SMC voted overall best managed RP firm

Top investors in Asia have rated San Miguel Corp. (SMC) as the overall best managed Philippine company this year in a poll conducted by Asiamoney, one of the leading financial magazines in the region.

SMC achieved its No. 1 ranking after receiving high ratings in corporate strategy, financial management, operational efficiency and treatment of minority shareholders. Respondents in the survey included fund managers, chief investment officers and heads of research at fund management firms, insurance companies and brokerage houses in the Asia-Pacific region (including Australia and Japan), Europe and the US.

Shortly after Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr., SMC chairman and chief executive officer, took over the company’s management in 1998, SMC was also voted as the best managed Philippine firm in the 1999 Asiamoney survey. Cited in particular then were the company’s rationalization programs that resulted in better margins and rising sales.

SMC is the only food, beverage and packaging firm in the 2002 Asiamoney list of best-managed Asian companies. The rest is a mix of two banks, four technology-related companies, a property developer, an airline, and manufacturers of cigarettes, cosmetics and cars. Nissan Motor was overall best-managed in Japan; ANZ Bank in Australia’ PC-maker Legend in China; HSBC Holdings in Hong Kong; Infosys in India; Samsung in Korea; Land and Houses in Thailand; semiconductor firm TSMC in Taiwan; and British America Tobacco in Malaysia; Singapore Airlines and Unilever Philippines, likewise, emerged tops in their respective countries this year.

Early this year, FinanceAsia, another highly regarded financial magazine in the region, launched an index of Asia’s top 100 companies with SMC as the only Philippine firm included on the list.

The companies in the FinanceAsia 100 index were constituted based on profitability through a three-year business cycle. "This is a barometer of how well Asia is doing and is an index of Asia’s top 100 companies based on those that have accumulated the most aggregate US dollar profit over the past three years," the magazine said.

Likewise, the widely-circulated US magazine BusinessWeek listed SMC last July on its top 200 emerging-market companies for 2002. The company advanced to No. 118 in the list from its No. 135 ranking the previous year, with the magazine placing SMC’s market value at nearly $2.73 billion, up 15 percent from last year.

SMC emerged as the top Philippine company in the list that included two other local firms: Bank of the Philippine Islands, No. 161 with $2.12-billion market value and Globe Telecom, No. 169 with $1.98 billion.