Ayala unifies brands
CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala unveils rebranding of Ayala Corp.’s emerging businesses
AFTER successfully building its core businesses-BPI, Globe, Ayala Land, Manila Water and IMI-one of the country’s biggest conglomerates, Ayala Corp. (AC), is cementing its foothold in new investments.
AC unveiled in Cebu on Monday the “unified brand identity” of its five new businesses—power generation, transportation, infrastructure, education and health.
Ayala Corp. chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala announced the rebranding of their emerging businesses to take on a “more unified identity” to AC Energy, AC Infra, AC Health, AC Education and AC Industrial.
The rebranding, according to the company, is a reaffirmation of its primed position to help address some of the country’s pressing development challenges.
“In recent years, we have taken a more deliberate approach to integrating the needs of a wider ecosystem into our business plans and in our continued symbiotic relationship with our partners. We diversified into sectors that are going through important social and economic transformation and are critical to sustaining our country’s economic progress—hard infrastructure through power and transport and social infrastructure through health care and education,” said Zobel, during the Ayala Group event attended by the company’s private and public partners at the Ayala Center Cebu.
Emerging businesses
In a press conference, AC Infra president and CEO Rene Almendras said the positioning of these five new brands is meant to accelerate the future.
“AC will focus on building on these new ventures and bring them to the level that we had with the other brands,” he said.
AC’s core businesses in telecommunications, water, banking, electronics manufacturing and real estate built in the past were tagged “pioneers of the future.”
Almendras clarified, though, that the company will not shift priorities but will rather build on the gains delivered by the existing businesses.
“We will not do away with the five brands that are already there but we need to accelerate it. We want to reach more people, we want the country’s economy to grow faster and that’s the reason for the investments that will spike new things,” he said.
Profits
Ayala Corp.’s net income climbed 32 percent in the first half of 2016 to P13.8 billion as its banking, real estate, power, and automotive businesses delivered robust results, the company disclosed.
Equity earnings from Ayala’s business units reached P16.4 billion in the first semester, up by 24 percent from a year ago, boosted by strong contributions from the BPI, which jumped 32 percent, and Ayala Land, which expanded 16 percent.
In addition, Ayala’s unlisted businesses registered solid performance in the first semester, led by AC Energy and Ayala Automotive, which both expanded threefold.
“Most of our business units recorded an overall strong performance in the first half of the year. Among our new businesses, our power unit is starting to contribute significantly to our bottomline,” Ayala president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala said.
“We continue to strengthen our portfolio by entering new industries or reinventing our existing businesses. For instance, we are developing an automotive and manufacturing portfolio in order to maximize synergies in the Ayala group and take advantage of the exciting opportunities in this space,” Zobel added.