Manila, Philippines – Filipino conglomerate Ayala Corporation has announced key changes in its C-suite leadership , namely Fernando Zobel de Ayala as the new president and CEO, taking over Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, who is now serving as chairman of the board.
Fernando takes over Jaime’s former position as CEO after 26 years of tenure as the head figure of the conglomerate’s operations.
Established in 1834, Ayala Corporation is one of the largest corporations in the Philippines and with a massive portfolio of diverse business interests, including investments in retail, education, real estate, and banking, as well as telecommunications, water infrastructure, renewable energy, and electronics. The conglomerate also has businesses in information technology, automotive, and healthcare, and management and business process outsourcing.
“Since 1995, our market capitalization has expanded more than sixfold; our net income similarly grew more than six times. Since 1995, we rewarded our shareholders with dependable returns that averaged at 15 percent per annum. Over that period, we cumulatively paid ₱118b in dividends to our common shareholders,” Fernando stated.
He added, “As incoming president and CEO, I aim to build on the firm foundation that Jaime established, guided by our core strategy of maintaining leadership and relevance in the markets we serve. To support this, we will place greater emphasis on our portfolio strategy with a sharper focus on optimizing returns from existing businesses, a highly disciplined approach on capital deployment; and explore opportunities for value realization initiatives to fund future investments.”
During Jaime’s tenure as CEO, Ayala Corporation has managed to make massive investments in real estate, banking, telecommunications, energy, water, health, education, and logistics where large societal gaps exposed opportunities to serve a broader, more inclusive set of customers, generate meaningful returns and improve risk-resilience.
Other key leadership changes include Ayala Corporation’s CFO, TG Limcaoco, taking the helm at BPI as president and CEO; upon the retirement of his predecessor, Bong Consing. Bong will continue to be engaged with the Ayala Group as a member of the board of directors of BPI, Ayala Corporation, Globe Telecom and AC Energy Corporation.
In addition, Albert De Larrazabal, most recently Globe’s chief commercial officer, succeeds Limcaoco as AC’s CFO. Eric Francia, current president and CEO of AC Energy, was appointed to concurrently chair AC’s Investment Committee.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the business environment and will continue to prepare for a post-pandemic economic recovery. We are hoping for a successful implementation of the country’s vaccination program that would pave the way for a revival of the economy. With a healthy balance sheet and a set of diversified and strong franchises in our portfolio, we are confident that we will come out of this difficult period stronger,” Fernando concluded.
