PHILIPPINE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTS - MAY 28, 2010.

MANILA, May 28 Asia Pulse - Highlights of today's newspapers:

THE MANILA TIMES:

- San Miguel Corp. (SMC) plans to acquire controlling stakes in a telecommunications company owned by the Ongpin group and a mass rail transit project.

- The Trade Department has asked flour millers to reduce the prices of bread and flour-based products in the light of declining global wheat prices.

- The power sectors regulator found that the government had double charged electricity spot market buyers for transmission line costs that were already incorporated in their transactions.

- ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday said it expects its net income to double this year on the back of higher earnings from traditional advertisers amid an improving economy.

- SM Development Corp. (SMDC), the property arm of the SM Group, doubled the amount of debt papers it is selling because of the high demand from local institutional investors.

- Alliance Tuna International Inc. plans to increase its stake in its canned tuna subsidiary in Indonesia.

THE PHILIPPINE STAR:

- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has called on local flour millers to reduce their prices following the drop in international wheat prices.

- The economy expanded by 7.3 percent in the first quarter of the year, the highest quarterly growth recorded since the 8.3 percent-expansion registered in the second quarter of 2007 on the back of sustained dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), election-related spending and a general improvement in the global environment, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported yesterday.

- PhilWeb Corp., the country's first and largest publicly-listed Internet company, expects its performance this year to break all records, largely due to the success of its Pagcor e-Games Cafe (PeGS).

- The Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd, the first and largest Filipino life insurance company drew on its 99 years of experience and expertise to achieve a consolidated net income of P2.12 billion in 2009 amidst the challenges of a global recession and domestic economic slowdown.

- Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is acquiring a controlling stake in Universal LRT Corp. (ULC), the company that owns the long-delayed Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 7 project that will run from North Avenue in Quezon City all the way to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.

- Businessman and former Trade Minister Roberto Bobby Ongpin appears to be consolidating his telecommunications interests in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) with the impending sale of two of the telcos he controls to SMC.

ASIA PULSE ms 28-05 1403