Ramon S. Ang on Friday took full control of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) after its chair, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., sold a huge chunk of his stake in the diversified firm to his hard-charging prot\u00e9g\u00e9.
\nThe deal\u2014valued at P27.61 billion for an 11-percent stake in the country\u2019s largest conglomerate\u2014cements Ang\u2019s hold on the company that he has been running as president and chief operating officer since 2007.
\n\u201cThis is good timing for ECJ (Cojuangco),\u201d said Wealth Securities research head Bernard Avi\u00f1ante.
\n\u201cSMC has flourished under his watch and now accounts for a good percentage of our gross domestic product,\u201d Avi\u00f1ante said.
\nHe said that under Ang\u2019s management, San Miguel is now \u201cin every growth sector of our country and still continues to be an investor [in major growth projects].\u201d
\nThe change in leadership takes on an impressive turn, however, when juxtaposed with Ang\u2019s humble beginnings as a businessman.
\nFrequently mislabeled by friends and critics alike as having started out as an \u201cauto mechanic,\u201d Ang actually began his long ascent in the early 1970s, buying surplus car engines from Japan, refurbishing them and selling them at a profit.
\n\u201cI would buy them for $50 and sell them for $100, for example,\u201d he said in an earlier interview. He counted the members of Manila\u2019s drag racing circuit as his clients, including one Mark Cojuangco, who introduced the young Ramon Ang to his father, Eduardo Cojuangco.
\nAs is often related in business circles\u2014whether accurate or apocryphal\u2014the elder Cojuangco asked Ang to examine one of his prized cars that had broken down, and Ang was able to repair it. Thus started, as the story goes, a friendship that would eventually see \u201cRSA\u201d take control of San Miguel some four decades later.
\nWhile Ang has been running the day-to-day operations of San Miguel for several years now, Cojuangco\u2019s influence has remained strong, with Ang regularly consulting his mentor before making major acquisitions or business deals, according to sources familiar with the conglomerate\u2019s workings.
\nCojuangco\u2019s imprimatur was crucial when Ang, beginning in 2007, steered what was then Southeast Asia\u2019s largest food and beverage firm into a slew of new investments in fields where it had no prior experience.
\nThe move was met with skepticism by investors and market observers, many of whom were more comfortable with seeing the company protect its leadership position in the beer, softdrink and processed food businesses.
\n\u201cWhen we started to diversify, people said I was crazy,\u201d the 57-year-old told the Inquirer last month. \u201cBut when you look at how far we\u2019ve come today, do you think we made the right move or not?\u201d
\nAccording to Bloomberg, San Miguel has spent no less than $4.8 billion\u2014funded by a mix of equity, debt and internally generated cash\u2014for 24 corporate acquisitions since its diversification shift in 2007.
\nThis figure excludes its recent $500-million acquisition of a 49-percent stake in, and management control of, flag carrier Philippine Airlines.
\nThe change in leadership at the conglomerate also comes after the Supreme Court declared Cojuangco the rightful owner of a significant bloc of shares in San Miguel after years of dispute with the government.
\nBorn in Manila on Jan. 14, 1954, Ang graduated from Far Eastern University in 1981 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
\nHe was appointed president and chief operating officer of San Miguel in March 2002, following the retirement of Francisco Eizmendi.
\nIn a 2009 Inquirer report, Ang said his relationship with Cojuangco \u201cgoes back as far as his humble beginnings as the proprietor of a small firm that specialized in reconditioning surplus engines.\u201d
\nApart from heading San Miguel Corp., Ang is also president and COO of PAL Holdings, Philippine Airlines, Trustmark Holdings Corp. and Zuma Holdings and Management Corp.; chair and CEO of Petron Corp., Petron Marketing Corp., and SMC Global Power Holdings Corp.; vice chair of Manila Electric Co., Ginebra San Miguel, San Miguel Pure Foods Co. and San Miguel Yamamura Haiphong Glass Co. Ltd. (Vietnam).
\nHe also holds the position of chair and president in various other companies, including San Miguel Properties, San Miguel Electric Corp., San Miguel Energy Corp., Lode Mining Ventures Corp., Bell Telecommunication Phil., San Miguel Beverages and San Miguel Holdings Corp.
\nAng also chairs San Miguel Brewery, San Miguel Foods, San Miguel Paper Packaging Corp., and South Luzon Tollway Corp.<\/p>\n