Concepcion: Private sector helped pitch investments during Marcos US visit
Some of the country’s biggest businessmen accompanied President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., seen here at a dinner hosted by LT Group’s Michael Tan: (from left) China Bank Chairman Hans Sy, LT Group COO Lucio Tan III, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s George Barcelon, President Marcos, RFM Corp. and Go Negosyo’s Joey Concepcion, and LT Group President Michael Tan.
With the country's leading tycoons making up the delegation, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s recently concluded six-day working visit to the US stirred excitement among some of the world's largest private equity investors.
One of the highlights was a high-level roundtable meeting organized by Asia Society Philippines Chair Doris Magsaysay Ho and Vice Chair Myla Villanueva last 23 September, where some of the world's largest private equity investors in aviation, big infrastructure, energy, fintech and payments, e-commerce, and digital infrastructure were in attendance.
Magsaysay-Ho made the introductions and Villanueva facilitated the discussions. The investors in attendance included former ambassador John Negroponte of McLarty Associates, Ken Mehlman of KKR, Andrew Thomas of Stonepeak, Mark Tatum of NBA, Dinesh Kanna of Boston Consulting, Michael Kirban of VitaCoco, Proof of Learn founder Shiela Marcelo, Asia Society trustee Asheet Mehta of McKinsey, Nick Rohatyn of The Rohatyn Group, Itai Lemberger of Bow Wave Capital, Brian Franke of Indigo Partners, and Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, who is also already invested in Mynt, or Gcash.
Asia Society was instrumental in bringing in its network of investors, most of whom are already invested in the Philippines, and shared insights about opportunities as the new administration transforms the economy.
"This government has been very supportive of the private sector and public participation. The President is very keen to get the private sector involved and we are delighted with that," said Ayala Corp. chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala during the Public Economic Briefing held during the President's visit. He added that it is now up to the private sector to maximize the favorable business environment under the Marcos administration.
"The President has quite cleverly gotten 30 of our country's busiest CEOs to voluntarily work for him," said Aboitiz CEO Sabin Aboitiz, who also is the convenor Private Sector Advisory Council, a group of leading businessmen directly advising the President.
