MANILA, Philippines - AboitizPower Corp. is one of the best managed companies in the region, according to Finance Asia’s 10th Best Companies in Asia Poll. It ranked sixth out of the 214 companies rated by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) in 2009 with a rating of 91.6 percent.
AboitizPower is the holding company for the Aboitiz Group’s investments in power generation, distribution, retail and power services. It is one of the major producers of renewable energy in the country with several hydroelectric and geothermal assets in its generation portfolio.
AboitizPower is one of the four companies of the Aboitiz Group to land in the top 30. Along with Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV), Aboitiz Transport System Corp. (ATS) and Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), it came in at the Silver Category, which grouped together companies that scored between 90 percent and 94 percent. The mean rating for the top 30 was 93 percent while the mean for the population of 214 was 73 percent.
AEV president and CEO Erramon Aboitiz expressed satisfaction at the awards of the four companies. “As we grow our business and increase the magnitude of our moves, we are cognizant that we also have to strengthen our corporate governance practices and structure. We are very pleased to see that our businesses have responded very well to this call.”
The Aboitiz companies all increased their scores from the 2008 to the 2009 edition. AEV scored 93 percent, improving on the 90 percent it obtained in 2008. AboitizPower came in at 91.6 percent, better than the 89 percent of 2008. ATS tabulated 90.6 percent, higher than the 86 percent of 2008. UnionBank tallied 90.3 percent in 2009.
Other companies among the top 30 are Ayala Corp., BPI, SM Prime, PLDT and ABS-CBN.
Finance Asia, on the other hand, conducted the poll among 300 investors and analysts who were asked to vote for the top three companies in several categories.
In answering this question, the respondents were asked to consider the overall general management, corporate culture and leadership of the company.
AboitizPower and AEV were ranked sixth and eighth, respectively, as the companies most committed to corporate governance. As for companies with best corporate social responsibility practices, AEV landed sixth while AboitizPower came in seventh.
AEV placed fifth and AboitizPower seventh for the companies most committed to consistently paying good dividends.
For Best Mid-Cap and Investor Relations company in Asia, AboitizPower ranked second and seventh, respectively.
The ICD, which released the survey results last April 26, 2010, evaluates corporate governance using company policies, practices, disclosures and similar criteria. Their objective is to promote good governance practices among Philippine corporations.