JG Summit bullish on PPP, banking, petrochem sectors

GOKONGWEI-LED JG Summit Holdings Inc. has identified petrochemicals, banking and infrastructure as three new growth areas that could potentially add to its crown jewels.

JG Summit president and chief operating officer Lance Gokongwei announced during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting late Thursday that the group’s $700-million naphtha cracker plant would start operations by the fourth quarter of 2013.

Gokongwei said the group would also groom Robinsons Bank, which last year acquired a commercial banking license, to be among the country’s top 20 banks in terms of assets within five years. After acquiring the local commercial banking unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland (Philippines), the merged entity will become the 30th largest in the country.

On infrastructure, Gokongwei said the group would be interested in participating in infrastructure projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) framework. JG Summit is particularly interested in airport privatization, he told reporters.

Getting into power generation is also a possibility. “We’re looking at a few things but [there’s] nothing we can disclose,” Gokongwei said.

To date, JG Summit’s crown jewels are food manufacturing (Universal Robina Corp.), airline (Cebu Air Inc.) and property (Robinsons Land Corp.).

The conglomerate also has core investments in Singaporean property developer United Industrial Corp. Ltd. and will end up owning 8 percent of local telecom giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.