Patriarch takes nap as deal is announced

Even as it was, as son Lance Gokongwei described it, "our single biggest investment ever," clan patriarch and main dealmaker John Gokongwei Jr. was nonchalantly taking his afternoon nap while the media feasted yesterday on the formal announcement of his $925-million joint venture deal.

"He’s taking a nap," said younger brother and JG Summit chairman and CEO James Go when asked about the older Gokongwei’s whereabouts. Aside from Go, those present at the press briefing were Lance and his brother-in-law Perry Pe of the Romulo Mabanta Law Office, the personal counsel of Gokongwei.

The deal was apparently a well-kept secret, at least on Gokongwei’s part himself, that not one of the JG Summit officials could comment on when talks started nor from whose side initiated it.

Not bad for an accomplished businessman who, after building his vast empire spanning the fields of food and agro-industrial products, real estate and hotel management, retailing, air transport, petrochemicals, banking and telecommunications for more than six decades, has retired at the helm of his group’s businesses upon turning 75 years old last September.

Dubbed "Big John" not only due to his stature but his built too, Gokongwei may have capped his achievements with this deal, which was hatched and disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange by Gokongwei in a personal capacity.

With talks revolving around the incorporation of the joint venture vehicle, the JG Summit officials said it was not yet clear what company – whether parent firm JG Summit, telecom arm Digitel or even Robinsons Land – would be folded into the joint venture that would control significant interests in PLDT and Bonifacio Land Corp.

But news of the biggest corporate takeover since PLDT itself was forced into a "hostile takeover" by the First Pacific bloc in late 1998 failed to excite the stock market, which has apparently factored in the deal since rumors broke out Thursday last week.

Weighed down by concerns over the power struggle at the Senate and the selldown of property stocks, the main index fell 15.59 percent to a four-month low of 1,311.70 on profit-taking, after slight gains during the first two trading days of the week.

But the listed companies related to the Gokongwei-First Pacific deal managed to buck the downtrend. PLDT itself was the most actively traded stock, cornering nearly a third of total turnover, to end P2.50 higher at P457.50. JG Summit went up two centavos to P1.76; Metro Pacific increased three centavos to P0.35; while Digitel was unchanged to P0.80