Phinma buys Cebu school

Listed Phinma Corp. is expanding its education portfolio with the acquisition of Cebu’s Southwestern University, giving it a solid footprint in the region.

Phinma said in a stock exchange filing Thursday that it had acquired a 56.83-percent stake in Southwestern University for P1.9 billion.

The move will increase the company’s school enrollment by about 27 percent to 47,000 students, the filing showed. The acquisition also includes the Sacred Heart Hospital and 240 hectares of land in Cebu.

In the filing, Phinma said Southwestern University “has a strong education brand in the Visayas and Mindanao with a long tradition of excellence particularly in medicine and the allied health sciences.”

“Phinma Corp. will build on this tradition of the Aznar family, [ Southwestern University’s] founders, and will expand the University’s reach and reputation,” it said in the filing.

The Cebu location likewise gives Phinma presence in what it described as one of the country’s major education centers. It marks the company’s entry into the mid-income education market.

“The transition from a family run company to becoming a part of a national conglomerate will help protect the legacy of the family and ensure [Southwestern University] future by becoming a professionally run institution with the goals of improving operational efficiencies, achieving economies of scale, and further improving the quality of education,” Phinma said.

Southwestern University was incorporated on April 4, 1951.

“The priority tasks upon acquisition will be the upgrading of the facilities and laboratories, improving operational efficiencies , and marketing the school,” it said.

Phinma said it would “push” the university to move aggressively on the senior high school market, an opportunity arising from the Department of Education’s K to 12 initiative.

Phinma’s education portfolio includes Pamantasan ng Araullo (Araullo University) Inc., Cagayan de Oro College Inc., University of Pangasinan and University of Iloiilo, information on its website showed.

Phinma is also involved in property development, energy, via Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., and steel products.