Pangilinan group eyes overseas investments

MANILA, Philippines—Becoming the leader in nearly every industry in the Philippines is no longer enough for business executive Manuel V. Pangilinan.

The chairman of several of the country’s biggest and most aggressive corporations—all dominant in industries they are into such as telecommunications, power and water distribution, and infrastructure—is now setting his sight overseas.

Speaking at the sidelines of First Pacific Co.’s 30th anniversary in Hong Kong earlier this week, Pangilinan told Manila-based reporters that setting up shop in other countries in the region would be the next step for the group.

“I want the company to make it big at least in (Southeast Asia),” the 64-year-old Pangilinan said in a briefing.

First Pacific is the Hong Kong-based holding company that controls some of the Philippines’ largest firms. Pangilinan sits as managing director of the company, which is financially backed by Indonesia’s Salim family.

These include Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), water utility Maynilad, Philex Mining Corp. and outsourcing firm SPi Global Inc.

These companies are industry leaders or, at the least, significant market players in the respective industries they are in, helping the group achieve a market capitalization of more than P1 trillion on the local stock exchange.

Pangilinan also has investments in the country’s media industry, mainly in Associated Broadcasting Corp., operator of TV5.

The First Pacific group controls one of the biggest food firms in Indonesia.

“But I’d like to diversify outside of the Philippines and Indonesia. I have nothing against the Philippines, but if, for instance, Maynilad can be a water utility in Thailand, that would be good,” Pangilinan said.

He said seeing the group as a giant in the region would be one of his key priorities before he retires to let a successor—which he has yet to find—take his place.

Today, First Pacific’s Philippine subsidiary MPIC has investments in toll roads and hospitals. But the company has plans to expand into railway and airport operations by bidding for several government projects under the Aquino administration’s public private infrastructure scheme.

Also part of the group’s expansion in the near term is Meralco’s planned foray into power generation to complement its present distribution operations.