Dominic Sytin first gained prominence in early 2000 when he entered the used vehicle import scene, bringing in second-hand right-hand-drive cars, vans and sport utility vehicles through the Subic Freeport and converting them to left-hand-drive street-legal units.
Consumers immediately welcomed his business model, but it was assailed by established industry players.
“I was called a smuggler by the media every day, but what they didn’t report were the poor barangays around the country that could now afford to buy their own ambulances for only P100,000 or sometimes less,” he said in an interview a few years ago, explaining that what he described as a vilification campaign against him was funded by established automakers whose sales were suffering as a result of his business.
“We had farmers and small entrepreneurs thanking us because they could suddenly afford to buy delivery vans for only P150,000,” he added. “And the conversions [from right- to left-hand-drive vehicles] were safe. [There were] no documented accidents as they claimed.”
Fast forward a few years later and Sytin’s enterprise had grown into a multibillion-peso empire that includes United Auctioneers Inc., the country’s largest auction house for imported used trucks and heavy construction equipment (he no longer imports used cars, vans, and SUVs); the local distributorship of Chinese truck maker Foton; a planned power generation project in Bukidnon; a mobile phone distributorship; a resort hotel in the Subic Freeport, among others — all of which he planned to consolidate under one Philippine Stock Exchange-listed company.
“I want all our family businesses to eventually be under one holding firm that’s transparent,” he said, explaining his rationale for acquiring the LMG Chemicals shell company from the Garcia family late last year. “We want to be in the mainstream.”
To this end, Sytin hired a renowned accounting, audit, and consultancy firm to reorganize his companies books and bring them up to date with the latest standards required of publicly listed firms.
“A lot of our business is done on a cash basis because we used to be a very traditional family enterprise,” he said. “But now that we’re bigger, we need to improve our practices, too.”
He wasn’t exaggerating when he described United Auctioneers as “bigger.” The company imports used heavy equipment from Japan and holds massive auctions every two months — selling off as many as 2,500 units over a five-day period — with cement mixers and industrial trucks going for as low as P600,000.
“We have farmers in shorts and slippers coming in to buy trucks, and businessmen in Barong Tagalog from large construction corporations buying entire lots from us,” he said. “And we perform an important service because similar brand-new units would take months to import because they’re not held in stock by distributors locally. What if you need the trucks for your business right now?”
Ever the politically astute businessman looking for new opportunities, Sytin earlier this year opened a United Auctioneers branch in Davao City where 500 units are sold off periodically to businessmen who make the trek all the way from the Zamboanga Peninsula across the island.
“Mindanao is booming, but some buyers can’t come to Subic for the auctions. But they can easily go to Davao,” he said, ahead of the branch inauguration that was supposed to be graced by President Duterte (who had to beg off due to an urgent appointment but later invited Sytin and his top officials for a tete-a-tete).
Apart from business, Sytin was also an ardent supporter of sports, pouring in much-needed funding for the women’s volleyball team of the University of the Philippines (which recently won a key tournament) as well as bankrolling the Foton volleyball team in the local professional league.
“Basketball is already a crowded space for corporate sponsors,” he said, explaining his rationale. “Just like in my businesses, I want to be in the growth areas that aren’t crowded. Volleyball has a big future in the Philippines, and not a lot of sponsors are there yet. When it grows, we grow with it.”
Finally — with a growing business empire that required a steady stream of information to run — Sytin went out of his way to befriend a diverse range of key media personalities, sitting down with them regularly over coffee to exchange insights and hear the latest developments that could only be shared verbally but not published.
He was a voracious consumer of online news and was adamant about downloading the tablet version of the Inquirer newspaper, where his companies advertised on a daily basis over the last few years.
“I want to see the actual layout of the stories on the newspaper, to see their placement on the page because that tells me which stories the editors think are important or want to push to the public,” he said. “That knowledge is very important, and you can’t get that sense online, and I can’t always pick up the physical newspaper. But I can read it on my iPad.”
On Thursday morning, as news of his murder spread, one of the Philippines’ wealthiest business leaders sent this reporter a text message: “He was a progressive and promising guy. Sayang. He could have been a tycoon soon.” /ee
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