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Converge tops up its dividend as profits rise; working capital and capex set the pace of future hikes

  We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. By most measures that matter to dividend-minded investors, Converge ICT’s latest numbers read like a company stepping into a more mature phase—still growing fast, still investing heavily, but now increasingly comfortable returning cash to shareholders. The question, of course, is whether this comfort is a one-off or the start of a durable pattern. The answer from Converge’s 9M2025 (17‑Q) and its FY2025 performance update is nuanced: earnings momentum is clearly upward, cash generation is still robust, but the path to higher dividends will likely be paced by working-capital discipline and capex intensity. A topline that keeps compounding—without losing its margin edge Start...
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$MM’s Next Rally Can’t Run on Headlines Alone

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. By the time the antitrust clearance landed, the market had already begun to rediscover MerryMart Consumer Corp. (MM)—a quick repricing that looks more like relief than conviction. The Philippine Competition Commission’s (PCC) green light for DoubleDragon’s entry removes a key uncertainty, and it reinforces the narrative of a “strategic” partnership between property infrastructure and essential retail. But if MM’s share price is to stage a sustained recovery—one that survives the news cycle and outlasts the next bout of risk-off trading—it will need to deliver what public markets ultimately demand: better unit economics, structurally higher margins, disciplined rollout quality, an...

PORTS to PLAY: Razon dwarfs Tanco in Ports, but Tanco's PLUS beats Razon's BLOOM in Gaming

  We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. In Philippine business lore, Enrique Razon Jr. is the undisputed king of the quayside. In ports, the narrative is almost too easy: global scale, big ships, big contracts, big reputation. But business has a way of humbling neat hierarchies—because in gaming, the scoreboard flips. Eusebio Tanco, best known in ports as the Asian Terminals counterweight to ICTSI’s colossus, is the one running away with the casino-and-clicks race. The punchline is stark: Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts ended 2025 in the red , while Tanco’s DigiPlus is posting surging revenues and hefty profits —with cash piling up fast enough to fund dividends and buybacks in the same breath.  Bloomberry: Bigger ...

Bloomberry’s 2025: Expansion Meets a Soft Patch — and the Margin Squeeze Shows

  We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. Bloomberry Resorts Corp. (BLOOM) ended 2025 with a set of numbers that read like a case study in timing risk: the group added a new earnings pillar through Solaire Resort North (SR North) and rolled out MegaFUNalo! , its broad-mass digital gaming platform—both of which raised the cost base—just as the legacy Solaire Entertainment City operation ran into a VIP-led downturn and a weaker hold rate . The result was a sharp compression in EBITDA and a marked decline in operating cash flow , pushing the company into the red for the year.  The headline: from profit to loss, with EBITDA taking the brunt Bloomberry swung to a net loss of about ₱2.6 billion in 2025 from a ro...

Oriental Petroleum: A Quiet Value Stock with Leverage to Rising Oil Prices

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. At first glance, Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp. (OPM) rarely attracts attention in a market dominated by banks, conglomerates, and property developers. Its oil production is modest, trading liquidity is thin, and earnings growth is anything but exciting. Yet beneath the surface, OPM stands out as a textbook value investment —one that combines an unusually strong balance sheet with embedded upside from rising crude prices. Fortress Balance Sheet Sets OPM Apart What differentiates OPM from most Philippine-listed oil and gas plays is not production scale, but financial strength . As of its latest reported results, OPM holds roughly US$90 million in total assets , the overwhelm...