Ayala Group bags 8 ACGS awards

From Manila Bulletin

The Ayala Group of Companies accounted for a quarter of the 32 Philippine publicly listed companies (PLCs) recognized during the recently held 2021 ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) awards.

These firms are Ayala Corporation, Ayala Land, Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, Inc., ACEN Corporation, Integrated Micro- electronics, Inc., Ayala Land Logistics Holdings Corporation, and Cebu Holdings Inc.

Ayala Land, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc. received the additional distinction of being part of the top 20 ASEAN PLCs and the top 3 Philippine PLCs.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Emilio B. Aquino said ACGS seeks to recognize the valuable efforts of the top performing publicly listed companies across the ASEAN region in improving and raising the standard in corporate governance.

“The ACGS is an assessment conducted every two years. It follows a rigorous methodology designed to score and capture the corporate governance practices of the participating countries’ publicly listed companies,” he said.

He added that, “The publicly listed companies who made it to the list of awardees are the creme of the crop and the corporate governance pride of the ASEAN region.”

Last February, the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), the Philippines’ Domestic Ranking Body for the ACGS initiative, inducted Ayala Corporation Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala as an Honorary Fellow his “lifelong commitment to promoting the highest standards of governance among Philippine corporations.”

“We are grateful to the ACGS awards for acknowledging the efforts that we have put in to improve and align our governance practices with regional and global standards,” Zobel said.

He noted that, “Ayala remains committed to the highest standards of corporate governance and continues to uphold these standards across our business units.”

The ACGS is an initiative of the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum towards ASEAN integration and is based on international corporate governance recommended practices. A total of 234 companies from across ASEAN were awarded this year. — James A. Loyola