PLDT tops Asiamoney poll for 5th time

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) was recently chosen as the Best-managed Large-cap Corporate of the Year in the Philippines for the fifth time and its chairman, Manuel V. Pangilinan, as the Best Executive in the Philippines in 2008 by Asiamoney.

In addition, PLDT also won six other awards from Asiamoney: Best Overall for Corporate Governance (Philippines), Best for Disclosure and Transparency (Philippines), Best for Shareholders’ Rights and Equitable Treatment (Philippines), Best for Investor Relations (Philippines), and Best Investor Relations Officer (Philippines), Melissa Vergel de Dios. PLDT also placed third out of 395 covered in the Best Companies in Asia for Corporate Governance.

“The nation’s largest telecom company is thriving despite the maturing nature of the domestic mobile phone market. PLDT maintains its momentum by planning well ahead,” said Asiamoney, one of Asia’s leading financial magazines, in its December 2008/January 2009 issue.

“Just as PLDT continues to wow analysts for its continued strength, so Manuel Pangilinan is viewed as the architect of this success,” the magazine said.

“In a business with finite growth, Pangilinan continues to impress because of his ability for finding new areas to expand in. Analysts praise his foresight for investing in broadband technology well ahead of his rivals,” it added.

“As PLDT celebrates its 80th year, these awards couldn’t have come at a more propitious time,” said PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan. “They are the results of hard work and passion, and we plan to continue changing Filipinos’ lives as we have done for the past 80 years.”

The Asiamoney survey includes all the key analysts and fund managers for each country. These people are usually the heads of research in each country or senior fund managers or chief information officers of the leading international and domestic players. They were asked which companies stood out or impressed them in 2008.

The survey collected qualitative and quantitative data of the companies involved in the individual markets to come up with the rankings.

Some of the criteria include overall financial and business performance, management strategy and vision, investor relations or access to management and transparency, corporate governance, focus on shareholder value and operational efficiency.

PLDT topped the Asiamoney survey for the Philippines in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008.