The party

At the 22nd anniversary dinner of BizNewsAsia last Nov. 25, 2023, 200 guests showed up despite heavy rains and a competing event in Malacañang.

They included the owners or heads of the Philippines’ five largest conglomerates: Ramon S. Ang, president-CEO, San Miguel Corp.; Lance Gokongwei, president-CEO JG Summit Holdings (Gokongwei Group); Sabin Aboitiz, president-CEO, Aboitiz Equity Ventures; Amando Tetangco Jr., chair, SM Investments Corp.; and Lorenzo V. Tan, president-CEO, House of Investments (Yuchengco-RCBC Group). Plus of course, the head of President Marcos Jr.’s economic team, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, with Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual and Information Communications Technology Secretary Ivan John Uy.

In 2022 revenues (billions), the largest are: 1. SMC, P1,506 (P1.5 trillion); 2. SM Investments Corp., P553.77; 3. Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., P306.75; 4. JG Summit Holdings, P301.9; and 5. Ayala Corp., P263.82.

In market capitalization, the rankings (in billions) are: 1. SM Investments Corp., P1,019.16; 2. Ayala Corp., P404.1; 3. JG Summit, P289.18; 4. Aboitiz Equity Ventures, P273.4; and 5. SMC, P254.83.

Excerpts from my speech:

Today, I turn 75.  Today, my BizNewsAsia newsmagazine is 22. Today, I have been a journalist for 53 years.

Tonight is my Thanksgiving Day, your Thanksgiving Day, our Thanksgiving Day.

I thank God for the gift of life, and giving me the 75 years to enjoy one of most exhilarating, satisfying, purposeful journeys even given a human on this earth.

I thank God for my family, my children – Myra, the eldest of five, who died in 2008, my daughters Ivy, Noreen and Ciara who are all here tonight. Please stand up. My only, son, Ranel, who is in the US.

Ivy is a lawyer, from Ateneo, and finished real estate studies at Wharton. Her husband, Benedict, her law classmate, is a CPA-lawyer, working as a managing director of one of the largest professional services firms in the US. They have three kids, my wonderful grandchildren – Enzo, who is graduating from Georgia Tech, Gio and Audrey. They are in the US. Ivy is a very good writer, has wit and sharpness of mind.

My third daughter, Noreen, finished IS-interdisciplinary