First, it ran out of imported coffee creamer in sachets, because of the unexpected high demand for its brewed coffee. Then, ravenous customers wolfed down its Angus beef burgers that select stores to which the higher-end sandwich had been offered sold out even before Christmas.

Three years since a new group acquired the money-losing Burger King operations from the Ayala Group, the American hamburger chain is humming with business that, according to the grapevine, local franchisee PERF Restaurants Inc. is now calling in more operating capital and more money to fund the opening of new stores.

It is for this reason that the Burger King group, whose owners all happen to be basketball aficionados, has agreed to allow Harbour Centre operator Mikee Romero into the consortium. Romero, according to the grapevine, plowed in the equivalent of 15-percent equity stake.

It is not immediately clear how much the 15-percent stake translates to. Perf Restaurants reported in 2006, shortly before the Ayala sale, a capital deficiency of over P125 million, on the back of P195-million loss for the same year.

A year after the sale, Burger King president Raul Nazareno was quoted as saying that the chain would need about P600 million to open 75-100 stores in five years, on top of the 22 already then existing.

According to the grapevine, Albert Lina of Airfreight 2100 still remains the majority owner at 60 percent, even after the Romero entry, with telecom tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan controlling another 15 percent, and Tanduay Distillers president Wilson Young holding another 5 percent.

In the three years since the Lina-led takeover, Burger King has managed to turn around its image to a hipper chain by offering free wi-fi Internet access, improving its coffee and revamping its menu. It also dropped the lower-end food items, leaving the market segment to bigger players McDonald?s and Jollibee.

Gateway to more difficulties

Geronimo de los Reyes, who developed Pacific Plaza condo on Ayala Avenue and the Gateway Business Park in Cavite, has lost his decade-long fight to evade surety obligations for the $2.23-million debt incurred by his shuttered Gateway Electronics Corp.

The Supreme Court, in an order released before Christmas, said that De los Reyes could not invoke the insolvency of the electronics company as a defense to evade liability on the deeds of surety he executed in 1996 for Gateway in favor of Asianbank, which has since been taken over by Metrobank.

The $2.23-million obligation carries a steep Libor-plus-5.5358 percent interest rate, reckoned from November 1999.

Money-go-round

? Karen Davila, who had just won the TOYM award, has been suspended for two weeks by the ABS-CBN management after the broadcaster was quoted in an advocacy article on cervical cancer sponsored by Glaxo Smith Kline.

? Whoops. Enrique ?Endika? Aboitiz Jr. happens to be the older brother, not younger as was reported in this column Wednesday, of Erramon ?Monchu? Aboitiz, the newly-elected president and chief executive of the Aboitiz Equity Ventures.

? Local cosmetics maker VMV Hypoallergenics is trying to crack the difficult American market by hosting an ongoing trunk show at New York?s Fifth Avenue boutique Henri Bendel to preview its SuperSkin line.

Heard through the grapevine

Batangas Gov. Armand Sanchez will go it alone and build his first mall, after negotiations with the SM Group for a joint venture on Sanchez?s 1.8-hectare property in Santo Tomas town failed over revenue-sharing issues.

(Web site: www.cocktales.ph; e-mail: cocktales_mst@pldtdsl.net)