Families

In the past few years, the family of former Bank of Boston (Phils.) – which has since become Bank of Commerce – president Cezar Querubin made it a point to take a trip together at least once a year. Organized by Mr. Querubin’s highly efficient wife, Mila Querubin, the trip includes their three children and all the grandchildren.

This year, however, that trip may not push through. You see, one of the children, United Coconut Planters Bank president and chief executive officer Jose Querubin, is too busy.

Part of Jojo Querubin’s routine these days is having breakfast with bank employees, with some sessions said to, uh, free-wheeling.

Among the recent invitees were branch marketing officers of Tuguegarao and Dagupan (who came to Manila at company expense) and bookkeepers from some Metro Manila branches.

Going one step further, HSBC Phils. president and chief executive officer Warner Manning and his wife, Julie Manning, host regular dinners where the guest list includes a few bank officers, a few bank clients, and a few rank-and-file bank employees.

The dinners are held at Mr. Manning’s home rather than at a restaurant.

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It’s easy to confuse Ramon Siy Lai with Ramon Sy. Apart from the surnames, which are pronounced the same way, both started out poor and worked themselves up.

Mr. Siy eventually linked up with the Ang family and built up Solid Mills Inc. into a dominant player in the textile industry until his death in 1987. Mr. Sy started out as a credit investigator and is now president and chief executive officer of International Exchange Bank.

At the time of his death, Mr. Siy didn’t leave a will, which meant that his wife, Rosalina Tiong-Siy got 50 percent of his total assets plus an equal stake on the balance 50 percent which their six children were entitled to or one-seventh of 50 percent.

Right after his burial, Mr. Siy’s creditor-banks – with the exception of China Banking Corp. – immediately pressed payment.

It took the family three years to get back into good credit standing, largely because the assets could not be easily liquefied. A major setback was Solid Mills itself. You see, everybody thought majority control of the textile company had been transferred to Mr. Siy through the years. It turned out the Ang family still had control.

The Siy heirs eventually sold their shares in Solid Mills to the Ang family, taking some cash and some property as payment.

Today, the core of the Siy conglomerate – which generated P3.6 billion in sales in the first 10 months of this year – remains the garments business under the brand names, Jag and Lee. The conglomerate is also into health care and food, all franchised from foreign companies.

Unlike other family-controlled businesses, the Siy family does not have a holding company for all its businesses. Instead, it has several companies, which supervise one or two companies. All these companies have interlocking stockholders, which include the nuclear Siy family plus the sisters of the late Mr. Siy.

According to Bernadine Siy, who has gotten the voting trust of her mother and aunts as chief executive officer of the business, the family has not put up an overall holding company "out of omission". The siblings were just too busy making the conglomerate grow.

According to George Siy, who contests the voting trust in his capacity as the oldest son (although the second child), the family has not put up an overall holding company because it financially insulates one business from the possible failure of another business.

Here are some thoughts of both Bernadine and George Siy on some issues.

• On growing the business: Bernadine Siy believes the conglomerate’s future is in brand-building. It wants to get into new businesses that have proven brand recall. George Siy believes that, given the size of the conglomerate, any new business that cannot generate annual sales of at least P500 million, is a waste of time. This is because a sibling will have to be taken out from an existing profitable venture and assigned to the new business.

• On how to resolve the family feud: Bernadine Siy would like to keep the family business intact under her leadership. George Siy would like to get his share of the family business, although valuation could be tricky because of an internal offsetting practice among the corporations.