Ayala tops Philippines companies in TIME’s World’s Best

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala Corp. has retained its position as the best company in the Philippines, leading a pack of 13 local firms in the 2024 edition of the World’s Best Companies compiled by TIME and Statista.

TIME’s World’s Best Companies of 2024 named Ayala Corp. as the best Philippine business for the second year in a row, as it ranked 274th globally in an index of 1,000 firms.

Ayala Corp., owned by the Zobels, garnered a score of 89.43 from an assessment that looked into employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and environmental, social and corporate governance.

Security Bank Corp. scored 87.39 to land in 451st, while San Miguel Corp. received 87.24 to place 463rd. Sy-led SM Investments Corp. and SM Prime Holdings Inc. came next at 502nd and 577th, respectively, ahead of Jollibee Foods Corp., which ranked 649th.

The Aboitiz Group placed 727th on the list, while Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. is 775th. Apart from them, China Banking Corp. also made the index at 849th, together with Alliance Global Group Inc., which debuted at 863rd.

PLDT Inc. rounded up the Philippine group at 897th, along with Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. at 935th and Puregold Price Club Inc. at 997th.

When compared, the list recognized 13 companies from the Philippines this year, as opposed to just six in 2023 when the rankings only included 750 globally.

Tech giant Apple benchmarked TIME’s World’s Best Companies of 2024, turning in a score of 97.75, with consulting titan Accenture (97.7) and software innovator Microsoft (97.65) right behind.

German carmaker BMW Group landed fourth with 97.41, as e-commerce giant Amazon placed fifth with 96.47.

Completing the best 10 companies are Electricite de France, American Express, Meta Platforms, Siemens and JPMorgan Chase.

TIME economic correspondent Alana Semuels said the pandemic had forced employers to care for their workers, but that trend has passed since the virus was contained. In spite of this, some of the largest corporations remained committed to investing in workers’ happiness.

“Many of these top companies have made similar positive societal impacts while making money and keeping their employees happy at the same time. It’s not necessarily something that investors are clamoring for. That they do it anyway is what sets them apart,” Semuels said.

TIME works with data analyst Statista in ranking the companies on the list, which considers both traditional and non-traditional metrics of being the best business.