Following the entry of the First Pacific group as a strategic investor into sugar firm Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI), the group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan acquired three seats in the latter’s board and he himself was elected vice chair.
Pangilinan is the chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., which recently bought 34 percent of RHI. He is also chair of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Manila Electric Co.
Also elected to the RHI board were First Pacific group nominees Ray Espinosa and Alex Erlito Fider.
With this development, Pangilinan’s group now controls three out of the nine-member RHI board.
Espinosa is the associate director of First Pacific, vice chair of the board of trustees of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund and general counsel of Manila Electric.
Fider is a director and corporate secretary of several Philippine corporations, including Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., Smart Communications, Inc. and Maynilad Water Services.
RHI is the largest integrated sugar business in the Philippines. It manages 100 percent of Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc. in Nasugbu, Batangas, and Central Azucarera de la Carlota Inc. and Roxol Bioenergy Corp. in La Carlota, Negros Occidental. It also holds a 45 percent-stake in affiliate Hawaiian-Philippine Co.
The First Pacific group has been looking for investment opportunities in Philippine agriculture, particularly in the production of cash crops, particularly sugar, rice and bananas, in the last few years. Doris C. Dumlao