MANILA, Philippines - Tonight, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), in partnership with ING Bank, will present the CFO of the Year Award to Jose T. Sio, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of SM Investments Corporation (SMIC).
Now on its third year, the award recognizes the important and critical role CFOs play in today’s fast-changing, complex and evolving global financial landscape.
FINEX is the premier professional organization for finance and financial services executives and decision makers in Philippine business, academe and professional services. FINEX is a network of more than 700 financial executives, including the country’s top CFOs.
In its annual search for the CFO of the Year, FINEX and ING Bank N.V. Manila Branch aim to “thrust to prominence among peers the Philippine CFO who possesses the qualities essential to creating wealth in the new economy.”
This year’s ING-FINEX Search Committee Chair, Eduardo V. Francisco, explains that through secret balloting, the board of judges unanimously chose Sio to be this year’s recipient of the CFO of the Year Award.
“Sio has been instrumental in reviewing the SM group’s strategy for the next few years. He is someone I admire not just as a CFO but as a Super CFO. His role encompasses not just being a CFO but as a ‘consigliere’ or senior advisor to the family and the respected bridge to the many generations in the present business organization of this publicly listed conglomerate,” says Francisco, president of BDO Capital and Investment Corp.
In accepting the CFO of the Year Award, Sio explains that the role of the CFO has been changing. “The CFO is now on the center stage. Gone are the days of inward definition of the CFO. Now, the CFO, together with the CEO (Chief Executive Officer), should be on the frontline. The CFO should be the guy to go to for solutions.”
As CFO, Sio makes sure that the company safeguards its assets and at the same maximizes its financial resources’ potential. He also has to ensure that the company is liquid and ready to quickly react to expansion and investment opportunities.
“Two weeks ago, we had the annual investment meeting for our visitors to tell them where we are and where we are going. You can count who among the companies do this – go out to the world to tell what we are doing,” Sio says.
Sio was instrumental in several milestones achieved by SMIC, the listed holding company of the SM Group and one of the country’s largest conglomerates. From its humble beginnings as a shoe store in 1958, SM has evolved to become one of today’s largest Philippine conglomerates with a market capitalization of US$4 billion, which is among the top three biggest market capitalization of companies listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
SM stands strong in five core businesses in the Philippines: retail and wholesale, mall development, banking and financial services, property development, and hotel and entertainment. Retail is the biggest part of the business, accounting for 33 percent of group net income in the first quarter, with sales up 10 percent to P23.7 billion year on year. SM Prime Holdings, the country’s dominant shopping mall developer and operator, delivered a 7 percent increase in net income to P1.7 billion in the first quarter, with a14 percent increase in gross revenues to P4.7 billion. BDO Unibank’s net income, meanwhile, grew by 29 percent to P7 billion in the first quarter. In real estate and property development, SM group’s revenues jumped 82 percent year on year on the first quarter to P2.4 billion. This growth was attributed to SM Development Corporation’s sale of residential condominium units and leasing activities in the commercial property group and resort project Costa del Hamilo. In hotel development, recent initiatives included the expansion of Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City, the development of Radisson Hotel in Cebu, and Radisson and Regent hotels within the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City.
Under Sio’s supervision, SMIC launched the largest initial public offering in Philippine history, amounting to P28.75 billion in March 2005. Another landmark undertaking supervised by Sio was the successful merger and acquisition between Banco De Oro and Equitable PCI Bank (EPCIB) following the tender offer to acquire P34.7 billion worth of EPCIB shares in October 2006.
Further on SMIC’s corporate success is the issuance of US$500 million five-year bonds at a fixed rate of 6 percent per annum last September. This is the largest US dollar bond issue since 1997, with the lowest coupon rate by a Philippine corporate.
In an interview with The STAR, Sio explains that the SM Group has been very influential in his profession. “The SM Group has a lot of influence in my role as CFO, and also in my business decisions. It started with our Chairman Henry Sy who has influenced me on how to balance my life and don’t go to the extreme. I have always strived to balance my life, business and family, and always be close to God. This is part of the influence of SM in me – the influence that I should be happy in what I am doing in order to excel.”
At present, Sio is the Chairman of the Audit Committees of Generali Pilipinas Holding Company, SM Development Corporation and SM Prime Holdings, Inc., and Chairman of the Trust Committee of China Banking Corporation. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of BDO Universal Bank and member of the Board of Directors of Generali Pilipinas Holding Company, Inc., SM Keppel Land, Inc., Manila North Tollways Corporation, Consolidated Prime Development Corporation, Asia Pacific College, and China Banking Corporation. Further on his many hats in the conglomerate, Sio plays an active role in SM Group’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm, SM Foundation, Inc.
Sio considers the CFO of the Year Award as the culmination and recognition to the work that he has done throughout the years. “I started as a partner of SGV (SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co.) which is also in the finance environment. Then I moved to the SM Group taking care of the finance matters. I thank FINEX for awarding the CFO of the Year to me.”
Sio further poses a challenge to his fellow CFOs in the country. “I think CFO should now change the outlook instead of inward definition of the CFO. CFO nowadays should be outward, should be out there, and should also be involved in the strategy in charting the future of any organization. That is the only way that CFO will be recognized and will excel,” he says.
The CFO of the Year Awardee also expresses optimism that the Philippine economy holds the potential to grow. “The Philippine economy is rich in everything such as natural and human resources. Hotels and other businesses worldwide have Filipino staff. We should maximize our human resources,” Sio says.
Sio is a certified public accountant who earned his degree in Commerce, majoring in Accounting from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City. As a scholar of SGV & Co., he completed his master’s degree in Business Administration from the New York University in the US. He gained extensive experience and training abroad, having worked as a consultant for T.N. Soong & Co., CPA in Taiwan and as an Audit Associate at Ernst and Whinney, CPA in New York.
As the CFO of SM Investments Corporation, it came as no surprise that leisure time for him is walking around the malls with his family. Sio is married to Corazon Sio, with two children Claudette and Mark Anthony.