Top Philippine conglomerates vow to invest more

Bullish on 2025 economic growth

MANILA, Philippines — Top Philippine conglomerates are committed to continue pouring in massive investments in the country next year, fueled by their high hopes on the economy.

Conglomerates owned by the Sy, Ayala and Ty families have all expressed their bullishness on the country’s sustained economic growth for 2025.

“From our perspective, when we take a look at the Philippine economy, we’re actually quite positive about the trajectory that we are headed,” GT Capital Holdings Inc. senior vice president and chief financial officer George Uy-Tioco Jr. said during a forum organized by BusinessWorld yesterday.

“We are optimistic about the economy moving forward simply because we are growing and we expect that that growth is going to continue. The challenge is really, what is going to interrupt that growth, right? And how do we manage the potential headwinds that we anticipate in the next years, especially as geopolitics begin to play a very important role,” he said.

As far as GT Capital is concerned, Uy-Tioco said that the group is looking for investments in the Philippines. 

“We want to deploy capital into sectors that we think make sense. At the end of the day, it’s the sectors that we think potentially can give us good returns that are underserved and we’re in the process of trying to identify what those next sectors are going to be,” he said.

GT Capital currently has interests in market-leading businesses in banking, property development, life and general insurance, infrastructure and utilities as well as automotive assembly, importation, distribution and financing.

The group is currently mapping out plans to further expand its diversified portfolio by entering into new business spaces.

It has set its sights primarily on healthcare, renewable energy, education and data centers as potential new business ventures over the next decade.

For its part, SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the investment holding company of the Sy family,  is looking at aggressively expanding its various businesses in more underserved areas nationwide.

“Our economy holds a lot of promise,” SMIC executive vice president for treasury, finance and planning Erwin Pato said.

“So for us to foster this strong economic development, we look to aim to continue investing, especially in areas which are under development, necessarily services like retail and banking services,” he said.

Pato said that the group is also looking at growing businesses that would have a lot of promise such as renewable energy and logistics. 

“We do not act alone. We need to essentially work with our stakeholders, including the national government and local government units and like minded partners,” he said.

Ayala Corp., on its end, will continue beefing up its core businesses to support the group’s optimism on the Philippine economy.  

“We’re quite bullish about the coming year and we will continue to make the necessary investments. And that goes across our core businesses, as well as the development of the developing businesses in healthcare, in logistics, in mobility side of things,” Ayala chief financial officer Alberto de Larrazabal said. 

Larrazabal said that while the group makes direct investments, it also aims to help enable the country’s small and medium enterprises in making their own investments.

“I think it’s an important segment that captures a whole host of potential mass-based employment that really starts to benefit the country,”  Larrazabal said.

“Looking forward to next year, many unquantifiable are still out there. What we will do is make sure that we maintain a strong balance sheet so that we would be in a position to withstand any shots that may come,” he said.