MANILA -- For a man of his corporate stature, Manuel V. Pangilinan is unusually shy.
MVP, as he's known, is one of the wealthiest people in the Philippines, although he keeps the actual value of his assets a closely guarded secret.
As the 78-year-old shuns the limelight, he lets his investments -- most of which are in infrastructure -- do the talking. The story they tell is that over the past 26 years Pangilinan has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to put his money where his mouth is and back domestic companies crucial to the nation's economy, even when the country's economic growth was far from the 6% it now enjoys.
"It's been a long, hard road with quite a number of failures as well," Pangilinan told Nikkei Asia in an interview. "And so you get there with a lot of scars on your back. So you must learn along the way ... and us old dogs would have to learn new tricks."
His influence is so strong that companies he has significant stakes in, both personally and through holding companies, are known as the MVP Group even though there is no such legal entity.
Many of the businesses are household names in the Philippines. They include telco and internet company PLDT -- which has a market capitalization of 327.5 billion pesos ($5.7 billion) and runs Smart Communications and digital bank Maya; the country's largest power distributor Manila Electric Company, which is valued at 557.9 billion pesos; and private utility Maynilad Water Services Inc.
Despite his age, Pangilinan is still very much a hands-on boss -- among the many hats he wears are those of chairman and chief executive of both PLDT and Meralco, and that of chairman of Maynilad.
For the veteran investor, there are two classes of people: those born into wealth and those who start with little, betting on themselves to make their mark in business.
"Definitely not inherited wealth," he said. "My father was a banker, he was an employee. He was a professional and very conservative. He always despaired about me because he thought I'm too aggressive."
Pangilinan summarized his investment shtick in his youth as "strike anywhere." He worked at Bancom International Limited, a Philippine investment bank, and then as an investment banker at American Express Bank in Hong Kong. By 1981, he had founded in the territory First Pacific, an investment and management firm alongside Indonesian tycoon Sudono Salim and his son, Anthoni. Anthoni Salim still chairs First Pacific, which also owns half of his Indofood empire, and Pangilinan is chief executive.
"At one point in time in Hong Kong, we were so promiscuous and bought anything that moved," he said. "We were in real estate, in banking. We were selling appliances too."
Pangilinan's shy demeanor belies his business acumen. That mettle was first tested in the Philippines as the millennium was ending. In 1998 First Pacific spent $749 million on a 17.5% stake in PLDT, then a struggling state-owned enterprise. It was one of the government's first sales of a high-profile state-owned asset.
He described this move back to Manila as his "real test." "You deal with everyday problems that you don't see in Hong Kong," he said, referring to the lack of political and economic stability in his home country at the time. "It's different when you're down here, when you experience the realities of making a decision, day-to-day decisions that need to be made. And they can, they can or cannot, turn around the fortunes of this company."
PLDT says First Pacific's involvement "transformed" the company, bringing in a "new culture," and making it the blue-chip stock that it is today. However, it suffered embarrassment last year when several senior executives left after a 48 billion peso capital expenditure overrun.
Pangilinan lists his "failures" as buying stakes in companies that have been household names in the Philippines, such as skincare brand Eskinol and Wilkins, a distilled water brand, although he did not explain why he categorized them as such.
First Pacific, which listed in Hong Kong in 1996, has seen its share price fluctuate massively over the years. It hit a recent peak of 11.42 Hong Kong dollars in May 2013 and then fell to as low as 1.35 Hong Kong dollars in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday it was trading at 4.43 Hong Kong dollars.
Amid the bumps, in 2006 First Pacific gave birth to Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), its Philippine investment vehicle. This was listed until last October when Pangilinan, who is both chairman and chief executive, spearheaded a takeover by a foreign consortium.
Over the years, MPIC has amassed stakes in companies considered essential to keeping the Philippine economy churning. It has interests in everything from power, toll roads and transport to water, hospitals, renewable energy and news media. Last year MPIC's revenues were 61.3 billion pesos, up from 40.9 billion pesos in 2020. Its assets in 2022 were worth 717 billion pesos.
Maintaining a diverse, or "promiscuous", investment strategy is still a key part of Pangilinan's toolkit, with the tycoon forecasting his next investments to be in agriculture, mining and tourism, again all tied to the Philippine economy.
Poverty is the Philippines' biggest problem in Pangilinan's view, with the businessman saying there are "too many poor people." He reckons more investments are of particular urgency to bring gainful employment to Filipinos living outside Metro Manila.
His proposed foray into agriculture, which accounts for about 10% of the country's gross domestic product, has raised eyebrows, especially since the sector has been left behind by its Southeast Asian rivals, due to corruption and lack of innovation. "People think we're crazy getting into agriculture," he said.
Pangilinan takes particular aim at the 1988 agrarian reform law, which he describes as "crazy" because he believes it "killed" agribusiness in the Philippines. The legislation redistributed land to Filipino farmers, but the compulsory land acquisition pushed many new landowners into debt, and at the same time limited opportunities since they could only own five hectares of agricultural land. Others have complained they never received land when they believed they were entitled to it. This chaotic reality is highlighted by the fact that the Philippines, once self-sufficient in rice, became the world's biggest importer of the staple in 2023, leaving consumers vulnerable to price swings.
Pangilinan's most high-profile investment in a related sector is in Carmen's Best Group, famous for its pricey eponymous ice cream brand. MPIC spent nearly 200 million pesos acquiring a controlling stake in the business in 2022, which surprised everyone because Pangilinan had previously not invested in a high-profile consumer-facing company.
He sees it as a springboard into the broader agriculture sector. "For now, our focus is on the Philippines," he said, adding, "to ensure that our children get the proper milk, which is fresh milk, and that is a challenge, not only through ice cream but really the supply and provisioning of fresh milk."
Besides agriculture, MPIC's other investments have been in mining and energy, with some of the companies listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. These include Philex Mining and SPNEC, which says it is the largest solar energy producer in the country. SPNEC is looking to scoop up land around the country, Pangilinan said, to expand areas where solar facilities could be built.
Pangilinan is also interested in natural gas, particularly the riches that lie under the South China Sea, a source of geopolitical tensions with China. PXP Energy, which Pangilinan chairs, owns a service contract and exploration rights for Recto Bank, a maritime feature in the West Philippine Sea claimed by Manila and Beijing.
He said bluntly that if they find any resources of "commercial quantity" within the area then they will "tell the Chinese to just bugger off," but otherwise sees little point in escalating tensions with Beijing. "I've told the Chinese side as well," he said. "You know, what's the point of quarreling if there's nothing below the waters, right?"
Besides business, Pangilinan has plunged into sports, financially backing collegiate-level basketball on the domestic and international stages because, he said, "nobody's supporting it." He owns three basketball teams in the local professional league, where he maintains a rivalry with another tycoon, Ramon Ang.
Retirement looms but no date has been set, with speculation mounting over who will succeed him. Pangilinan said there are candidates lined up, noting that the best way to train them is to "get them to run a business and make them feel real bullets being fired at them."
Pangilinan, a lifelong bachelor, keeps a tight lid on his private life. He doesn't entertain questions but teases that he wants to try winter sports once he retires. "Maybe go skiing in Japan. Have you skied in Japan?"
Additional reporting by Ella Hermonio.
