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We're weighed by Meta's disappointing quarterly results.

MegaCap tech stocks will remain in focus

with Alphabet, Microsoft, and Intel set to report today.

Here are some stocks to watch out for

when monitoring shares of Meta.

That's after the social media giant issued

light revenue guidance for the second quarter

as it forecasts higher spending.

Meta shares plunged 14% in pre-market trading.

This is the stock's biggest one-day decline

since October 2022.

Also in focus, shares of memory chip maker Micron Technology.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce

a preliminary deal with the company

for over $6 billion in subsidies

for two chip factories in New York.

Micron shares are up 0.5% before the bell.

We're also keeping a close watch on shares of Barclays

as the bank swings back to profit in the first quarter

amid a major strategic overhaul.

Shares of the British lender are trading higher by 6%.

Meanwhile, Asian markets ended Thursday trade

mostly lower as tech stocks slumped

following Meta's weak guidance.

Japan's CK225 tumbled more than 2%

while South Korea's KOSPI index fell 1.7%.

Here at home, the local bores closed flat,

barely managing to extend its winning streak

to a fourth day.

We're currently seeing a crucial support,

I guess, at 6,400.

And I think what the market is trying to do right now

is that it's trying to establish an oversold rally,

hopefully moving the index away

from its grossly oversold levels.

Afterwards, perhaps there could be another dip,

but we think that, or we're hoping to see

it establish a stronger base

from which it can rally once again

towards, I guess, its resistance.

To currencies now,

an intervention in the Japanese yen

expected on Thursday

following the Bank of Japan's policy meeting.

This is as the Tokyo currency

weakened past the key 155 level to the US dollar

to hit a fresh 34-year low.

As for the Philippine peso,

it also depreciated against the greenback,

closing at 57.78,

down for a second day.

The Philippine central bank reiterates

its case of the dollar's strength,

rather than the peso's weakness.

It adds it stands ready to take action

to contain excessive currency volatility.

Here are some local corporate headlines.

The Konsunji Group now venturing

into the cement industry.

That's after DMCI, Dacon Corporation,

and Semirata signed a share purchase agreement

to acquire the local subsidiary

of Mexican cement giant, Cemex.

DMCI will have a 56.7% stake

in Cemex Asian Southeast,

while DMCI will have a 56.7% stake

while its unit, Semirata,

will purchase 11% of Cemex shares.

The remaining stake will go to Dacon.

The purchase price, $305 million.

The sale is expected to close this year,

subject to approvals from regulators

and Cemex minority shareholders.

The news had investors excited

with Cemex shares surging 15%

in Thursday trade.

Meanwhile, Ayala Land

secures shareholders' approval

for its planned merger

with 34 subsidiaries.

The move aims to simplify

ownership stock,

which the property developer hopes

will lead to operational synergies

and efficient fund management.

Ayala Land's plan of merger

is now with the Securities and Exchange Commission

and is expected to be approved

within the year.

And finally, Bell Corporation

posts a 32% drop

in its first quarter bottom line this year.

The developer cites a decrease

in revenues, specifically from the

City of Dreams, Manila,

by its unit premium leasure.

Bell Corporation previously

set a tender offer

which ended Wednesday

to buy out PLC's minority shares

to delist it from the local bourse.

The Philippines has welcomed

2 million international visits

so far this year.

The tourism department said

as of March 31st,

nearly 1.9 million foreign tourists

and over 100,000 overseas Filipinos

entered the country.

That's 15% higher

than the international arrivals

recorded in the same period.

Last year,

tourism receipts hit

157.6 billion pesos

that amount

that's around 27 billion pesos

higher than in the same period

in 2019 or the year before

the pandemic lockdown.

South Korea remains the Philippines'

top source of visitors

followed by the US, China, Japan

and Australia.

The tourism department aims to welcome

7.7 million international visitors this year.

A new study by the International Labor Organization

found over 2.4 billion workers

across the world

are likely to be exposed

to excessive heat.

ILO says this leaves workers

vulnerable to developing

several diseases

such as skin cancer

and respiratory illnesses.

The agency urges companies

to take action.

It's critical that

risk and hazard assessments

be taken seriously

at the enterprise level.

So it's not just

it shouldn't just stop

at paper compliance.

It's required under the current laws

but what's important is that

it's taken seriously by

employers and workers

within the enterprise

as part of business

risk mitigation measures.

Beijing insists it adheres

to international market principles

after visiting US Secretary of State

Antony Blinken urged China

to provide a level playing field

for American businesses.

Blinken arrived in Shanghai Wednesday

and raised concerns about fair trade

during talks with local government officials.

He will be meeting with his counterpart

Foreign Minister Wang Yi

and possibly President Xi Jinping

on Friday.

China has always carried out

economic and trade cooperation

in accordance with the principles

of the market

and has always been firmly supportive

of the multilateral

trading system

and fully implements

the rules of the

World Trade Organization.

We hope that the US side

will respect the principle

of fair competition,

abide by WTO rules

and work with China

to create favorable conditions

for the sound

and steady development

of China-US economic

and trade relations.

We're taking a quick break.

Up next,

we talk to the country's

first equity crowdfunding platform

Round 1

when Business Outlook with

Returns.

Welcome back.

In 2022,

the country's first equity

crowdfunding platform,

Round 1,

was launched.

Managed and operated

by stock brokerage firm

Eastern Securities,

Round 1 aims to provide

a holistic solution

for entrepreneurs

to raise funds

and receive expert mentorship.

Joining us tonight

to talk about the state

of crowdfunding in the country

and Round 2,

we have Business Unit Lead

Brandon Leong

and Marketing Head

Charmaine Cabanquia.

Thank you so much

for joining us tonight.

Thank you for having us here today.

Thank you for having us.

Wait, so tell us about

how you're doing.

It's one year and a half

since you launched.

I know that it was a big event.

I read the news articles about it.

You had a lot of people

in that event

with SEC there,

some very big business people.

What has happened

since you launched?

I know that it was

a big event.

I read the news articles

about it.

You had a lot of people

in that event

with SEC there,

some very big business people.

What has happened?

What has happened?

Since then,

how has the platform grown?

How many people

have already raised funding?

So that was actually

more of an official launch for us.

It's not a grand launch

because we just got our license

and we just really want

to put ourselves out there.

And our focus was mostly

on finding prospective fundraisers

who really needed the help

of other financial institutions

and we offered ourselves

as one of the alternatives for them.

And, you know,

since then,

the year after that,

we focused on partnering

with different accelerators and incubators,

participating in the startup week

and just understanding

the ecosystem basically.

So we were quite fortunate

to have our very first

successful fundraiser

that succeeded his campaign

at the end of 2023,

December 2023.

And it really shows that

even though it's early

as a pre-seed,

somebody could actually

fundraise.

You know,

we also learned a lot

from interacting with the people

that really needed a solution like this.

So on the technology side,

I'm really happy to say

that we're going to be launching

our second version

of the platform very soon.

You know,

you put something out there

and there's so much to still learn

and improve on

and that's always a process

that never stops.

So on the technology side,

you know,

we've again implemented

a lot of interesting

sort of quality of life features.

On the ecosystem partnership side,

again,

you learn a lot from the people

that you,

that,

you know,

you hear exactly from them

what their needs are,

what their challenges are.

And our job is to maybe marry

what is already out there

in terms of people

that are helping,

people that want to assist entrepreneurs

and getting that kind of resource

to the entrepreneur themselves.

Before we talk about their challenges,

I want to ask about your challenges.

This is early.

What have been the growing pains,

major problems so far as well?

It's really because we are the first.

So it's a market that doesn't even know

that we exist

and know that they need us.

So that was the biggest challenge.

I love how it's always the women.

When you ask them about challenges,

they smile.

Go ahead.

So you're talking about this,

the challenges.

So it's getting the word out there

that you're here

and that even at Pre-Seed,

as you talked about earlier,

you don't have the proof of concept yet.

It's not yet a running business.

You can actually raise money

from people

who would like to own part of the business

or I think in your platform,

you could also borrow money

in the form of bonds.

Is that correct?

Yes.

The challenges.

Aside from equity,

fundraisers can also issue debt securities,

convertible note securities,

different kinds of securities that are allowed

under law and regulations here.

One of the challenges

really is sometimes demystifying it.

I mean, you could be a business owner

for a long time

and never have to put yourself,

let's say, in an investor's shoes.

What are they looking for?

What are the things that they want to hear

in terms of the business itself?

I think one of the misconceptions is that

do investors only want to hear good news?

I don't think that's necessarily true.

Investors want to know

what the real score is

so that they can plan,

they can risk manage.

So one of the,

I wouldn't say it's a challenge,

but it's helping people open up their eyes

about what the investment world is like

and how to speak to investors directly,

how to identify investors that you can speak to

who will support you

because you can't be everything to everybody.

So how do you go about talking to people

about how crowdfunding here in the country

will be able to help startups?

It would need some,

they're putting themselves out there.

You have to teach people,

you have to talk to people.

How are you going,

how are you doing that right now?

So we actually go to a lot of ecosystem partners

that we've identified so far.

So they're either potential sources of fundraisers

or sources of investors.

And what we've noticed is

you have to educate both the fundraisers and investors

because in order to create this ecosystem

that sort of supports each other,

you need to empower both

and you have to teach them

how to become better business owners at the same time.

Better business owners,

be transparent,

have good corporate governance,

and then you can attract the good investors

to invest in your company.

And for the investors,

we want to teach them to know their rights and responsibilities.

You don't just invest in the next person that comes to you.

I can imagine how difficult the conversation is.

And you launched at a time where private equity

and angel investors,

the funding in that area was drying out.

Absolutely.

With what happened I think to Silicon Valley Bank

and sort of the climate of investment in the world too.

I think that is part of the context as well.

And just generally people not taking risks like they used to.

But in a way,

I think that's why people turn to SMAs and SMAs.

Because the growth and the dynamism is there.

They provide so many jobs.

They provide essential services.

And so I wouldn't say recession-proof by any means.

They're also very sensitive to that.

But they are the drivers of innovation

when things like that happen as well.

We can't forget that they do that.

And I really think that support is very necessary.

Charmaine, you mentioned a while ago

that you were able to successfully help

one fundraiser.

Will you be able to tell us the story of that?

Yeah.

His business is actually in bike sharing.

Bike sharing?

Yes.

Very interesting because, again, it's pre-seed.

So meaning he has no proof of concept yet.

And this is a guy who used to work with the government,

was in corporate,

and was an OFW who came back to the Philippines.

So he got all his learnings

and came up with this business

that solved a pain point in Africa.

In fact, a part of his life.

When he was trying to move around in the university,

he was like,

this is hard because, you know,

again, he came from UP and he was like,

you have to walk and global warming.

You have to walk or ikot or talkie

and sometimes there's none.

Exactly.

So he wanted to fundraise

because he wanted to have his first pilot in UP Los Banos.

And he actually had different sources of fundraise.

He did a private race.

He did a bank loan.

And crowdfunding was just another angle.

How much did he raise?

He raised 2.1 million pesos from 25 investors.

How is he doing now?

Oh, he actually...

He's going around.

He's going around in the bike.

He actually bagged a new contract.

Yeah.

I don't think we can discuss it.

But, I mean, I think that's the power of the platform, right?

You put your story out there.

And I think statistics show, right?

Like for crowdfunders who are successful,

for every dollar they raise,

they can attract $4 in private equity.

So consider it as sort of a stage to advertise what they're doing.

So I guess someone took notice and, you know,

wanted to give it a shot.

Maybe we can have him here sometime soon.

I think that would be very interesting.

I think also the challenge is the language.

Filipinos were not born with slides or decks.

And we don't know the business of language.

At the same time, on the investor side,

sometimes there are expectations that are just too wild.

With the way Filipinos think about risk

and how much return you will get to compensate you for that risk,

I don't know if this is something that you have seen in the sector.

But actually, my question is,

how much is the total addressable market of crowdfunding again in the Philippines?

So when you look at how many SMEs are out there, right?

We're talking a million strong in this...

by last count, right?

A third of the GDP of the Philippines.

And based off of what we've seen talking to fundraisers,

imagine an average size only of maybe 500,000 pesos to a million pesos

for an SME's growth and capital expenditure.

You're looking at 500 billion to a trillion pesos in funding requirements, right?

Wow.

And the banks are not willing to give this to them?

The banks are doing what they can, I think,

based off of many sort of challenges in the market as well.

That's why alternatives should exist, right?

That's why the stock market exists.

If we just rely on banks, large commercial banks,

then there's just not enough capacity for that.

So that's why you have vibrant alternative exchanges.

That's why countries have more than one stock exchange.

So, you know,

in all fairness to banks, right?

This is where the equity part of your sort of debt-to-equity ratio comes in, right?

It's capital markets.

Charmaine, what do you think should happen

to change how crowdfunding works and is accepted and used here in the country?

For me, it always has to start with the entrepreneur.

Because, you know, we've spoken to almost, I think, 400, 300, 400 entrepreneurs

at varying stages.

Some of them are more ready than others, obviously,

in different industries, different sectors.

And it's always the same.

It's like, are you ready to fundraise?

How are you with your housekeeping?

And who is your addressable market?

What is your business strategy?

How do you plan to grow?

Where will you be three to five years from now?

And what are you doing right now to gain the trust of your investors, basically?

And if someone has this,

this idea and wants to talk to round one about this,

you mentioned something about a mentorship program.

But that early, are you willing or are you going to help them out

with those things that you mentioned?

Well, we work with community partners because we're just a platform.

We're not really supposed to do that.

But yeah, we work closely with them.

We participate in talks.

We've been with SEC on a national roadshow every month.

Yeah, I see that.

And you talk about what's the level of interest?

It varies.

It really varies.

Different regions have different needs.

Like we've seen a much more mature crowd.

We've seen a more agri-oriented crowd,

like a more different sectors.

So we just adjust our discussion as we do it.

And then we'd have a consultation at the end of the session.

I remember when I was covering crowdfunding was not yet approved.

I think this is one of the youngest regulatory hurdles

that was already addressed by the SEC.

And so now it's slowly starting to grow.

What do you think is the future of it after the seed-in problem?

Which I suppose, how are you affected by that?

That's where women, you know.

I think no matter what the rough patches are in the industry,

in the global economy,

the demand for what we offer as a service

will continue to grow with or without us.

So that's the future that I see.

So yes, there'll always be bad actors in that sense.

But those with staying power, we hope,

can learn from those mistakes, learn from those issues

and continue to stay stalwart in the way they service customers.

And openness, transparency.

I mean, you know, these aren't just buzzwords in the industry as well.

So I still see growth coming.

I still see demand happening no matter what.

I think there is just a more push for regulations as well.

That usually is what happens when, you know, incidents like this occur.

The industry tends to come back stronger, right?

I mean, no matter how bad things get.

I mean, consider market crashes.

Consider how regulations have evolved from that.

And the same is true for many industries as well.

So that's welcomed because at the end of the day,

we want investors to trust the institutions that they deal with, right?

And, you know, you can say that you're doing X, Y, Z in a business,

but you can't expect everyone to take your word for it.

So they look to regulators to ensure that there is something

like a watchdog, that there is someone watching out for them too.

So investor protections that the government puts in place

and publicizing them and educating individuals,

I think will happen.

It has to happen.

And at the end of the day, it just builds a stronger industry.

Oh, I'd like to add.

So crowdfunding is actually a way to do crowd due diligence

because it's like putting yourself...

You're technically a public person.

You put yourself on a platform and say,

Hey, I'm fundraising.

And everyone's there to openly say,

I don't like your business model or you haven't paid me maybe in the last month.

Or an ex-girlfriend.

Or an ex-girlfriend.

Ex-girlfriends.

So be careful out there, fundraisers.

I love that, Brandon.

I think that was very well said.

Thank you so much.

It's been a pleasure to have you here.

And we're going to watch this space closely.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

That's your Business Outlook at Broncos.

And I'm Salve Duprito.

The world tonight comes your way at the top of the next hour.

Keep it here on ANC.