Sabin Aboitiz to take helm at AEV in 2020

ABOITIZ Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) President and Chief Executive Officer Erramon I. Aboitiz will step down from his post in January 2020, to be replaced by his brother and incumbent Chief Operating Officer Sabin M. Aboitiz.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Wednesday, the conglomerate said the older Aboitiz will retire on Jan. 1, 2020. He has held the position since 2009, prior to which he served as the company’s chief operating officer.

Sabin Aboitiz is currently the president of AEV’s infrastructure unit, AEV Infra Capital, Inc. and president and CEO of Pilmico Foods Corp., AEV’s flour milling unit.

“A significant factor in our Group’s success over the past 100 years has been one of seamless succession and transition to the next generation of leaders, ensuring the continuity as well as the evolution of our culture, our policies, and how we do business,” Erramon Aboitiz said in a statement.

AEV also announced that Vice Chairman Enrique M. Aboitiz will now take on the role of chairman, following the death of Jon Ramon M. Aboitiz last November.

Meanwhile, AEV Director Mikel A. Aboitiz will assume the post of vice chairman, effective immediately.

The company also appointed Ana Maria A. Delgado as director to fill the remaining term of the late chairman. The 38-year-old executive is currently a senior vice-president, center head of consumer finance, and chief customer experience officer of Union Bank of the Philippines.

Ms. Delgado is part of the fifth generation of the Aboitiz family, most of whom are also being groomed to take on key leadership positions in AEV in the future.

Included in the company’s reorganization program is the appointment of Ricardo F. Lacson as the company’s data privacy officer effective on Feb. 1, 2019. Mr. Lacson is currently a vicepresident for strategy at AEV, and was previously the vice-president for administration and customer services at the Visayas Electric Company.

The Aboitiz group of companies was founded in Cebu in the late 1800s as an abaca trading and general merchandise business. It has since diversified its core businesses to power generation, distribution and retail electricity supply, financial services, food manufacturing, real estate, infrastructure, and portfolio investments.

AEV’s subsidiaries include Aboitiz Power Corp., Union Bank, Pilmico, Aboitiz Land, Inc. and Aboitiz InfraCapital.

AEV saw its attributable profit rise by 28% to P7.23 billion in the third quarter of 2018, as revenues jumped by 30% to P51.88 billion.

This pushed AEV’s ninemonth net income attributable to the parent to P17.32 billion, nine percent higher than the P15.90 billion it posted in the same period a year ago. This followed a 21% increase in revenues to P135.25 billion.

Shares in AEV gained 4.46% or P2.30 to close at P53.90 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday.