38 Philippine firms land in maiden Fortune Southeast Asia 500

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 38 Filipino companies have landed in the maiden Fortune Southeast Asia 500 list, with diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) leading the charge as the only Filipino firm in the top 10.

The inaugural list ranks the largest companies in Southeast Asia in terms of total revenues.

With revenues of $26.02 billion, SMC, led by tycoon Ramon Ang, sits atop the list among companies from the Philippines in the ninth spot.

The Sy family’s SM Investments Corp. comes next in the 27th spot with $10.28 billion revenues, followed by Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Manila Electric Co. at No. 34 with $7.98 billion.

At No. 55 is JG Summit Holdings of the Gokongwei clan with $5.93 billion and then Sy family’s BDO Unibank at No. 57 with $5.83 billion.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures of the Aboitiz family is at No. 59 with $5.59 billion, followed by Ayala Corp. at No. 70 with $5.21 billion.

Completing the top 10 among the Philippine companies are the Ty family’s GT Capital Holdings at No. 74 with $5.10 billion, homegrown fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. at No. 86 with $4.39 billion and Cosco Capital of retail tycoon Lucio Co at No. 95 with $3.86 billion.

The next 10 Philippine firms on the list are PLDT (97th), Alliance Global Group (100th), Robinsons Retail Holdings (105th), Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (108th), Globe Telecom (111th), Bank of the Philippine Islands (112th), PAL Holdings (113th), Lopez Holdings (122nd), International Container Terminal Services (145th) and DMCI Holdings (159th).

Other Filipino companies which made the list are LT Group (169th), UnionBank (186th), Filinvest Development (189th), Rizal Commercial Banking (201st), Monde Nissin (205th), China Banking Corp. (206th), Century Pacific Food (238th), Basic Energy (244th) Security Bank (267th), Synergy Grid & Development (286th) Bloomberry Resorts (307th), Metro Retail Stores Group (363rd), Converge ICT (389th), Wilcon Depot (398th), D&L Industries (404th), Manila Water (435th), SSI Group (473rd) and Digiplus Interactive (482nd).

Overall, Trafigura Group ranks first on the list with revenues amounting to $244.28 billion. It was followed by PTT at second with $90.42 billion and Pertamina at third with $75.79 billion.

In the region, the Philippines is second to the last behind Cambodia in terms of number of companies which made the 500 list.

Indonesia has the most with 110, followed by Thailand with 107, Malaysia with 89, Singapore with 84, Vietnam with 70, the Philippines with 38 and Cambodia with two.

In terms of aggregated revenues of the companies, the Philippines with $130.9 billion is again second to the last before Cambodia.

Singapore posted the highest combined value at $619.4 billion, followed by Thailand with $375.9 billion.

“The Fortune Southeast Asia 500 debuts right as global business is starting to pay closer attention to the region. Southeast Asian economies are benefiting from supply chain diversification as rapid domestic development builds the next wave of global middle class consumers,” Fortune said.

“Our new ranking reflects the rise and fall of energy markets, multinational supply chains and tourism in some of the world’s most dynamic economies,” it added.