I was pleasantly surprised to receive a thank you letter dated Dec. 21, 2017 from Ayala Corp. Chair and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, one of Philippine business’ great men. He wrote me a warm thank you for my sending him a copy of my book, “Tycoons, Taipans, Entrepreneurs” and wished me and my family “a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year in 2018.”
Sending a thank you letter is a rare gesture in this day of the Internet, Instagram, Twitter, Viber, and text messaging. Among the few people I know who did it with sincerity and regularity were the late General Carlos P. Romulo and Al Yuchengco as well as Ronnie Concepcion. They never failed to write thank you letters for anything I have written about them. The gesture is a sign of good breeding and civility, a habit not lost among the finest families in this country.
Here is the article on the Zobels in my book (call 744-7888 if you want to buy the book):
The Zobel de Ayala family in property, banking, telco holding company Ayala Corp. has a net worth of $3.2 billion. The family was a favorite business group of President BS Aquino III and it showed in the number of projects it has won at very favorable terms.
The $3.2 billion, represents their 24.5 percent ownership of the Ayala Corp.. That amount is divided among former Ambassador Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his children, led by Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) and Fernando, further diluting the wealth.
At $3.2 billion the Zobel de Ayala wealth is nothing to sneeze at. The Philippines’ oldest company, Ayala prides itself in pioneering the future, in drawing strength from diversity, synergy, shared vision and values. For over 180 years, it has always been a bold but discerning Filipino company.
“Today, the spirit of innovation and our deeply held principles that brought Ayala to existence live on in each and every Ayala company,” says the conglomerate, although nimbler companies like SMC and Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global have proved smarter and quicker in pioneering and grabbing new businesses. Ayala came rather late to the big-ticket infra business. Its first—and the government’s first—Public-Private Partnership infra—took four years and over P2 billion to build, although the length was only 4 kms.
Ayala was also late to the power generation and energy game and has only now gained traction but still lacks scale and market size.
The company, however, was quicker in seizing opportunities in the booming health care, education, and supermarket businesses (through tie-ups with Rustans and Puregold). It bought half of the Generika Group chain of over 500 drugstores and has opened Qualimed clinics in Trinoma, Fairview Terraces and McKinley, Forbes Park. It has just bought 60 percent of the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga from the Hernandez family.
Ayala put up Ayala Education after recognizing the strong demand for Filipino talent from the IT-BPO and other service industries, such as banking, telecom, retail and tourism. Ayala Education’s vision is to deliver affordable and high quality high school and college education.
Ayala has 23 hectares of BPO buildings.
Ayala Corp. has a total land bank of 8,639 hectares, good for 20 to 25 years.
Ayala Corp.’s net income in January-September 2017 rose 18 percent to P23.2 billion. Revenues were up 22 percent to P201.5 billion.
Income was primarily driven by the solid contributions of its real estate and power generation businesses.
“Most of our business units have continued to achieve solid growth this year,” Ayala President and Chief Operating Officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala said. “We are pleased to note that even excluding the transaction gains from various strategic initiatives for the period, Ayala’s nine-month net income still expanded 18 percent from the previous year,” Zobel said.
Residential revenues jumped 30 percent from its year-ago level to P57.3 billion driven by new bookings and project completions led by the Alveo and Avida brands. Reservation sales in the first nine months amounted to P94.2 billion, 12 percent higher year-on- year, with average monthly sales amounting to P10.5 billion. Unbooked revenues from reservation sales reached its highest level to date at P141 billion from P127 billion in end-2016, while net booked sales for the period climbed 16 percent to P66.9 billion.
Ayala Land posted P4.8-billion revenues in the first nine months, up 8 percent from a year ago, fueled by strong lot sales in Arca South, Vermosa, and Naic, Cavite.
Bank of the Philippine Islands’ net income in the first nine months 2017 rose 1.8 percent to P17 billion.
To reach underbanked and underserved Filipinos, BPI relaunched in July its microfinance arm, BPI Direct BanKo to service the needs of self-employed micro-entrepreneurs (SEMEs). BPI Direct BanKo currently operates 24 branches and micro- banking offices (MBOs) with a target to open 100 new branches and MBOs by year end.
Nine-month telco profits rose 11 percent to P13 billlion. Globe revenues were up 6 percent to P95.1 billion, lifted by strong demand for mobile services.
Globe is deploying $100 million in additional capital expenditures for 2017 to fund the expansion of its mobile data network, bringing Globe’s total capital spending plan to $850 million for 2017. The additional investment will be used to deploy new cell sites that utilize the 700 and 2600 megahertz frequencies aimed at expanding internet capacity and mobile coverage.
Manila Water’s nine-month net earnings ended flat from a year ago at P4.9 billion. Manila Water’s revenues rose 3 percent to P13.8 billion.
AC Energy net income surged 73 percent to P2 billion in the first nine months, primarily driven by the fresh contribution of its geothermal asset in Indonesia, boosted by services income derived from the financial close of a new power plant.
Equity earnings from AC Energy’s operating assets expanded 20 percent year-on-year to P1.6 billion, bolstered by the robust performance of its renewable energy assets and the contribution of SD Geothermal (formerly Chevron Indonesia). During the period, its renewable platforms contributed 52 percent to AC Energy’s equity earnings from operating assets.
AC Energy’s first greenfield offshore project, the 75-megawatt Sidrap Wind Farm located in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2018.
AC Infrastructure strengthened the operations of its three public-private partnership projects. Light Rail Manila Corp., the operator of LRT-1, served an average daily ridership of over 431,000 in the first nine months of the year.
Capacity has improved with 106 light rail vehicles available for operation, a 15 percent increase from its year-ago level, while average weekday daily trips have increased to 554, 10 percent higher year-on-year.