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VASQUEZ
Builders president Gary Vasquez has gone sachet-style or
tingi. The inventor of prefabricated houses (read:
think Lego blocks for adults) is now selling his housing
kits in bits and pieces. Here’s the marketing concept.
A
prospective homeowner chooses from a catalog of more
than 50 house designs. He can, of course, choose to buy
all the materials in one shot. If the buyer, however,
has cash-flow problems, he may choose to lock in on a
futures-type program where he buys, say, the walls this
month and the ceiling next month and so on at today’s
prices.
Oh yes,
the program locks in the buyer for a year with free
warehousing.
As
everybody knows, prefab significantly reduces
construction time. At most, a five-bedroom prefab house
can be put up in five months’ time. Most of that time is
spent on finishing work (read: painting, tiling, and the
like) on the basic housing kit.
In the
early 1990s, Vazbuilt teamed up with Ayala Land Inc. for
low- cost to mid-range housing projects in Laguna. The
two companies have since been talking through the
lawyers on possible patent infringement. Seven years
after, there’s talk that a settlement may soon be
reached.
****
Did you
know 1:
Since August 8, 2008 is deemed a highly auspicious day,
churches are now fully booked that day for weddings
(read: and so are hotel restaurants for the wedding
reception). Store/branch openings are being scheduled
for the day but some had to be reset because
ribbon-cutters and other, uhm, influential people can
only attend so many events in a day.
As
everybody knows, the Summer Olympics in Beijing will
also start on August 8.
Did you
know 2:
Based on carnapping reports in Metro Manila, the car
candy of the moment seems to the new Toyota Grandia.
The talk
is Mindanao has a standing order for these shuttle-type,
air-conditioned vans in preparation for, well, the 2010
political campaign.
Did you
know 3:
The financing company of Toyota Motor Philippines offers
a superior car financing deal than sister company,
Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co.
Then
again, Metrobank will finance any car model, while
Toyota will finance only the purchase of its favorite
brand.
****
Given
their robust financial performances, there are three
banks that would be quickly snapped up by any of the Big
Four banks (read: Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Banco
de Oro Universal Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands
and Philippine National Bank), should these be on the
block.
The
purchase of any one of the three would instantly
catapult the buyer to number one among the country’s
commercial banks.
Here are
the three banks and their major impediments to selling:
Security
Bank—After divesting from his other businesses, the bank
is the sole major investment of chairman Frederick Dy.
The bank has a professional team headed by president
Albert Villarosa.
China
Bank—Although the bank has long been associated with the
family of president Peter Dee, it’s common knowledge in
Binondo that this is Hans Sy’s inheritance. If the bank
is up for grabs, the logical buyer would be sister
Tessie Sy-Coson’s Banco de Oro.
United
Coconut Planters Bank—The bank with the country’s first
universal banking license continues to have a board
dominated by the Philippine Commission on Good
Government (read: there are issues on who really owns
the shares). Interestingly, its current president Ramon
Sy was the bank’s first president after the Edsa
Revolution. |
