with a range of 1.1C to 1.8C forecasted for each of those five years. ' Uncharted territory' While this does not mean that the world will permanently exceed the Paris benchmark, "WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency", said the agency's chief Petteri Taalas. "A warming El Nino is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory. "This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment. We need to be prepared." El Nino is the large-scale warming of surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. The weather phenomenon normally occurs every two to seven years. Conditions oscillate between El Nino and its opposite La Nina, with neutral conditions in between. The WMO said earlier this month that the chances of El Nino developing were 60 percent by the end of July and 80 percent by the end of September. Typically, El Nino increases global temperatures in the year after it develops -- which in this cycle would be 2024. Despite the cooling influence of La Nina conditions over much of the past three years, the warmest eight years on record have all been from 2015 onwards, with 2016 the hottest. Heat gets trapped in the atmosphere by so-called greenhouse gases, which are at a record high. The three major greenhouses gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Temperatures rising since 1960s Global land and sea mean near-surface temperatures have increased since the 1960s. The chances of temperatures temporarily exceeding 1.5C above the 1850-1990 average have risen steadily since 2015, a year when they were considered close to zero. Britain's Met Office national weather service is the WMO's lead center on yearly to 10-yearly climate predictions. While there is a 66-percent chance that one year between 2023 and 2027 will exceed the 1.5C threshold, there is now a 32 percent chance that the entire five-year mean will do so, the Met Office said. "Global mean temperatures are predicted to continue increasing, moving us away further and further away from the climate we are used to," said Met Office expert scientist Leon Hermanson. Temperatures in 2023 are likely to be higher than the 1991-2020 average in almost all regions except for Alaska, South Africa, South Asia and parts of Australia, the WMO said. Parts of the South Pacific Ocean are likely to be cooler than average. The post Next five years set to be hottest period ever: UN appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
PSEi ends flat amid index rebalancing
The rebalancing of the benchmark index as well as the somber mood in Asia despite solid gains on Wall Street limited the market’s movement yesterday......»»
Improving vaccine rollout
As of Friday’s closing, the benchmark PSEi is down 13.2 percent YTD, making it the worst performing stock market in Asia......»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, Jan. 22
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed mixed on Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.4 percent, at 3,606.75 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.7 percent higher at.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, Oct. 20
BEIJING -- Major Chinese stock indices ended higher Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.47 percent to close at 3,328.1 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, Aug. 11
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 1.15 percent at 3,340.29 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.40 percent lower at.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, Aug. 11
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 1.15 percent at 3,340.29 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.40 percent lower at.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1130 GMT, Aug. 6
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed mixed on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.26 percent, at 3,386.46 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.7 percent lower at.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1110 GMT, Aug. 4
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed mixed on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.11 percent, at 3,371.69 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.75 percent lower at.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1200 GMT, Aug. 3
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed higher on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index going up 1.75 percent, at 3,367.97 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.40 percent hig.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, July 28
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed higher on Tuesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.71 percent at 3,227.96 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.31 percent higher at.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, June 18
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.12 percent to end at 2,939.32 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.65 percent h.....»»
Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, May 27
BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.34 percent, at 2,836.80 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.23 percent lower.....»»