GT Capital lays out expansion plans

GT Capital Holdings Inc., the listed investment vehicle of tycoon George Ty, will continue to expand its various businesses on the back of sustained growth of the Philippine economy, its top official said.

During the company’s annual stockholders meeting late Tuesday, GT Capital chairman Francisco Sebastian said there is room for further expansion given the group’s strong performance and a growing economy.

“In 2016, we have once again achieved our objectives as a group, with room for further expansion. In the coming year and beyond, we will continue with the initiatives we have set forth in recent years and improve them in the areas needed,” he said in his report.

“We also intend to continue enhancing our group’s long-term value by pursuing carefully laid out expansion and consolidation efforts, implementing beneficial marketing programs and executing more well-defined cross-selling initiatives among our component companies,” Sebastian added.

For its automotive business, Toyota Motors Philippines is targeting to sell 150,000 vehicles in 2016. Over the longterm, it is seeking to hit a sales target of 200,000 vehicles.

“From its current 49 branches, the country’s most dominant auto company aspires to have 56 dealers by the end of 2016,” Sebastian said.

Toyota will also participate in the government’s Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy Program, which aims to stimulate manufacturing and to make the Philippine auto industry more competitive by increasing the volume and local content of cars assembled in the country.

In the power generation, GT Capital will complete the expansion of its 150-megawatt coal power plant in Iloilo, which is increasingly growing as a BPO destination and with significant property projects.

Another power project is in Negros in partnership with Roxas Holdings Inc., which marks GT Capital’s first foray in renewable energy through a 40- megawatt biomass facility. The facility utilizes bagas, a byproduct of sugarcane as fuel.

For its insurance business, GT Capital’s AXA Philippines acquired nonlife insurer Charter Ping AN as part of efforts to streamline its insurance product offerings.

“AXA’s clients will now benefit from a more complete ban assurance product line for their evolving needs as well as from lower reinsurance costs as a result of cost efficiencies,” Sebastian said.

In 2015, the company reported a consolidated net income of P12.1 billion, up 32 percent from 2014. Core net income, which excludes nonrecurring gains, rose 26 percent to P11.4 billion.