Ayala, PLDT best firms, says survey

MANILA, Philippines—Conglomerate Ayala Corp., leading telecom provider Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) are the “best managed” companies in the Philippines, results of a regional survey by Finance Asia showed.

Finance Magazine—which tallied votes from 265 investors and analysts across the region for its 12th annual poll of Asia’s top companies—issued on Wednesday a list of “best managed” companies and chief executive officers (CEOs).

It also ranked the “best” in corporate governance, investor relations, corporate social responsibility and commitment to a strong dividend policy in the Philippines.

Apart from being cited as the “best managed” company, Ayala Corp. was ranked the highest among corporations in the country in terms of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

PLDT, on the other hand, was cited as the “best” in investor relations and topped the list of those deemed “most committed to a strong dividend policy.”

Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of PLDT, was voted the best CEO in the Philippines, followed by Enrique Razon of International Container Terminal Services Inc., and Antonino Aquino of ALI.

Half of the companies voted the “best managed” in the Philippines came from the Ayala group of companies. Aside from parent firm Ayala and ALI, the three on the list were Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom and Manila Water, which ranked fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively.

Manila Water tied for eighth place with Megaworld.

Others on the list of “best managed” companies in the country were ICTSI (fourth), Aboitiz Power (seventh) and SM Investments (10th).

Ranked next to Ayala on the list of companies with “best” corporate governance were the following: PLDT, BPI, Aboitiz Power, ALI, San Miguel Corp., Globe Telecom, Ictsi and Philex Mining.

With PLDT on the list of those “most committed to a strong dividend policy” were Globe Telecom, BPI, ICTSI, San Miguel, Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Power.

Other companies cited for CSR were Manila Water, PLDT, San Miguel, Philex, Globe Telecom, BPI and Energy Development Corp.

Five firms were voted best mid-cap companies. These were Security Bank, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Vista Land and Megaworld Corp.

Cited as “best small cap” companies were EEI Corp., Jollibee Foods and Phoenix Petroleum.

The survey cited the “best” chief finance officers in the country in a list topped by Ricardo Tan of Vista Land, followed by Renato Migrino of Philex, and Jeffrey Lim of SM Prime Holdings.

Companies that joined PLDT in the citation for being “best” in investor relations were Ayala Corp., Ictsi, Globe Telecom, Metro Pacific Investments, Megaworld, Vista Land, BPI and the Aboitiz Group.