No overnight success Tycoon Dennis Uy attained his goals after decades of hard work. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

">No overnight success Tycoon Dennis Uy attained his goals after decades of hard work. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Decades of business diversifications that started with Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. enabled tycoon Dennis Uy to achieve great heights in the field of business, Mislatel Consortium spokesman Adel Tamano said in a televised interview.

Uy became wealthy after decades of expansions that happened before the term of President Rodrigo Duterte, Tamano explained.

“I think the common misconception is he just got rich during the term of President Duterte, but Mr. Dennis Uy built his fortune decades ago when he set up Phoenix and it was publicly listed,” he said. “He has Phoenix, which is publicly listed, and Chelsea Logistics Holdings company.”

He explained Phoenix was incorporated on 8 May 2002 and debuted at the Philippine Stock Exchange on 11 July 2007 while Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. was incorporated and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 26 August 2016 and its shares were listed and traded at the PSE on 8 August 2017.

The Mislatel spokesman said both companies are under Udenna Corp. — the flagship holding company for Uy’s business interests — which included petroleum, shipping and logistics, real estate and property development, trading and distribution, energy, water and environmental services.

“Udenna Corp. further diversified by entering Mislatel with Chelsea Logistics, China Telecommunications Corp. and Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Inc.,” Tamano said.

“The consortium was officially declared as the country’s ‘new major player’ in the telecommunications industry last 19 November,” he added.

At least six officers of the Filipino companies under the consortium were found to have contributed a total of P35.55 million to Duterte’s campaign kitty for the 2016 presidential elections.

“The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has insisted that Mislatel was not favored by the government to win the third telco slot,” he stressed.

The spokesman also explained Uy recently went on a buying binge, acquiring several companies, including FamilyMart, Conti’s and Enderun, noting that Global Gateway Development Corp. (GGDC) — a subsidiary of Udenna Corp. — currently holds a 177-hectare leasehold at Clark Freeport Zone in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

Earlier this January, Phoenix Petroleum and partner China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOC) were given the green light to proceed with their liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Batangas.

“So, all this talk… ‘Why is he buying this and that?’ Well, he’s buying businesses because he sees the opportunity and because he already has the base,” Tamano said.

“The point is that it’s not new money. He’s building on his previous success and I think that’s something people tend to forget or maybe don’t know, because he is a new face in the more public world. But in the business world they’ve known… him… for the past decade,” he added.