Contents 4 8
Foreword: A rich legacy, a progressive future
Pioneers from the Beginning: The country’s first business house, 1834
10
Revolutionary Thinkers: Casa Ayala and the first Zobel
12
Revolution and Succession: Ayala y CompaĂąia at the turn of the century
16
New Dispensations: Early American times
20
The Business of Reconstruction: Postwar Ayala
22
The Master Plan: McMicking and the growth of Makati
24
Crisis, Challenge, and Change: Ayala in changing times
28
Makati and Beyond: Ayala Corporation expands its reach
32 42
The New Ayala: New thinking from a new generation
46
Looking Ahead
Timeline
4
Foreword A rich legacy, a progressive future
Office of Ayala y Compa単ia on Echague Street in the Quiapo district of Manila, 1901
In 1834, Domingo Roxas and partner Antonio de Ayala established a company that had no precursor, no precedent. Endowed with limited resources and a brave, optimistic
vision
of what the future might hold, our founding partners were among the nation’s first entrepreneurs. They found themselves hungry for opportunity and eager for evolutionary ways to do business. One wonders if they knew how long and how far their undertaking would go, or if they had an idea that the company they established would be a precursor to the conglomerate that it is today.
One thing we know is that they built the company as though they knew and believed it would last. In 2009, Ayala still finds itself building paths to opportunities and creating new ways to forge ahead. Our course remains clear and true. And the values by which we live continue to resonate. Ayala’s spirit of innovation and untiring drive for excellence are more than mere catchphrases. They have formed part of the very foundation of our existence.
Today, Ayala is still very much informed by the entrepreneurial vision that created it almost two centuries ago. It continues to find itself at the forefront of the industries it has chosen to participate in, and continues to identify and develop more
opportunities
in other areas of promise.
Moreover, Ayala now finds itself seeking to awaken the entrepreneurial spirit in all aspects of society. Through our enterprises and the products and services they offer, we have opened the doors to millions of Filipinos who seek opportunity and carry a bright vision of their future, and the future of the very nation itself. This short historical review hopes to trace the company’s history and reveal the threads that have given us the strength, the stability and the vision that make us what we are today. It also seeks to glean the true character of Ayala from its history, its legacy, its
enduring values and its people.
trust
The we have carefully sought and painstakingly built in the partnerships we have forged and nurtured has become part of the very framework of our every relationship.
You will discover that the strongest threads that hold us together today have been woven into Ayala since the start. As the country’s oldest business house, we are proud to have been there at the very beginning of our nation’s entrepreneurial history.
And we are proud to be here today, at the
beginning of our nation’s bright future.
6
Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc. • Manila Water Company, Inc. • Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. • Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. • LiveIt Investments, Ltd. • Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation • Honda Cars Makati, Inc. • Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. • AG Holdings, Ltd. • Ayala Foundation, Inc. • Ayala Land, Inc. • Bank of the Philippine Islands • Globe Telecom, Inc.
It is a name that stands for one of the largest conglomerates in the country. Today, it represents interests in real estate, banking, telecommunications, electronics, information technology, water infrastructure and management, and business process outsourcing.
It is a name that stands for visionary leadership, having distinguished itself as a business house that represents exemplary management, financial stability, innovation, and social responsibility.
It is a name that stands for a story— one that is inextricable from the very story of our nation and our culture. And it is a story that began one hundred seventy five years ago, with men and women who possessed little more than their ambition, courage, and name.
8
Pioneers from the Beginning: The country’s first business house, 1834
The distillery of Casa Roxas on the banks of the Pasig River, 1901
Antonio de Ayala, son of Don Raimundo Ayala and Doña Maria Lorenza Ortiz de Urbina, arrived in Manila, by way of a circuitous route, from the small town of Alava in the Basque Country of Spain.
Poor but determined to make something of himself, the young man had arrived eager to assist his uncle, Jose Maria Segui, the Archbishop of Manila, an Augustinian priest who had served as a missionary in the Philippines and China. But Antonio displayed equal zeal in the world of commerce. He concurrently held the job of assistant to Domingo Roxas, descendant of settlers who had arrived by way of Acapulco in the late 1770s. Antonio de Ayala and Domingo Roxas formed Casa Roxas on March 10, 1834. It was a company that would engage in farming sugar, coffee, cotton and indigo; in manufacturing liquor, metal castings, and gunpowder; and in various trading and mining concessions. It is not known whether the two Spaniards were aware that they had, in fact, built the first conglomerate in the Philippines. While at its heart it was a simple operation that held a stable of different enterprises, it was endowed with the flexibility of having diverse sources of income and the ability to invest with powerful focus. The first major investment of Casa Roxas, on its first year of operation, was a crude distillery that relied on a primitive still fashioned from a hollow log. This most basic piece of equipment would soon give rise to a manufacturing complex, located at the foot of the Ayala Bridge, that would produce the country’s first commercially produced gin, Ginebra San Miguel. Events that soon followed on the Roxas side of the partnership changed the future of Casa Roxas once and for all. Domingo Roxas, who had always ran afoul of the Spanish authorities for his radical views, died in a Fort Santiago cell in 1843.
With Roxas’ death his daughter, Margarita Roxas, assumed control of the company, and quickly introduced changes in its identity. With the participation of Margarita’s brothers Jose Bonifacio and Mariano, Casa Roxas was renamed Sociedad Roxas Hijos. The responsibility over the distillery fell on Margarita, while the brothers took care of interests and properties in Nasugbu, Calatagan and Laguna—fertile agricultural lands that their father had invested in early in his career. One of Jose Bonifacio Roxas’ investments was the purchase of a tract of rolling riceland in San Pedro de Makati, bounded on the north by the Pasig River, for the grand sum of P52,000. At the time it seemed a foolhardy investment: it was too far from Intramuros, then the center of business, or from San Miguel, where the Roxases resided. Even as agricultural land, it was marginally productive. No doubt fuelled by the most far-reaching of visions, this investment would prove its worth in time.
Domingo Roxas (1782-1843)
Antonio de Ayala (1805-1876)
In 1844, Antonio de Ayala and Margarita Roxas were wed in a simple ceremony. For Margarita, still only 29, it sparked a powerful burst of energy: all at once, she had divested herself of her role as daughter and emerged as an equal partner in a relationship and a powerful business leader. Indeed, the marriage did much to strengthen a two-year business partnership and revitalize the company’s 10-year-old leadership. To these she added important positions in the social and civic scene. With the departure of Jose Bonifacio due to other business interests, the company was renamed Roxas Hermanos. The subsequent death of Mariano Roxas would concentrate the leadership even more, prompting another change in the business dynamic, as well as another change in name. Roxas Hermanos was promptly rechristened with the name that bore the roots of its future: Casa Ayala.
The heirs of Domingo Roxas were Jose Bonifacio Roxas (1818-1880), Mariano Roxas (1820-1864), and Margarita Roxas (1815-1869), who later married Antonio de Ayala.
The earliest social commitment was made in education with the creation of La Concordia, a school for girls, in 1856
Seeds of Social Involvement Although Mariano, the younger of the Roxas brothers, was a lawyer by profession, he was much more invested in the world of art. In 1849, Mariano helped found the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura de Manila, a school that primarily taught painting in the classical European style, employing mythology, historical scenes, and chiaroscuro techniques. The academy opened to an inaugural class of seventy students. Soon it would count among its alumni Simon Flores, considered the first international Filipino artist, Fabian de la Rosa, regarded the “master of genre” in Philippine art, and Juan Luna, the most celebrated Filipino artist of the time. In 1856, Margarita, the only girl among the Roxas siblings, donated her estate in Paco in Sta. Ana, Manila to the Sisters of Charity. The three-and-a-half hectare villa would soon be converted into a girls’ school—the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion de la Concordia. To reinforce its teaching staff, Margarita Roxas arranged for eight Daughters of Charity from Spain and introduced a curriculum that emphasized religion, good manners, reading, writing, and simple arithmetic, and culture and arts, along with sewing, embroidery, cooking, needlecraft, and household work. Today the curriculum is decidedly more modern, though the school still goes by the same formal name.
10
Revolutionary Thinkers: Casa Ayala and the first Zobel
(Left to right) The first Philippine bank note issued by El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II; the first Zobel born in the Philippines, Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz (1842-1896); an advertisement for the Ayala distillery
Antonio de Ayala’s spirit of determined individualism fared him well soon after the streamlining of Casa Ayala’s leadership. Seeking other interests, he eyed banking and insurance, both industries that were in their fledgling state.
In 1851, Antonio became a founding trustee of Banco Español Filipino de Isabel Segunda, representing Casa Ayala on the board. The bank was the very first private commercial bank in Southeast Asia, and the precursor of today’s Bank of the Philippine Islands. A year later, Banco Español Filipino would take its first innovative step by issuing the country’s first currency notes, which were in use until 1898.
Forays in marine insurance and bond issuance carried Antonio de Ayala further into government service and trade governance. His interest in industries was far removed from his experience—quite remote, in fact, from the experience of most other businessmen of his time. Such innovative thinking, however, made for a key characteristic of the business house he had founded, and marked many turning points in its history. These complementary measures did well to ensure the early success of the early Ayala enterprise. Later on, such measures transformed into the very fundamentals that informed the manner in which business was done. The constant interplay of courageous innovation and conservative control would continue to serve the Ayalas well into the next century, and the next.
The spreading nationalist consciousness during the late 1800s was frontlined by a growing middle class, composed of wealthier, “enlightened” Filipinos, for whom social mobility was made easier with a European education. By this time, after three hundred years of Spanish settlement and assimilation, and centuries of continuous trade with China, the Philippines expectedly harbored a more complex society, as well as a more diverse class complexion. This period of social diversity and gathering enlightenment came accompanied by one of the darkest provocations of the Spanish occupation. On February 17, 1872, three Filipino priests, Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, were garroted at Bagumbayan in Manila on charges of subversion.
It was during these turbulent times, one Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz entered the scene. The first of the Zobels to be born in Manila, he was descended from a noteworthy German family whose careers lay in divergent areas. His father, Jacobo Zobel Hinsch, had settled in Manila from his native Hamburg in 1827. His mother, Ana Maria Zangroniz, was the daughter of a justice at the Audencia Real of Manila, who had come from an old family in Navarra. Jacobo was a certified polyglot, eventually learning no fewer than ten languages (Arabic, Etruscan, Caldeo, French, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese) outside his household German. In addition, he counted among his professions those of businessman, numismatist, archaeologist, writer, and public administrator—achieving considerable accomplishments in all of these.
El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II, precursor of Bank of the Philippine Islands, was the first private commercial bank in Southeast Asia
As a public administrator, Jacobo attained the position of city councilor at the age of 27, and by the age of 30, he had become regidor of Manila. Apart from all these, he played host and patron to the burgeoning Philippine art and music scene. But perhaps the young Zobel’s most defining achievement was his involvement in the protest movement against the abusive components of Spanish rule. Energetic, fearless, and outspoken, he could not remain quiet about the overheating political situation in the Spanish colony.
It is easy to see how Jacobo could so quickly capture the public’s attention. As a maverick leader with a heart for the indio’s interests, he cut a valiant, refreshing figure equally among the intellectual elite and the general public. But it is also just as easy to see how the Spanish administration could attribute unsavory deeds and conspiracies to someone so gifted and uninhibited. Jacobo Zobel was quickly suspected of supporting the 1872 Cavite Mutiny—the very happening that had precipitated the Gomburza martyrdom and the swell of underground protest that followed. The resulting charges put him in prison for six months. In the end, it would be the dispute between his German and Spanish nationalities that would exonerate him from his suspected crime.
Jacobo’s release from prison was immediately followed by his marriage to Trinidad Roxas de Ayala, elder daughter of Antonio and Margarita Roxas de Ayala. This was a period of great, inexorable change for the country. So it was, also, for Casa Ayala. After the death of Margarita Roxas de Ayala in 1869, Antonio carried on at the helm until his own passing seven years later. Through the years of careful diversification, Casa Ayala had grown larger still. It was, all at once, a great fortune, a great responsibility, and a great task. For Carmen and Trinidad, daughters and heirs of Antonio and Margarita Roxas de Ayala, it had become a great inheritance.
Casa Ayala was the first step in what would be a long uninterrupted journey that today, almost two centuries later, still remains stretched out before the company. For a fledgling nation feeling the first stirrings of a truly global trade from half a world away, Casa Ayala was a brave, idealistic venture. Today, while global trade has drastically changed in scope and scale, there is still a wealth of possibilities and opportunities always to be discovered, requiring very much the same entrepreneurial qualities the originators of Casa Ayala possessed: a pioneering spirit, the courage to innovate, and the stamina for the road still well ahead.
12
Revolution and Succession: Ayala y Compa単ia at the turn of the century
Office of Ayala y Compa単ia on Echague Street in the Quiapo district of Manila, 1927
The first mode of public transportation in Manila was the tramway owned and managed by Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz
The death of Antonio de Ayala in 1876
transferred the ownership of Casa Ayala to daughters Carmen and Trinidad. With the involvement of their husbands, Pedro Pablo Roxas and Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz, as capitalist partners, another change of name was in order. Casa Ayala enlarged its ownership and leadership to become Ayala y Compañia. The marriage of Trinidad and Jacobo was a match for the times. After all, these were two of the most highly regarded families in Manila. The marriage put together the fierce intelligence and tireless vision of the Zobels with the sheer range and sweep of the Ayalas’ business footprint.
Carmen Ayala de Roxas (1846-1930)
Trinidad Ayala de Zobel (1856-1918)
A honeymoon in Europe preluded a brief settlement in Spain. Disappointed by business dealings that failed to materialize, Jacobo poured fresh energy into a new enterprise he was planning to establish in Manila, inspired by the advanced public transportation systems he had seen all across Europe.
Only old photographs vividly remind us today that Manila once was a city of streetcars. The backbone of rails that once lined the avenues and streets are gone, and the streetcars themselves—the few that have survived—are museum pieces, vaguely remembered and rarely visited. If the Tranvia service is remembered at all, it is rarely attributed to the individual responsible for its establishment: Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz. The plan for streetcar operations in Manila, granted in 1878 to a private concessionaire, was transferred to a Compañia de los Tranvias de Filipinas, a public utility organized by Zobel and another private businessman, outside the realm of Ayala y Cia. By the late 1880s, the Tranvia service had been fully developed, covering five city routes converging in Plaza San Gabriel, the center of the city’s business and financial district.
14
Veterans of the Philippine Revolution of 1896 commemorated the proclamation of independence on the streets of Kawit, Cavite, 1937
Largely unknown to many is that Manila’s first organized public transportation system began as a simple horse-drawn affair, with carriages for 12 persons drawn by a single pony, and with a total of 72 horses in the Tranvia stables. The system would remain as the city’s major means of public transportation until 1903, with the sale of the service to the Manila Electric Railway and Light Company and its subsequent conversion to electric power.
Just beyond the bend, there would be more unrest, and eventually, outright revolt. Six weeks after the Philippine Revolution of 1896 broke out, Jacobo succumbed to a stroke, a day before his scheduled departure for a medical trip to Europe.
The difficulties of establishing the public transportation system and the rigors of managing Ayala y Cia all but consumed Jacobo’s time and energy. Added to this was the constant shadow of suspicion pitched above him by the Spanish authorities. Toward the end of the century, as rumors of mounting unrest roiled the atmosphere, he found his failing health a good reason to evade an invitation to join a volunteers’ battalion charged to defend his home district of San Miguel.
The leadership vacuum at Ayala y Cia at the turn of the century might have been debilitating if the heirs had been made of lesser mettle. Once again, and almost in keeping with tradition, women were prompted to play more participative roles in the company—and Carmen and Trinidad Roxas de Ayala were destined to become powerful figures in the company’s history.
With the demise of Jacobo, Ayala y Cia suddenly found itself without a senior partner. Pedro Pablo Roxas, Carmen Roxas de Ayala’s husband, had left for Europe months before.
All throughout the company’s history, the rare qualities of the business pioneer were not just to be found—or sought— among the men. The women of Ayala have always stood out as visionaries and strategists of the highest order. With their leadership called upon often at the most tumultuous times, they provided fresh perspective and crucial resilience where old, well-worn ways would have not served the company well. Like most revolutions, the Philippine Revolution was not a single event, but an accumulation and an escalation of several moments. From the establishment of the Katipunan and the Cry of Pugadlawin, to the surge of Emilio Aguinaldo’s troops in Cavite and the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, to the arrival of the United States Navy and ensuing Spanish-American War, the complex buildup and sublimation of conspiracy and happenstance resulted in the proclamation of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898.
But neither was it a single revolution— neither Spain nor the United States acknowledged Philippine independence. In 1899, the newly independent government declared war on the United States. It was a bloody conflict that would last another three years. By July 1902, the Philippine Organic Act was ratified in the American Congress, establishing a Philippine legislature and extending the United States Bill of Rights to Filipinos. Philippine Independence, hard won, zealously defended, and tenuously maintained, gave way to American Times.
Pedro Pablo Roxas (1845-1912) many new businesses together and ran both Destileria de Ayala y Compañia and his own company, Pedro Roxas y Compañia
16
New Dispensations: Early American times
Ayala ventured into insurance with the establishment of Insular Life Assurance Co., the first Filipino life insurance company, in 1910
By the 1920s, real estate rentals and sales contributed much of Ayala y Cia’s revenues
For the Ayala management, the years
Employees and friends celebrated Ayala’s first centenary in 1934 at the house of Enrique Zobel de Ayala. In the foreground on the left is Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, who with brother Jacobo, was managing partner at the time
of loss, conflict and uncertainty, right at the turn of the century, also prompted revolutionary thinking—and a revolution in the way business was to be done. Under Trinidad Ayala de Zobel’s guidance, Ayala y Compañia went through a crucial phase of streamlining and refocusing. Her late husband’s Tranvia business was sold to the Manila Electric Railway and Light Company. Interests in businesses and properties that could not be fully attended to were sold off, and the proceeds reinvested in marketable securities. Just as their mother had done, Trinidad kept tight control and kept a clear eye on the company’s interests. By the time postwar tensions had dwindled and a sense of normalcy returned to the country, she had gathered a portfolio that revealed a combination of innovative investment thinking and an uncanny understanding of markets and industries.
As with the previous generations, succession planning remained an integral part of business management. In 1901, at the age of 24, Enrique Zobel de Ayala, son of Jacobo Zobel and Trinidad Roxas de Ayala, assumed the position of managing partner of Ayala y Cia. In the same year, he would marry Consuelo, Carmen Roxas de Ayala’s eldest daughter. Consuelo would bear Enrique two sons and a daughter, but succumbed, at the age of 30, to a cholera epidemic. Three years later, Enrique would remarry, taking as his wife Fermina Montojo. In 1912, Banco Español Filipino was designated the official depository of government funds. An American was appointed to its helm and the bank renamed Bank of the Philippine Islands—all in keeping with the new colonial presence. Still and all, the early American period was a time of relative calm. Though the Great Depression would soon enough dampen much of the spirit in America, and the dark tension of fascism would sweep across Europe, the gap years after World War I provided enough time for business to be made.
Consuelo (1877-1908) and Enrique Zobel de Ayala (1877-1943) BPI inaugurated its third branch in Cebu as business and commerce flourished in the province
18
With 24-year-old Enrique at the helm, Ayala y Cia quickly established strongholds in areas outside their usual ken, with fresh ventures and opportunities introduced into the family by sons-in-law and close business colleagues.
Trinidad Ayala de Zobel (1856-1918)
Under the stewardship of Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz’s widow Trinidad Ayala, Ayala y Compañia evolved into a powerful holding company. Unburdened of the heavy tasks of direct management, cash-rich from the profitable sale of several successful businesses, it emerged into the American period invested in the most lucrative industries of the time. Trinidad invested in hotels—by then bursting at the seams with visitors and merchants seeking leisure and business opportunities in Manila. She invested in mining concessions, warehousing operations, and insurance companies—all enjoying massive profits in the optimistic upswing after World War I. She further increased the family’s stake in Banco Español Filipino and purchased shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, thereby broadening her financial muscle and widening her presence into the Asian region. Trinidad’s prescience and prudence may be seen as natural confluences of traits both inherited and earned. After all, by then, Ayala was already on its third generation of continuous entrepreneurship and management. For the better part of an entire century, they did nothing but focus on growing wealth and ensuring that the business performed well. The infusion of fresh insight and talent, through marriage and various partnerships, only gave strength to the backbone of experience that ran through the Ayala leadership. This is faithfully reflected in the innovative ideas and the relentless application of wisdom and insight that characterized Ayala’s business portfolio at the start of American times. This allowed the country’s oldest business house to face a new century of opportunity and growth with readiness and vigor.
One of those opportunities was the insurance business, brought to the family’s attention by Antonio Melian, husband to Enrique’s sister Margarita. He had run a successful string of insurance operations while previously living in Peru and was confident that the business model would work in the Philippines. In 1910, the Ayalas, along with Melian and other trusted partners, established Insular Life Assurance Company. Soon enough, Melian had the idea of setting up a third insurance firm, one that would underwrite insurance solely on properties. The nature of the property insurance industry of the time, with almost haphazardly determined premiums and long delays in payouts, had open opportunities for new players. In 1913, Melian established Filipinas Compañia de Seguros, enlisting his brothers-in-law and close business friends as incorporators. It would be the first step in Ayala’s long involvement in the insurance industry.
In 1914, during inheritance proceedings among the Roxas, Zobel, and de Ayala families, the bulk of the shares of the family brewery would be awarded to Eduardo Soriano, husband to Carmen’s daughter Margarita. The entire stake of the Roxas family in Ayala y Cia would go to Trinidad’s side. The Makati property, originally purchased by the Roxases, was given to the children of Enrique Zobel and Consuelo Roxas de Ayala. This allowed the Ayalas to take what they had and build even further. More than that, the redistribution of businesses and property behooved each heir to apply efficiency and insight in growing what they had: their lot, in short, became their task at hand. The remarkable breadth and diversity of industries the three families presided over reveals the amount of growth they were able to muster over a relatively short period in history. By 1914, they had already built vast business infrastructures, created thousands of jobs, and generated enough income to fuel further interests. After the scourge of the Great American Depression, Enrique Zobel de Ayala, son of Jacobo and Trinidad Zobel, grandson of Antonio and Margarita Roxas de Ayala, was left holding the reins of Ayala y Compañia.
Offices of Hacienda de San Pedro, Makati, 1926
Like his forebears, Enrique was a risk taker who was also endowed with a tremendous amount of control. After studies in Europe in the fields of mining, engineering, and painting, he returned to the Philippines and took to entrepreneurship quickly.
The company saw this as a real estate opportunity. It had already engaged in small-scale residential lot selling in the early 1920s, and the acquisition of Hacienda Makati provided a good chance to enter the development business in a larger capacity.
Like his ancestors, Enrique, too, was a generous patron of culture. Harboring the dream of preserving an intimate connection between Spanish and Filipino culture, he sought to promote the Spanish language at every turn.
In 1931, Mercedes returned from schooling in Madrid and Paris and married Joseph McMicking, childhood friend and son of the Insular Life manager. Supported by the visionary Mercedes, McMicking would prove instrumental in planning and implementing the dramatic transformation of the Makati property into what it is today. As managing partner from the beginning of the 1930s until the late 1960s, McMicking laid the groundwork for the massive expansion of Ayala’s real estate business and, along with it, the masterful planning of an entire city.
In 1929, Enrique established the Premio Zobel, an award recognizing the best written works in the Spanish language in the Philippines. It is an award still being given out today, under the third generation of administrators, to celebrate a language still being written and read in literature, and still thriving in certain corners of Philippine society. The collapse of the US stock market and the ensuing Great Depression delivered sharp consequences to the Philippine economy. It took a Scotsman called Jose McMicking, who had been the first general manager of Insular Life, to engineer the survival of the Ayala businesses, particularly those involved in insurance. In 1929, Enrique Zobel’s three grown children, Jacobo, Alfonso, and Mercedes, turned over their ownership of Hacienda de San Pedro Makati to Ayala y Compañia. The property had lain in the family’s hands, undeveloped and undisturbed, for several decades.
The prewar years, in retrospect, were merely a preparation for the grand trials that would follow. As a company deeply engaged in property insurance, and beginning to build a major stake in real estate development, the wartime destruction of Manila and the commercial infrastructure and networks that supported it, would prove a great challenge.
Enrique Zobel (1877-1943)
Enrique Zobel had a fierce love of the Spanish language, but in the realm of visual arts, he found himself a fan—and a proud patron—of a more indigenous subject matter. A profound interest in painting had led him to discover one of the country’s great artistic talents, a young man by the name of Fernando Amorsolo, known for his idealized pastoral scenes set in the Philippine countryside. By his early teens, Amorsolo had already displayed precocious skill in painting and was apprenticing with Fabian de la Rosa, one of the great painters of the time. Enrique had chanced upon his talent and offered him full support and patronage. Under Enrique Zobel’s patronage, Amorsolo enrolled in further studies at the Academia de Bellas Artes de Fernando in Spain, traveled to museums in the United States, and soon achieved international recognition.
20
The Business of Reconstruction: Postwar Ayala
Ayala Triangle in the 1940s, indicating the location of the Manila International Air Terminal
Patriot, sportsman, civic leader, and industrialist, Jacobo Zobel (1902-1971) retired as managing partner in 1941 to focus on his military career.
Forty-two hectares of land in Makati was leased to a group led by Laurie Reuben Nielson. This became the site of the country’s first commercial airport. The building stands today as the site of Filipinas Heritage Library
B
y the end of the War, years of occupation and American aerial bombardments had left Manila in neartotal destruction. But Ayala was swiftly able to regain balance, gathering its resources and rebuilding its businesses from hastily reconstructed headquarters in Manila. The process of reconstruction promised to be long and arduous—it would take many years of rigorous planning and tireless effort. Jacobo, Enrique’s eldest son, had survived the Death March and the Japanese prison camps. After the War, he would relinquish his role in the business and focus on his military career, playing an active role in repulsing the Huks and assisting the government in postwar reconstruction. Jacobo’s own son Enrique, who had survived by performing odd jobs during the war, would head for the United States to create a life and a career of his own. Joseph McMicking, Enrique’s son-in-law and son of Jose McMicking, the man who had organized and engineered a large part of Ayala’s insurance business, worked as Intelligence Officer in General Douglas McArthur’s staff and was reunited with his wife Mercedes and their family after accompanying the American military contingent to Australia. Soon enough, Joseph would found himself working at Ayala—his father’s employer—in a greater capacity.
The city was in ruins, the economy was poor, and the business was barely up and running. But Ayala hardly had time to take stock of their prospects—the company was too busy rebuilding the business. And even if its leaders had time to apply some perspective, they only ever needed to recall all that the country’s oldest business house had already weathered.
The headquarters of Insular Life in downtown Manila. Unlike most of its prewar competitors, the insurance company honored all claims including those paid for in currency nullified by the postwar government, a costly but principled decision
It was in all likelihood, then, that in the aftermath of the War, Ayala looked upon the newly inaugurated peacetime as a fresh period of opportunity and growth. Indeed, a brief glance reveals that the businesses established by the company in the prewar years became major sources of revenue and springboards for business expansion after the war.
The postwar period saw that rich entrepreneurial blood leap across family ties and transform an entire organization into an engine for growth, cultural development and nationbuilding. They made it happen as they had seen it.
By that time, Ayala had endured over a century of powerful upheavals and dramatic change. It saw the chaos of changing governments, debilitating economic downturns, and deeply uncertain times. It saw its own leaders exiled and imprisoned. And they survived. While the heirs could always trace their roots to landed royalty, they also carried with them the blood of hardened entrepreneurs. For all their rich pedigree and upbringing, the business leaders— the men who led, and the women who found themselves needing to lead—also knew how to do the labor themselves. From Margarita Roxas, who took banca rides up and down the Pasig River to manage the fledgling conglomerate, to the younger Enrique Zobel, who at 10 years of age worked as a coach driver to support himself through the War years, the family needed only to rely on their natural gifts to prevail over the worst of times.
A meeting of Ayala y Compañia’s managing partners held in October 1960 was attended by (standing, left to right) Javier Nepomuceno, Alfredo Melian, Jaime Velasquez, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Salvador Lorayes, (seated, left to right) Fernando Zobel, Alfonso Zobel, Joseph McMicking, and Enrique Zobel
22
The Master Plan: McMicking and the growth of Makati
Forbes Park set new standards in residential property development and was the first step in the creation of modern Makati, 1964
In attendance at the Ayala y Compañia managing partners’ meeting held at Insular Life Building in Makati in 1966 were:
Advertising concepts for Forbes Park by Fernando Zobel
Enrique Zobel, Alfonso Zobel, and Ricardo Padilla
Alfonso Zobel de Ayala (1903-1967) and Joseph McMicking (1908-1990) Gloria Zobel de Padilla and Mercedes Zobel McMicking
W
ith the rehabilitation of the Philippine business infrastructure came the reinvention of Ayala y Compañia. The company gained newfound strength in a shared leadership between Enrique Zobel’s son Alfonso and Joseph McMicking. Alfonso had successfully protected the Ayala properties through the crucial war years. Joseph McMicking had made a brilliant turn protecting the insurance business from imminent collapse and regaining the confidence of its policyholders. Hacienda Makati, the marginally productive, unutilized tract of land that Jose Bonifacio Roxas had purchased nearly a century ago, provided the substrate for the company’s most ambitious and exciting development plans. With most of Manila’s urban areas reduced to rubble, citizens were in a mad scramble for residential properties. Residents of the upscale communities along Roxas Boulevard, near what had been the main business districts, found themselves looking in the districts in Quezon City, north of the Pasig River, for clear parcels of land to build on. Out of the way and quite outside the preference of most Manileños, Hacienda Makati demanded elegant planning and masterful execution to maximize its profitability as a residential area. Even before that, it would take ingenious thinking to position it as a desirable option for a new residence in postwar Manila.
But Joseph McMicking and Alfonso Zobel had these qualities in spades. McMicking took inspiration from the masterful urban planning that shaped the cities he was most intimate with, cities like San Francisco and Washington, DC. There would be a residential district, a cluster of business communities, and an area for shops and department stores. There would be theatres, parks, and leisure centers. There would be a thinking mind behind it all, mapping out zones and charting 25-year construction phases. It was to be a fully planned and engineered “multizone subcity”—a term so futuristic it seemed almost far-fetched. McMicking’s dreams for Makati began with a carefully thought-out sequence: first, the farthermost area would be developed as a residential area that would project an upscale image, immediately pitching up attention and desirability for the other areas that would be successively built. That area was called Forbes Park, a vast enclave that would harbor elegant homes set on sprawling lawns, much in the likeness of wealthy American neighborhoods. Forbes Park was only the first step under the rubric of what was called the Ayala Master Plan. It was farsighted and ambitious, with the first development phase taking all of 25 years, and with the ultimate objective of creating no less than a working city. It would take someone alive to the sensitivities of a growing, confident market to sell a golden plan. Soon enough, Ayala had not only launched their golden plan—it had put the plan into breathtaking action.
Makati offered more than any other development could, at prices that were a fraction of the actual development costs. This compelled prospective buyers to overlook the travel distance to the south of Manila. This appeal was further enhanced through residential innovations such as underground sewage and full-size roads. The Manila Polo Club and the Manila Golf Club were also brought to the area, transplanted from their old locations, further raising the bar for elegant living.
Consuelo Zobel Alger, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, and Enrique Zobel
Rich rewards were offered to lot buyers who built their houses swiftly—but only to rigid quality standards and building codes, so that the highbrow appeal would be sustained. And to drum up interest, the company itself seeded the development by building a number of houses and putting them up for rent. Forbes Park was a costly feasibility test for the entire Makati dream.
Fernando Zobel, Consuelo Zobel Alger, and Jaime Zobel de Ayala
It was a hard sell, but Ayala had expected it. As they might have expected, too, the buyers came in as a trickle, then a rush. Soon, the growing number of Forbes Park residents were pleased to know that Ayala was building an entire commercial center complex right across the road from them. Right next to it, along Ayala Avenue, the Makati skyline—the very first the country would ever have—was taking shape.
Mercedes Zobel McMicking, Alfonso Zobel, Joseph McMicking, and Beatriz Zobel
24
Crisis, Challenge, and Change: Ayala in changing times
Makati commercial and business district in the 1960s
B
y the late 1960s, Makati had become the country’s premier commercial and residential district. The country’s most prominent businesses put up shop a fast-rising enclave of buildings, among them Ayala’s own eight-story headquarters and the country’s first fivestar hotel, the Hotel Intercontinental Manila, in the newly christened Makati Commercial Center.
Pioneering advances were also being made on other fronts. In 1958, Ayala founded the country’s first industrial life insurance company, Filipinas Life Assurance Company. It was among the many firsts that their insurance business would accomplish. In the early 1970s, it would be the first to automate its systems by using computers, serving over one million policyholders.
Plans for other communities were swiftly put into the making. A succession of upscale residential subdivisions were quickly developed in Makati—the San Lorenzo, Bel Air, Urdaneta, San Miguel, Magallanes, and Dasmariñas Villages. By 1978, lots in Forbes Park would command 300 times their original price.
Alfonso Zobel’s death in 1967 and Joseph McMicking’s retirement in 1968 called for another change in the dispensation. Fernando Zobel had chosen to focus on what would be a groundbreaking career in art. Leadership then fell on the young Enrique Olgado Zobel, son of Jacobo Zobel, and his cousin Jaime, son of Alfonso Zobel. That same year, Ayala y Compañia, which had been a partnership all throughout its 134-year existence, became Ayala Corporation.
Enrique Olgado Zobel (1927-2004)
The years that Enrique Olgado Zobel spent in Ayala saw the fruition of some of the business house’s biggest investments. When he joined Ayala in 1955 as managing partner, Enrique Zobel worked closely with Joseph McMicking, who engineered the transformation of Makati from vast tracts of swamplands into the country’s premier financial and commercial district. Like McMicking, Enrique Zobel showed great strength and business savvy in contributing to the growth of Ayala as one of the country’s biggest and most respected conglomerates. When McMicking retired in 1968, Enrique Zobel took over as president, making sure that McMicking’s vision for the group was sustained. Under Enrique Zobel’s leadership, Ayala started welcoming into its fold highly competent professional managers. He was instrumental in fulfilling Ayala’s goal to become a major player in the banking sector as the company gained control of the Bank of the Philippine Islands during his watch and brought about the first bank merger in the country 35 years ago—between Bank of the Philippine Islands and People’s Bank & Trust Company. Ayala’s entry into the semiconductor sector through Integrated Microelectronics, as well as in agribusiness through Pure Foods, also happened during Enrique Zobel’s time. Aside from being a talented businessman, Enrique Zobel was actively involved in social causes—once again proving Ayala’s commitment not only to business development, but to nation-building as well.
Ayala’s headquarters was located at the Makati Stock Exchange Building, a landmark in the rising business district
Enrique Olgado Zobel, Joseph McMicking, and Jaime Zobel de Ayala
26 It was Joseph McMicking himself who had taken in young Enrique Zobel, Jacobo’s only son and grandson of the elder Enrique, to work in the business upon his return from studying agriculture and animal husbandry in the United States. At Ayala y Cia, Enrique had quickly taken to managing various corners of the business, assisting in the Makati masterplan and creating huge profits out of the property trade. His chairmanship of Ayala Corporation was perhaps emblematic of the positive, almost physical energy of the times. Later on, it would be Enrique’s cousin Jaime that would propel the Ayala business house into modern times, and into a more progressive company.
As demonstrated many times before in its history, balanced management was an Ayala characteristic that had served it well through its most tumultuous and uncertain periods. The combination of thoughtful planning and active engagement— whether dispensed by one leader or by two, thus also became evident in the company’s business strategies. Ayala’s long roster of leadership has often rested on the lineage of family, or extended family. Patriarchs, matriarchs, and gifted sons-in-law have shaped the company’s presence and charted its passage. A look at Ayala’s history reveals that this has in fact been part of a unique formula. Later on, the company would move from strength to strength, progressing further from a family business to one decidedly more corporate in character.
This drive toward professionalism formed the center of a major transition in the late 1960s. Under this rubric came efforts to bring in outside talent—and grant them the latitude and authority to manage different aspects of the Ayala business. It was a bold decision, then, especially in light of the fact that Ayala had always been seen as a family-run company. Moreover, it had also been perceived by some that Ayala’s strength as a conglomerate lay in its family-style management.
But the transition to professionalism, which required a lot of work and a strong dose of progressive thinking, proved essential to Ayala’s growth. Since that crucial transformation, the system of meritocracy, while at first glance contradictory, has always been the unavoidable proving ground for every single one of its leaders, regardless of their pedigree. Unknown to many, for example, chairman emeritus Jaime Zobel de Ayala joined Ayala—fresh from a Harvard education—as an executive assistant in 1958, twenty-five years before becoming chairman of the board of directors.
Ayala has transformed itself from a family-based partnership to a publicly listed, investment holding company governed by the descendants of the founding family and led by professional managers who are talented, independent, and value-driven. The involvement of the Zobel families in the company is managed through Mermac, Inc., a majority shareholder of Ayala Corporation. In attendance at Mermac’s first formal stockholders’ meeting on January 12, 1996 were (standing, left to right) Sofia Elizalde, Monica Pla, Cristina Suarez de Puga, Patricia Halffter, Iñigo Zobel, Fernando Zobel, Jaime Augusto Zobel, (seated, left to right) Beatriz Susana Zobel, Maria de las Mercedes Zobel, Mercedes McMicking, Jaime Zobel, Alfonso Zobel, and joined by Javier Nepomuceno.
Joseph and Mercedes McMicking formalized Ayala’s commitment to social development by establishing the Filipinas Foundation, precursor of Ayala Foundation. It promoted the appreciation and protection of Filipino culture and heritage and created livelihood and education programs
Filipinas Foundation Cultural and civic patronage has been one of the most enduring characteristics of the Ayala heritage. Through all its 175 years of doing business, Ayala has also nurtured the Filipino culture and way of life, funding, supporting, and directly overseeing schools, charities, livelihood projects, and cultural programs. In 1961, Joseph and Mercedes McMicking created Filipinas Foundation, a nonprofit organization that would institutionalize and organize Ayala’s support of scientific and cultural research and development. What is little known is that Filipinas Foundation was the very first foundation in the country—McMicking himself had convinced the government to pass a law allowing the formation of foundations. The foundation’s first accomplishments were landmark research projects in the fields of agriculture and industrial production. Later on, it expanded to include projects in the areas of culture and the arts. Filipinas Foundation had established itself as the richest institution of its kind in the country, but as the years passed, the cultural wealth it created would far surpass any measure.
28
Makati and Beyond: Ayala Corporation expands its reach
Ayala’s shares were publicly listed in 1976 led by then senior vice president Jaime Zobel de Ayala, treasurer Manuel Chuidian, and Makati Stock Exchange director Miguel Campos
Mitsubishi Corporation-Manila general manager Shinroku Morohashi, Mitsubishi Corporation president Chujiro Fujino, Ayala Corporation president Enrique Olgado Zobel and Philippine Ambassador to Japan Jose Laurel lll, celebrate the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between Ayala Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation in September 1973
With Jaime Zobel de Ayala’s guidance, his sons Jaime Augusto and Fernando began to be trained in the various businesses of the conglomerate
The fevered development of Makati
and the further expansion of the real estate business were tempered by the divestment of non-essential land developments and balanced by expansion into international real estate investments. At the same time, Ayala Corporation’s insurance divisions had undergone strategic streamlining, with the incorporation of the FGU Insurance Company, and later on, the reorganization of the Universal Insurance and Indemnity Company into the Universal Reinsurance Corporation. Further on, toward the mid-1970s, Ayala would invest in Globe-Mackay Cable & Radio Corporation. Ayala was one of the first to carry out brisk business moves in the light of this program. It was a move that—as chairman Enrique Zobel had predicted—would carry with it the seeds of tremendous growth in the future. By the time Ayala went public in 1976, it had gone through more changes in corporate structure and modes of management than any other company in the country. This made it all the more surprising that it had managed to preserve its unique company culture for over a hundred years.
From the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972, all through its abolition in 1980, Ayala carried on with the central expansion of its business empire, as well as stabilizing infusions of investment and expertise from global companies. Foreign investments became a focal point for national development, and in 1973, Ayala welcomed several Mitsubishi companies, led by Mitsubishi Corporation as investors, and signed a business collaboration agreement to explore new investment opportunities in the Philippines. This partnership has been instrumental in creating the country’s leading industrial park and other ventures in automotive manufacturing, information technology, and water infrastructure. Forays into consumer-food manufacturing and progressive agriculture, with the purchase of majority equity in Pure Foods Corporation and the establishment of the Ayala Agricultural Development Corporation, marked the beginning of the 1980s.
In 1984, Jaime Zobel de Ayala ascended to the chairmanship of Ayala Corporation. At the same time, the conglomerate—and the entire country with it—was entering an altogether new world. It was also the year opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated upon his return from the United States, an event that began the unraveling of the Marcos dictatorship and along with it, the decline of the Philippine economy. “The economy had gone through the floor, the political system was cracking,” Jaime Zobel observed, before employing the time-honored practice that Ayala had mastered: multiple management. In the light of a tilting economy and quickly shifting political tides, Jaime Zobel reconstituted a senior management committee, mirroring the wartime steps his predecessors had so successfully employed. Investments and divestments, subsidiaries, corporate debt levels and dividend policies, were reviewed and dealt with according to a strategy of tough streamlining and tight focus. “The posture was that of consolidation and defense.”
Zobel’s batten-down-the-hatches strategy called for the company to give up several unprofitable and unwieldy interests. The reduction of debt accompanied the generation of capital. Ayala came through at the end of 1983 with a promising turnaround in net income and profit. But it was only the beginning. “Crisis creates opportunity as well as confusion. It was imperative at this time that we not lose our bearings,” Zobel noted. In succeeding years, Ayala faced additional challenges, each dramatically raising the level of anxiety and requiring precise counterbalancing measures. The sharp dip in the real estate market was cushioned by a steady growth in lease income and the selective acquisition of more real estate. In the face of a swiftly falling peso, Bank of the Philippine Islands purchased Family Bank & Trust Co., a move that transformed BPI into the largest branch network with the largest customer base in the country.
30 The 1986 EDSA Revolution had brought with it a monumental change in the economy, which within a year had swung back from negative growth. Ayala’s net earnings had risen to P401 million, a 75 percent increase from the previous year. But as the aftermath of the revolution continued to hold the country on shaky political ground, Ayala carried on with its delicately balanced act of informed investment and even-handed control.
Jaime Zobel de Ayala In 1967, as managing partner of Ayala y Compañia, Jaime Zobel de Ayala oversaw the transformation of the conglomerate from a family business into a corporation. It was no simple move for a business that had retained its structure and its hierarchy of leadership for over one hundred years. But Jaime Zobel saw the transformation as essential to survival and success.
Peripheral businesses continued to be shed. Trading offices in Japan and the United States were shut down. But BPI continued to chart substantial growth. In addition, Integrated Microelectronics, Inc., a subsidiary devoted to semiconductor- and chip-building for a global market, also displayed growth, despite heated competition from a growing global technology industry. In 1988, inspired by the robust growth of its real estate business all through the most turbulent economic times in recent history, Ayala spun off its real estate division to form Ayala Land, Inc., which would shortly be publicly listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange. By the late 1980s, Ayala Corporation, under the stewardship of Jaime Zobel, had achieved net profits of more than P1 billion. This despite a chaotic economy, marked by a revolution, various coups d’etat, and external pressure from the Gulf War. But beyond profit, the Ayala leadership had emerged to be a true model for its time, combining powerful strategic strength and unerring visionary capability.
With the move to change came the call—not just for the best talent, but for the best of the best. Across all its enterprises, the newly minted corporation fortified its leadership with the country’s brightest and most accomplished minds. With the change also came the flexibility and autonomy that allowed each Ayala business to move quickly and confidently with each opportunity. Ayala’s transformation into a more professional corporation ushered in what many have called the Ayala Golden Age—a long bright period of massive expansion, dramatic growth, and unprecedented success. If Jaime Zobel was the visionary behind this period of transformation, Joseph McMicking was the architect who ensured the change would be seen and felt. As managing partner of Ayala y Compañia from the 1930s until the late 1960s, McMicking was an early visionary who nurtured the company’s real estate development plans early on. Suddenly, as McMicking’s massive Makati development plan began taking shape, the landscape itself underwent a dramatic change. Indeed, the development of Makati clearly and powerfully reflected Ayala’s success and prosperity. Jaime Zobel occupies a singular place in Ayala history. As president and chairman from 1984 to 1994 and chairman until 2006, he had the vision to see the importance of turning the family business into a corporate entity, as well as the skill to preside over the transformation process. But he has also been an accomplished artist, whose photography has been widely exhibited and acclaimed, and who continues to produce photographic collections. As an individual deeply involved in the arts and culture, Zobel also singlehandedly enlarged Ayala’s involvement in the country’s cultural and social development. Like his ideas and his art, Ayala continues to be progressive and productive. Today, as chairman emeritus of the company, Jaime Zobel still keeps watch over a conglomerate that owes much of its growth and its success to his vision, and still bears much of his image and his personality. To be sure, it was most likely this unique way of seeing that allowed Zobel the prescience to introduce such massive change. As an artist, he perceived the changing milieu, and was keenly aware of the necessity to gather a progressive mindset. As a businessman, he was able to predict the changing demands of the industries Ayala was involved in, and saw great advantage in sourcing the talent and capabilities from outside the organization. Both the artist and the businessman, as it happened, were essential to Ayala’s success.
Bank of the Philippine Islands strengthened its network through mergers and acquisitions and enhanced its customer service through technological innovations such as the country’s first 24-hour automated teller machine (ATM) network Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. began operations at Laguna Technopark. It was Ayala’s first foray into contract manufacturing for computing and electronics Ayala invested in Globe-Mackay Cable & Radio Corporation in the 1970s, anticipating the need for an expansive telecommunications infrastructure two decades later
Ayala Foundation In 1990, Filipinas Foundation was renamed Ayala Foundation, strengthening its relationship with Ayala and its companies. In this manner, it had also turned the Ayala group into a conglomerate that was more responsive, and more responsible, toward social and national development. At the time, Ayala Museum was one of the foundation’s most important and visible cultural projects. Established in 1967, the museum housed a rich resource of information that would educate and entertain entire generations of Filipinos through its collection of flora and fauna and historical artifacts. Its historical dioramas make for an engaging and dramatic visual depiction of Philippine history and remain an important and unforgettable part of every Manileño’s childhood education. The new Ayala Museum in the reinvigorated Greenbelt complex, brings art and culture closer to the public and plays host to some of the country’s most significant and exciting exhibitions in recent years. Filipinas Heritage Library, spun off from Ayala Museum, began as a repository for cultural archives of the Zobel family. Today, it is a busy research center, housing over 10,000 contemporary volumes on Philippine history and culture, 2,000 rare titles in its archive, and hundreds of additional resources in digital form. The library is also a vibrant center for cultural exchange and education, hosting educational programs, readings, and workshops. Improving the quality of education has long been part of the foundation’s history. It covers the entire spectrum of formal education from grade school through the Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education and Text2Teach, to high school as part of the Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students consortium, to college through the Ayala Young Leaders Congress. Other progressive programs aimed towards uplifting the quality of education are the Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance, Buklod Bahayan Daycare Center, and a scholarship for Iraya Mangyan youth.
Ayala Foundation’s programs include Ayala Technology Business Incubators, Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education, Ayala Young Leaders Congress, Filipinas Heritage Library, and Ayala Museum, among others
In addition, the foundation is instrumental in the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Program in the Makati central business district and in nurturing technology-based entrepreneurs through the Ayala Technology Business Incubators. Finally, Ayala Foundation USA is a channel for strategic philanthropy for Filipinos based in the United States to give back to their homeland. Today, Ayala Foundation embraces even loftier ideals, taking on the task of engendering true corporate social responsibility toward national development. By developing social technologies that provide a better quality of life, facilitating access to knowledge and learning, and instilling pride in being Filipino, Ayala Foundation is far more than a center for culture—it has become a center for the cultivation of a national conscience and a national spirit.
32
The New Ayala:
New thinking from a new generation
Ayala Triangle in the 1990s
The mid-1990s saw Jaime Zobel de
Ayala’s two sons rise to the highest circle of the Ayala leadership as co-vice chairmen, with Jaime Augusto Zobel as president, and Fernando Zobel as executive managing director. Beyond family relations, the Ayala leadership has kept its stringent eye for cachet and credentials: Jaime Augusto was educated at Harvard University, and is the first Filipino recipient of the Harvard Business School’s highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, while Fernando was educated also at Harvard, as well as INSEAD in France. But before any of the above qualifications, the Ayala leadership potential found its beginnings at home, where Jaime Zobel prescribed the primary ingredient that was the prerequisite for joining the family business: passion. In their case, this brand of passion was also honed in quarters well outside the Ayala boundaries. Jaime Augusto began his professional life at the Department of Trade and Industry, then at a merchant bank in London. Fernando worked at Shell in Brazil. These were real jobs, presenting real opportunities and options for the young Zobels. But they were also preparations for the Ayala leadership. “My father wanted to make sure that we were interested, qualified, and would be passionate about the business,” Fernando recalls, and Jaime Augusto is quick to mention the corporate demands that tested their passion: “When we came in, we were trained as managers and professionals, not as owners.”
Besides seeking constant balance in management and in investment strategy, Ayala leaders also continuously countered business pursuits with social and cultural cultivation. For all the sharpness they displayed, from the first day on, in managing capital, and the decisiveness they exercised, both in divesting some business units and investing in extremely speculative ventures, they also showed a deep human sensitivity for the Filipino cause. And by doing it, continuously, consciously, over almost two centuries of existence, Ayala demonstrated that it was no society softshoe act, no marketing gimmick. There was a real company behind it all, thinking, well rounded, interested, with a real personality and a genuine soul. To the public at large and its business customers, it all amounted to a most powerful kind of corporate charisma—a characteristic that allowed Ayala Corporation to adapt well to changing times and fortunes, and profit handsomely. Globe Telecom, purchased as far back as the mid-70s, resumed its activity in preparation for the coming telecommunications boom, purchasing Clavecilla Radio Systems early in the decade to boost its local and international operations. At the same time, Bank of the Philippine Islands and Mitsubishi cooperated in a joint venture to create Ayala Systems Technology, Inc., a software development firm.
More developments on the real estate and insurance fronts followed: the Filipinas Life Assurance Company changed its identity to Ayala Life Assurance, Inc., becoming a full-service financial institution in the process. Ayala Land’s stake in the south became fully realized with the establishment of Ayala Alabang, an entire community that followed the developmental footsteps of the Makati miracle. The systematic integration of the Ayala name into its different subsidiaries revealed a conscious effort to project a gathered corporate strength and build a brand that would clearly distinguish itself to the everyday consumer or the smallest stockholder. As a brand, Ayala would not only gather its vast experience and rich legacy. It would project a powerful, unmistakable image of integrity, excellence and leadership on every business, every project, and every product it created and managed. But the strength of the Ayala brand went more than skin deep: at its heart, a visionary approach to entrepreneurship continuously engendered a push toward pioneering innovations that would characterize the company’s business journey. Indeed, by the latter part of the 20th century, the conglomerate had already pioneered on several fronts—in insurance, real estate development, banking, telecommunications, and electronics manufacturing. The mid-1990s also saw the evolution of Globe Mackay as Globe Telecom, a telecommunications company borne by an infusion of resources and technology from Singapore Telecom.
The upcoming turn of the millennium carried with it dramatic advances in technology, and the company’s trademark foresight had ensured that they were well prepared for such developments from the beginning. Their early investments in the areas of telecommunications and consumer-level technology, notably their pioneering moves in digital telephony and network and automated banking, showed a level of foresight and understanding that would fare them well in the years ahead. Further on, Ayala forged a new path into utilities with the Manila Water Company, after a successful bid for Metro Manila’s water and sewerage concession. The utility company proved to be the most successful model of its kind. Later on, Ayala also made forays in the business process outsourcing industry, with the establishment in 2006 of LiveIt, a subsidiary involved in pursuing BPO investments. By the end of the century, Ayala Corporation maintained a major presence in three core businesses— domestic real estate, financial services, and telecommunications. Moreover, it cemented its name as a powerful brand—recognized by its stakeholders, its customers, and the general public for its key characteristics of innovation and social responsibility. Today, these two powerful aspects of the Ayala culture have always been the illuminating principles on a clear track record that has earned it trust and respect.
Ayala’s partnership with Mitsubishi was instrumental in bringing Honda and Isuzu assembly operations to the Philippines Globe Telecom played a key role in the rapid development of mobile communications in the Philippines Ayala has also invested in the business process outsourcing industry
34
Mastering the power of partnerships
Trust is the cornerstone of the Ayala group’s partnership with institutions, which through the years include Mitsubishi Corporation, Singapore Telecom, Temasek, Bechtel Enterprise, United Utilities, JP Morgan, DBS Group, and the regional Bridge Mobile Alliance, among others
Ayala has long been a model for
establishing and nurturing powerful and beneficial relationships with other progressive institutions. Today, through more than two decades of efforts, Ayala’s businesses draw strength from synergy, as well as shared vision and values, created by powerful institutional partnerships. These partnerships have formed the foundation for further growth and innovation in the realm of real estate, financial services, telecommunications, water distribution, electronics and information technology, automotive assembly, business process outsourcing, and international investments. With trust as foundation for these partnerships, Ayala and its partners have been able to leverage their expertise, resources, capabilities, and client bases for their mutual benefit, with results often exceeding the sum of its parts. Ayala’s decades-long partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation, for example, has been a model of cooperation and trust, and has led to many enduring partnerships across many different Ayala enterprises.
The strong history of trust, friendship, and cooperation has resulted in successful shared investments. In the 1990s, Mitsubishi participated in a joint-venture agreement creating the 387-hectare Laguna Technopark. The partnership was also instrumental in bringing Honda and Isuzu assembly operations to the Philippines. Soon after making a minor equity investment in Integrated Microelectronics, Mitsubishi teamed up with Ayala, Bechtel Enterprises, and United Utilities to win the bid for the East Zone operations of Manila Water Company. Jaime Zobel de Ayala, speaking on the occasion of the partnership’s 25th anniversary in 1999, attributed its endurance and success to the trust that Ayala and Mitsubishi engendered over the years. “In many ways, the partnership has confirmed that persistence and far-reaching vision ultimately yields the best. It works for the movers of business ventures and more important, for our clients, for whom it is our duty to provide the best we can offer,” he remarked.
Trust is the cornerstone of Ayala’s philosophy in forging and building strategic alliances with other business organizations in growing its ventures, delivering excellent products and services, and returning value to its shareholders. Partners such as Kawasaki Steel, Hong Kong Land, Rodamco BV, Gammon Construction, Redland Plc., Siam Cement, the Campos group, and Yulo and Madrigal families, have forged strong ties with Ayala Land in real estate; the 20-year partnership with JP Morgan and the current alliance with DBS Group Holdings for financial services; Singapore Telecom for telecommunications; Honda and Isuzu for automotive; United Utilities for water infrastructure development and management; Resins, Inc. and the Carlos family for electronics and information technology. Ayala’s partners have been both global and local; but all of them have been chosen for their business strength and track record, as well as the corporate values they share with Ayala: integrity, long-term vision, empowering leadership, and commitment to national development.
“Both Fernando and I feel very strongly about continuing to put more emphasis on building trust across a whole range of different stakeholder groups. If that trust is preserved, then there is a chance to really create something special and a company that can evolve and move into a new fields as we move on. Trust is a fundamental driver in the way we do things. We try to inculcate it at all levels in the company and use it to define the way we do business,” says Jaime Augusto. Adds Fernando: “We want to make sure that we continue to be the partner of choice. In so doing, we would be able to bring in the best possible partners to work with us and we will have the trust of institutional and other retail investors.”
(Top photo) Minoru Makihara, former chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation, with Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel de Ayala at Ayala Museum in 2007
Following the launch of the first Ayala Social Initiatives Report, chief executives in the Ayala group signified their commitment to develop and continually enhance their companies’ own sustainable development reports
Ayala Social Initiatives Convened by Ayala Foundation, Ayala Social Initiatives gathers all the corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts of the different Ayala subsidiaries under one banner. It is an audacious initiative that seeks to instill a new sense of responsibility into the Ayala corporate culture. Through ASI, multiple efforts from the many different Ayala companies are channeled into three critical development areas: education, environment, entrepreneurship. This allows the ideas and resources to go beyond mere intention and become true initiatives. Moreover, it also allows concerns within the corporate agenda to reach out into the area of national development and builds on linkages and partnerships with other sectors for programs to be more effective, more sustainable, and more extensive. Ayala recognizes the importance of investing in the education of the youth today, for this means investing in the future of the country. Throughout the years, Ayala companies have given value to education by providing basic needs including schoolhouses, water and sanitation services, feeding programs, scholarships, and innovative learning materials. Ayala Foundation’s Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education (CENTEX), which helps in the education of underprivileged children, and the Ayala Young Leaders’ Congress, a servant leadership program for college students, continue to be supported by all Ayala companies.
The Ayala group’s flagship programs in education, entrepreneurship, and the environment include (from top): the Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education, Globe’s Bridgecom sa Bayan, Manila Water’s Lingap Kalikasan including watershed reforestation, and Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students
The environment has been of increasing concern among the different Ayala companies, with Manila Water at the forefront of its initiatives. Among its many programs is Tubig Para Sa Barangay, a program that strives to provide potable water to the marginalized communities in the areas that Manila Water serves. The Solid Waste Management Program, on the other hand, is continuously being implemented in Ayala-managed properties, under the leadership of Ayala Land and Ayala Foundation. Efforts to awaken and nurture the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit have been as varied and powerful as the Ayala companies that have generated them. To facilitate the provision of capital and skills training, the Bank of the Philippine Islands has founded capacity-building programs that assist microfinance institutions and small and medium-scale enterprises. Fernando Zobel de Ayala, president and COO of Ayala Corporation, has envisioned the Ayala Social Initiatives to be “one of the most productive and successful CSR programs in the country.”
36
Pioneering progress Pioneering initiatives have long been an Ayala principle, as well as a continuing promise, fulfilled on several fronts over the recent decades.
New developments in Makati’s commercial area have raised the bar of retail infrastructure higher than it had ever been, with the construction of Greenbelt 1 to 5, in quick succession. The entire profile of the Ayala Center has been dramatically transformed by new structures and studded with new establishments. Ayala Land, already widely spread out in areas such as Laguna and Cebu, has acquired a controlling stake in the massive Fort Bonifacio development in Taguig, to the immediate east of Makati. Ayala has made pioneering steps toward overseas expansion, with its overseas investment unit AG Holdings charting new investments in enterprises in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and later on, in the United States.
With BPI’s purchase of a majority stake in Ayala Life came the opportunity for timely synergy and breakthrough innovations. The convergence of its banking and insurance business through electronic and online consumer channels have allowed insurance transactions through ATMs and the Internet, and continue to create larger value for both sets of customers through cross-selling and product integration. Ayala has also made pioneering forays in technology, shared services, and business process outsourcing industry through its investment arm Azalea. Its portfolio grew to include major investments in information technology services through Ayala Systems Technology; HR services through HRMall; and BPOs through LiveIt.
LiveIt is involved in pursuing BPO investments, among them have been AffinityExpress, which is focused on graphics and design solutions; Integreon, a document, content, and knowledge management services company; and eTelecare which provides complex voice and non-voice customercare services. The Ayala spirit of innovation is also very much alive in Globe Telecom which has revolutionized its industry by introducing secure GSM standards and text messaging to consumers. A few years later, Globe became the first telecommunications company to offer Internet connectivity, raising the bar further by offering broadband technology to enterprises and consumers. Today, it has evolved into a highly convergent medium that allows users to access information, generate personalized content, and even make financial transactions. Globe continues to develop and deliver communications technology for a market that is steadfastly growing, especially along its base. By providing products and services to larger and larger segments, Globe has reached the average Filipino—and thus, so too has Ayala.
But Ayala’s innovations have not merely been on the business front. Through all its 175 years, the company has always nurtured the Filipino culture and way of life, funding, supporting, and developing programs to support schools, charities, livelihood projects, and cultural programs. By actively participating in the social and cultural aspects of the industries Ayala is involved in, and by initiating corporate thinking that takes into account the larger community, Ayala has locked step with the demands of the changing times and set a powerful working example for the business community.
Clockwise from previous page: Greenbelt 5 at Ayala Center, Makati; a BPI Express convenience banking center; artist’s sketch of Mind Museum in Bonifacio Global City; a component manufactured at Integrated Microelectronics; and property investment in Thailand
38
Building a legacy of leadership T
oday’s Ayala finds at its helm among the most seasoned leaders in its history, with Jaime Augusto Zobel as chairman, Fernando Zobel as vice-chairman and father Jaime Zobel as chairman emeritus. Jaime Augusto’s first years of leadership were marked by bold moves in step with the shifting industry structures at that time. These moves resulted in growth unparalled in the company’s history with Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, Manila Water, Integrated Microelectronics, Honda, Isuzu, and AG Holdings achieving record financial and operating performance and growing to be significant players in their respective markets. These achievements were accompanied by top rankings among the best governed and best managed companies in the region. The consolidation and evolution of the Zobels’ leadership at Ayala over the last three decades occurred during the most eventful periods of our nation’s history. But the Zobels themselves, and the business house they have led, have also made dramatic and unprecedented changes of their own.
“Ayala has become a composite of independent pieces, with each of the company CEOs to a certain extent making their independent moves,” Jaime Augusto says. This has been a key in constantly keeping Ayala’s pace of growth—a challenge particularly reserved for large companies confined by certain market boundaries. “Our interest is to have an Ayala that remains dynamic,” Jaime Augusto emphasizes, “that adds value and continues to grow with the time and remains relevant.” Another important aspect of the Ayala brand of leadership is the policy and the principle of selecting the best people who share the same values that Ayala has stood for these many years. The passion for excellence, after all, must begin with people—whether leader or follower. They are the collective force that drives every Ayala business.
The Ayala group now has a combined market capitalization that accounts for a fourth of the Philippine stock market index. It is an institution that now builds environmentally sound communities, rolls out advanced telecommunication networks, creates stable and reliable financial products and services, delivers clean water systems, and provides both technology-driven and manufacturing services aligned to the needs of a global market. It is an institution that continues to pursue larger dreams aligned with a sustainable national development agenda. This is the enduring brand of leadership that will define Ayala for many more years.
Ayala group executives led by Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, and Fernando Zobel de Ayala, at Tower One in 2008 (left to right): Renato Marzan, Delfin Lazaro, Antonino Aquino, Jaime Ayala, Charles Cosgrove, Aurelio Montinola III, Victoria Garchitorena, Gerardo Ablaza, Jr., Mercedita Nolledo, John Philip Orbeta, Rufino Luis Manotok, and Arthur Tan
40
New platforms and national development
Today, the bottom of the pyramid
presents a market opportunity and a new area for development, but for Ayala, it is also the substrate for opportunities for the low-income segments to grow their wealth and become more engaged in the formal economy. Manila Water’s business strategies have always been founded on the improvement of quality of life and access to water for the greater community. Globe Telecom’s focus on the Filipino consumer, for example, has allowed low-income households access to microfinance services. So, too, have Bank of the Philippine Island’s microfinance unit and capacity-building program. And by remaining, through it all, centered on business and focused on profitability, they have led the evolution of the modern Filipino conglomerate— and the modern Filipino enterprise. “With the right vision and capital to back up your ideas, you can really make a difference,” CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel says, and so Ayala has done. By developing the entrepreneurial potential of the everyday Filipino through everyday products and services, Ayala has set concrete measures for development and set a positive direction for Filipinos in changing and often uncertain times. Today, a Globe subscriber can make an entrepreneur of himself through G-Cash, be a reseller for Manila Water, or obtain valuable microfinance support for his fledgling business through BPI. Multiplied countless times across thousands of communities, the scale is enough to create a powerful tide of change. Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel today devote 15 to 20 percent of their time to social development. “We are trying to make it happen as an integral part of the Ayala of tomorrow.” But all of it seems to be happening ahead of time. Today, adapted toward a new vision that encompasses the social initiative and national development, Ayala does not just stand as a symbol of good management and solid business. It stands as a symbol of national leadership. On its 175th year, Ayala’s strengths have proven to be more than mere spreadsheet figures. They have shown to be part of an indelible business tradition—continuously strong financials, prudence in management, low debt gearing, high liquidity, and a strong cash position, all gathered under a single presence. In today’s imagedriven environment, Ayala has also gathered its strengths under a powerful business brand, seen by its stakeholders, customers, and the general public alike as a company driven by innovation and social responsibility.
Its long history has also brought to bear the instrumental importance—and the unmistakable imprint—of the Ayala leadership. Today, under the Zobels, the conglomerate has become the gold standard of management excellence. Rooted in history and traditional values, anchored on integrity and transparency, invested with the kind of trust that allows flexibility and innovative thinking, and always in search for the best and the brightest among employees and partners, it is a leadership model built for long-range speed. Jaime Augusto puts it simply: “We keep ourselves aligned to the modern world by attracting the most talented, independent-minded but value-driven executive teams, and working only with partners who are themselves progressive in their own fields of expertise.” Of late there has also been another quiet change in the business name—the sixth or seventh in 175 years. Today, the corporation is simply called Ayala—the shortest it has ever been. It is almost too simple a term to contain and span an entire history, or to describe a business footprint spread out across real estate, financial services, telecommunications, water distribution, electronic manufacturing services, automotive dealerships, business process outsourcing, international real estate investments, and social and cultural initiatives. But to customers, partners, and investors, that single name has stood for a model of leadership and a powerful, trustworthy, and positive force for growth and change. To those in the company themselves, it is a source of pride and proof of a priceless and enduring legacy. To everyday Filipinos, it is a brand of trustworthiness, a catalyst for entrepreneurship, and the fulfillment of dreams.
Ayala, the Corporate Citizen Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala sat at a panel at the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland—a rare, much coveted privilege reserved for the world’s most influential and visionary individuals. The theme of the panel was itself visionary: “From Private Giving to Social Investing: The New Philanthropreneurs.” The title seemed to contain the assumption that there had never existed such a person, or a concept, before, so that it required its own portmanteau. The truth is, for Ayala, it has been a tradition. Though in their early years they may not have put a name to it, the company has always had a deep involvement in the communities their businesses have thrived in. “I believe that corporate social responsibility is a strategic management tool that all companies must learn to integrate into their operations if they are to develop a sustainable model of ‘trust’ with the many communities they serve,” Jaime Augusto observed in a recent interview. Today, Ayala’s community philosophy finds itself embodied in a framework that runs across the entire organization. The Ayala Social Initiatives seek to strengthen Ayala’s social involvement and reaffirm its commitment to national development. “It is critical to have a more imaginative, viable model that takes off from a platform where social issues are integrated into and are made central, rather than adjacent, to business strategy,” Jaime Augusto writes, not merely as an observation, but as a sure plan of action. Beyond mere philanthropy, Jaime Augusto seeks to bring more alignment to the profit orientation of each Ayala institution in terms of national development. “At the end of the day, you are building trust with the communities that you serve. If you can show that you really care and if you can find ways of not just giving back but also uplifting the lives of people, then your business could go a very long way,” says his brother Fernando. Brave and well-meaning words, to be sure. But in Ayala’s case, the new terms, simply describe a spirit of compassion, and a strong commitment to a concrete course of action that have been firmly part of a 175-year-old tradition.
Perhaps, after all, one name is all that is needed to describe an identity and tell a story that takes place over 175 years, through the most challenging times in our nation’s history. And what a tale it has been. It is the story of a leadership rich with business experience, indelible principles, and enduring values. It is the story of a business house profoundly committed to a nation’s commerce, culture, and national identity. It is the story of the everyday Filipino, of his great and changing aspirations—for himself and for his country, for 175 years since Ayala’s beginnings, for these current times, and for the long centuries ahead. (Opposite page) Ayala Land’s malls provide entrepreneurs with vibrant commercial spaces to grow their businesses Globe Telecom (top) and Manila Water (bottom) provide concrete examples of social entrepreneurship
42
The Ayala group’s colorful 175-year history is in many ways a benchmark and a reflection of the country’s own commercial history. Since it opened in 1834, Ayala has stood at the forefront of change in the fields of business, social development, and even culture and the arts. This timeline provides insights into some of the more significant events in Ayala’s long history, as well as a quick reference on the company’s growth from the Casa Roxas partnership to being one of the largest and most respected business groups in the Philippines and Asia.
1910
1912 Ayala funds Fernando Amorsolo’s art education in Europe
Ayala ventures into insurance
El Banco Español Filipino is renamed Bank of the Philippine Islands
1974
1975
Ayala invests in telecommunications sector BPI acquires People’s Bank and Trust Company, the first of many mergers and acquisitions
1997
Manila Water begins operations and launches its corporate social responsibility Tubig Para sa Barangay project
1920
1934
Ayala begins its real estate business
1937
Ayala marks its first centenary
1980
Ayala Master Plan for Makati is unveiled
Ayala Securities is created
1982
1999
1988 Ayala Land is spun off AYC Overseas Ltd. begins operations
Ayala Foundation USA is established
Ayala brings Children’s Hour to the Philippines
Investments in e-commerce are made
Ayala supports Habitat for Humanity’s housebuilding activities Ayala Technology Business Incubator opens
2006 Globe’s Bridgecom sa Bayan supports small entrepreneurs
Ayala Systems Technology Inc. is created
2000
First Ayala Young Leaders Congress is held
Ayala and ALI sponsor a private-equity fund for investments in Asian markets
Ayala invests in business process outsourcing
One Ayala reaches out to overseas Filipinos GILAS is formed
Forbes Park opens
Alabang Commercial Center breaks ground
Makati Walkway System opens
BPI establishes microfinance arm
1949
BPI introduces country’s first ATM network
2005
Manila Water is listed in the stock exchange
1948
1981 IMI begins operations
Ayala is listed in the stock exchange
CENTEX is launched
IMI acquires Saturn and Speedy-Tech
Ayala ventures into banking
Casa Roxas is established
First Ayala Museum building is inaugurated
1998
Hacienda Makati is created
Manila officially opens to world trade
1976
Globe is listed in the stock exchange
1851
1834
AFI launches Youth Tech
Manila Water begins largest wastewater project in Southeast Asia
Manila Water’s Tubig Para sa Barangay serves more than one million customers
1852
1856
1864
Earliest social commitment is made in education
First paper money is issued
1958
1868
Sociedad Roxas Hijos becomes Roxas Hermanos
1960
1968
1970
Ayala donates land for the site of the Asian Institute of Management
ALI develops Cebu Business Park
1991
ALI, Mitsubishi, and Kawasaki inaugurate Laguna Technopark
2001
2002 Globe acquires Islacom
Tranvias Filipinas is sold
1973 Ayala partners with Mitsubishi
BPI is listed in the stock exchange
Ayala partners with Singapore Telecom
1995
1996
Isuzu Globe Globe Handyphone Philippines introduces is launched is created landline and Internet services
Filipinas Heritage Library opens
2004 ALI acquires stake in Bonifacio Global City
G-Cash and 3G revolutionize mobile telephony and commerce
Ayala refreshes corporate brand
Ayala sells food business
AG Holdings is formed
1994
Filipinas Foundation becomes Ayala Foundation
2003 Ayala forms AC Capital to manage emerging businesses
1993
ALI is listed in the stock exchange
Ayala invests in automotive sector
Filipinas Life becomes Ayala Life Assurance
ALI enters a joint venture to build a luxury hotel complex
1971
Ayala develops Alabang
1900
El Banco Espa単ol Filipino opens first branch
Ayala y Cia becomes Ayala Filipinas Corporation Foundation is established
1990
2007
1897
El Banco Espa単ol Filipino begins correspondent relationship with international banks
1969
Ayala acquires Pure Foods
Filipinas Life Assurance Company is founded
Globe-MacKay and Clavecilla Radio merge
1891
Streetcars are introduced in Manila
Ayala y Casa Ayala Compa単ia is is founded established
1961
Ayala develops Makati Commercial Center
1888
1876
New Ayala Museum building opens to the public
2008
Ayala companies Ayala group refresh brands integrates its corporate social responsibility projects into Ayala Social Initiatives
BPI updates brand and forms Pilipinas Bank
Ayala receives the People Program of the Year Award for HRMall
Bravo Filipino pays tribute to Filipino artistry Nuvali rises
2009
Globe joins Bridge Mobile Alliance, the largest mobile alliance in Asia-Pacific
Ayala celebrates 175th anniversary
UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub is inaugurated
Ayala emphasizes social entrepreneurship in its business and CSR endeavors
44
What we are today
1
2
Ayala celebrates 175 years with a level of respect and trust few other businesses in the Philippines have earned. As the country’s pioneering business house, Ayala has performed a crucial role in helping the Philippine economy achieve a degree of vigor comparable to those of the biggest markets in the region. Since 1834, Ayala has continuously emphasized the value of stability, financial strength and prudence, product and service quality, and professionalism in its business mission and activities. These qualities have made Ayala the local partner of choice of international companies, and a premium brand that attracts the best and brightest talents to its ranks. The company’s unwavering dedication to social development and corporate social responsibility has also turned Ayala into a strong partner of entrepreneurs and communities in promoting their growth. 3
4
5 1 Ayala Corporation’s headquarters at Tower One; 2 A branch of Bank of the Philippine Islands; 3 Manila Water Company’s Magallanes Sewage Treatment Plant; 4 Globe Telecom’s iPhone 3G service; 5 Concept for Ayala Land’s Nuvali development in Canlubang, Laguna
7
8
6
9
10
11
12
6 A production area at Integrated Microelectronics, Inc.; 7 Parkland Thapra-Taksin, a residential property of AG Holdings in Bangkok, Thailand; 8 Showroom of Honda Cars Global City; 9 eTelecare employees; 10 Serendra in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig; 11 Faรงade of Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati; 12 A gallery at Ayala Museum featuring National Artist Fernando Amorsolo
46
Looking ahead
Ayala’s officers and employees at the roof deck of the company headquarters at the Makati Stock Exchange Building, on the occasion of Ayala’s 150th anniversary in 1984
For 175 years, Ayala has prospered through good and bad times as a Filipino business house imbued with a singular vision and the spirit of innovation. The strength of character, exemplified by its founders and leaders and nurtured by generations of Ayala employees, has already earned for Ayala a special place in the country’s history. Through its leaders’ pioneering spirit and its employees’ shared values of integrity, long-term vision, empowering leadership, and commitment to national development, Ayala continues to keep a firm focus on the future and evolve with the times, making investments in new areas of growth. Today, Ayala’s vision of the future does not only create value for its businesses and shareholders, but also adds value to the lives of invidividuals and the communities it serves. One hundred and seventy-five years is a long journey and, for Ayala, a process of growth and renewal, and a continuing history of significant contribution to national development. Endowed with such perspective, Ayala looks forward with confidence and optimism to an even longer and brighter future.
Twenty-five years later, Ayala citizens led by chairman emeritus Jaime Zobel de Ayala, chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, and president and COO Fernando Zobel de Ayala, gathered at the company’s current headquarters at Tower One, Makati City
48 Bank of the Philippine Islands
Ayala Corporation
Ayala is the holding company of one of the largest and most respected business groups in the Philippines. It holds a diversified portfolio of investments in real estate, financial services, telecommunications, water distribution, electronics manufacturing services, automotive dealership, business process outsourcing, and international real estate projects.
BPI is the Philippines’ largest bank in terms of market capitalization and third largest in terms of asset size. It has a lead position in intermediation capacity, corporate and consumer lending, remittances, and electronic banking. The bank offers peso and foreign currency deposits, corporate and consumer loans, leasing, loan syndication, securities underwriting and distribution, foreign exchange, cash management, credit cards, payments and settlements, remittances, asset management services, life and general insurance.
Ayala Land
Ayala Land is the country’s largest and only full-line property developer, and is one of the most successful operators of prime commercial spaces in the Philippines. Its product portfolio is composed of residential, industrial, commercial and leisure projects; shopping center, office, and residential leasing; hotel operations; and construction and property management services.
Manila Water
Manila Water is the sole concessionaire for the East Zone of Metro Manila, which includes Antipolo, Makati, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Pasig, Pateros, Rodriguez, San Juan, San Mateo, Taguig, most of Quezon City, and parts of Manila. Apart from water distribution, the company also manages and operates the sewerage system of the service area, and provides sanitation services, including desludging of septic tanks, to its customers in the East Zone.
Azalea Technology Investments
Azalea was incorporated in 2000 to invest in growth opportunities. Its holdings today are in technology, software, technology venture capital and other funds, and outsourcing. In the outsourcing sector, it has invested in IT services company Ayala Systems Technology, Inc. (ASTI), HR services company HRMall and, most recently, BPO investment company LiveIt. LiveIt invests in high-growth and differentiated global BPO companies that can leverage the Philippines’ competitive strengths.
Ayala group of companies Ayala Foundation
Ayala Foundation Inc. (AFI) is one of the country’s most respected non-stock, non-profit organizations with cultural and educational programs that benefit underprivileged Filipinos. Its thrusts are in education, environment, entrepreneurship, and arts and culture.
Globe Telecom
Globe is a leading telecommunications company in the Philippines. It is a full-service telecommunications operator providing digital wireless communication, wireline voice, data transmission, domestic and international longdistance communication services, and mobile commerce.
Integrated Microelectronics
IMI is a leading electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider that offers flexible solutions including design and product development, process and product engineering, test development, logistics, and manufacturing solutions for the computing, communications, consumer, automotive, industrial, and medical electronics segments.
Ayala Automotive Holdings
Ayala Automotive is a leading vehicle dealership network of Honda and Isuzu brands. It has investments in Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. and Isuzu Philippines Corp., assemblers and distributors of Honda and Isuzu vehicles in the Philippines. Its current products in the passenger car category include Honda City, Jazz, Civic, and Accord. In the commercial vehicle segment, it has Honda CR-V, Isuzu Crosswind, D-Max, Alterra, and Isuzu trucks.
AG Holdings
AG Holdings is the holding company for the Ayala group’s international property investments.
Ayala Corporation 34F Tower One Ayala Triangle Ayala Avenue Makati City 1226 Philippines Tel (632) 848 5643 Fax (632) 848 5846 www.ayala.com.ph REAL ESTATE Ayala Land, Inc. 30F Tower One Ayala Triangle Ayala Avenue Makati City 1226 Philippines Tel (632) 848 5000 Fax (632) 848 5336 www.ayalaland.com.ph FINANCIAL SERVICES Bank of the Philippine Islands 6768 Ayala Avenue Makati City 1226 Philippines Tel (632) 818 5541 Express Phone Banking (632) 89 100 Fax (632) 845 5267 www.bpiexpressonline.com
TELECOMMUNICATIONS Globe Telecom, Inc. 5F Globe Telecom Plaza I Pioneer corner Madison Streets Mandaluyong City 1552 Philippines Tel (632) 730 2000 Hotline (632) 730 1000 Fax (632) 739 2000 www.globe.com.ph www.myglobe.com.ph UTILITIES Manila Water Company, Inc. MWSS Administration Building 489 Katipunan Road Balara Quezon City 1105 Philippines Tel (632) 926 7999 Hotline (632) 1627 Fax (632) 928 2450 www.manilawater.com ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. North Science Avenue Special Export Processing Zone Laguna Technopark Bi単an Laguna 4024 Philippines Tel (6349) 544 0312 Fax (6349) 544 0311 www.global-imi.com
Azalea Technology Investments, Inc. Unit 309 3F SEDCCO Building Rada corner Legaspi Streets Legaspi Village Makati City 1229 Philippines Tel (632) 752 5438 or 813 2386 Fax (632) 813 2414 BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING LiveIt Investments, Ltd. 32F Tower One Ayala Triangle Ayala Avenue Makati City 1226 Philippines Tel (632) 841 5455 Fax (632) 759 4274 HRMall, Inc. 2F Market!Market! Fort Bonifacio Taguig Philippines Tel (632) 729 7560 Fax (632) 729 7552
AUTOMOTIVE Ayala Automotive Holdings Corporation Honda Cars Makati, Inc. Magallanes Commercial Center Makati City 1232 Philippines Tel (632) 902 9393 Fax (632) 852 6593 www.hondamakati.com.ph Isuzu Automotive Dealership, Inc. Alabang-Zapote Road cor Acacia Avenue Ayala Alabang Muntinlupa City 1780 Philippines Tel (632) 807 1788 Fax (632) 809 5053 www.isuzuautodealer.com.ph INTERNATIONAL AG Holdings Limited 250 North Bridge Road #37-02 Raffles City Tower Singapore 179101 Tel (65) 6311 5155 Fax (65) 6311 5168 SOCIAL COMMITMENT Ayala Foundation, Inc. 10F BPI Building Ayala Avenue corner Paseo de Roxas Makati City 1226 Philippines Tel (632) 752 1108 Fax (632) 813 4488 www.ayalafoundation.org