(Bloomberg) -- Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp. may expand its partnership with Mitsubishi Corp. into healthcare, infrastructure and property after the Japanese firm’s investment into Ayala’s fintech arm, its CEO said.
“We’ve done a dozen or more deals with Mitsubishi over the last several decades...So it can run the whole gamut of our businesses,” Cezar Consing said in interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin on Wednesday.
Ayala last week signed a deal with Mitsubishi Corp. to sell 50% of AC Ventures Holdings Corp. for 18.4 billion pesos ($318 million). AC Ventures owns a 13% stake in Globe Fintech Innovations Inc., or Mynt, the company behind top e-wallet platform GCash.
The country’s oldest conglomerate is wrapping up a multi-year plan to raise around $1 billion from the sale of assets, and to reinvest the money in its core businesses including banking, property, energy and telecommunication businesses.
“We’ve raised over a billion dollars in value realization transactions, and then we’ve taken some of that” and invested it into Mynt, Consing said. “So it’s a process. As that continues, we are getting a more concentrated portfolio,” he added.
In May, Ayala sold its remaining stake in Manila Water to a company of ports billionaire Enrique Razon for 14.5 billion pesos, after divesting a road project. Also up for sale is its 35% stake in Light Rail Manila Corp., which runs the 20.7-kilometer LRT Line 1 in the capital.
Consing is optimistic that the group’s banking, real estate and telecom businesses will benefit from easing inflation and declining interest rates. Ayala’s funding needs for this year are already covered and it expects to require about 25 billion pesos, or around $500 million, for 2025, he said.
The Philippine economy expanded 6% in the first half of the year — one of the fastest in Asia — with officials saying growth would have been more impactful if not for high inflation and elevated borrowing costs.
--With assistance from Anand Menon and Manolo Serapio Jr..
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