5 listed firms win Bell

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has honored five publicly listed companies led by the Ayala, Sy, Aboitiz and First Pacific groups along with five stock brokerage houses for exemplifying excellence in corporate governance.

During Thursday night’s 2016 Bell Awards—the country’s primary corporate governance award-giving body for publicly listed companies and trading participants—China Banking Corp., Philex Mining Corp., Aboitiz Power Corp., and Ayala-led companies Manila Water Co. Inc. and Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp. were named the “best of the best in corporate governance” among listed firms.

“Companies are in different stages in terms of  appreciation and adoption of corporate governance. We have seen early adopters evolve from treating corporate governance as a requirement to inculcating good governance in their companies’ culture,” PSE chair Jose Pardo said in his remarks during the awarding ceremony.

“Good corporate governance is not a function of company size. Rather, it is a product of commitment and initiative. Commitment shows the degree of responsibility embraced by the entire company to uphold transparency and accountability to champion the welfare of the company stakeholders. While commitment may result to good corporate governance, it takes initiative to practice a brand of governance that is way above what the standards require,” Pardo added.

Sy family-led China Bank has been winning the Bell Award yearly since the annual awards were created by the PSE five years ago. It is so far the only listed firm that holds the five-peat bragging right.

Ayala-led Manila Water won a Bell award for the fourth time while Philex Mining, the mining arm of First Pacific group, won it for the second straight year.

Among trading participants, the Bell awardees for good governance are: Credit Suisse Securities Philippines Inc., Macquarie Capital Securities Philippines Inc., UBS Securities Philippines Inc., Deutsche Regis Partners Inc. and RS Lim & Co.

RS Lim has won the Bell award for the fourth straight year while Deutsche Regis has won it for the third consecutive year. Credit Suisse and Macquarie were also awardees in 2015.

The PSE launched the Bell Awards in 2012 to give due distinction to publicly listed companies and trading participants that have excellent corporate governance programs and practices.

This year’s judges were Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Teresita Herbosa, Capital Markets Integrity Corp. pre sident Cornelio Gison, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorely, Asian Institute of Management president Jikyeong Kang and Ateneo de Manila University president Jose Ramon Villarin, S.J.