HONG KONG, Mar. 19 (Reuters) — Aramco Overseas BV has sold its 40 percent stake in Philippine oil refiner Petron Corp. to London-based investment fund Ashmore Group for about $ 550 million, according to a memo obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. Petron had been holding informal talks with Ashmore after the fund offered to buy Aramco’s stake last week. The agreement will be paid in two installments, according to the memo: an initial payment of 0 million at closing, and the remaining $ 350 million payable within 12 months. Citigroup advised Aramco, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, on the deal. Aramco bought the Petron stake when it was privatized in 1994. Petron is the Philippines’s largest domestic refining company, with a network of about 1,200 service stations. Aramco, the state oil firm in the world’s top oil exporting country, has said its divestment from the Philippines would allow it to focus on its $ 50-billion domestic upstream and downstream expansion program.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said yesterday the government wanted to stick to its goal of a balanced budget this year, and would seek additional revenues to finance expenditure. "We are going to go for revenues to support the expenditure requirement, maintaining fiscal discipline and representing that fiscal discipline in a balanced budget," he told reporters. "The important thing is to continue looking for those revenues which will support the expenditure requirement of the government." Teves earlier said in a statement that the government was willing to spend more to protect the domestic economy from the effects of an anticipated slowdown in the United States.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority announced yesterday that motorists using the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway during the Holy Week can expect reliable and expert road assistance from the Tollways Management Corporation (TMC) should they encounter any trouble along the newly opened toll road. At the same time, the BCDA said a total of 2,356 vehicles, mostly private cars, did a trial run on the 50.5-kilometer portion of the SCTEx after it was declared open to traffic by President Arroyo. SCTEx Program Manager Robert Gervacio said TMC, the expressway’s interim operator, has deployed patrol vehicles and tellers as well as customer service, management and support staff since last Wednesday when the toll road was opened to the public for free by President Arroyo under the "Handog ni Pangulong Gloria, Libreng Biyahe sa SCTEx." The free Holy Week dry run on the Subic-Clark segment of the SCTEx will last until 5:30 p.m. on Monday, March 24, when holiday travelers are expected to return from a four-day vacation. The highway is open only from 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Outstanding loans of Philippine banks rose 5.4 percent in January from a year earlier, down from December’s 9.3 percent, partly due to lower use of the central bank’s overnight facility, official data showed on Tuesday. Without banks’ overnight placements with the central bank, outstanding loans climbed an annual 9.3 percent in January from revised 7.9 percent growth in December, boosted by higher lending to the electricity, gas and water and transportation and communication sectors. Money parked in the central bank’s overnight facility has fallen partly due to a shift to the central bank’s short-term special deposit account, not included in the loans statistics. The central bank last week adjusted the special deposit window to take out the six, three, and two month maturities. This move along with a series of rate cuts by the central bank since July was expected to boost credit growth in the coming months, the central bank said in a statement. Diwa Guinigundo, deputy central bank governor, said that whereas the shifting of funds into the special deposit account has been in part responsible for slower overall lending growth, it did not affect lending to the economy.