THE SM Investments Corporation (SMIC) was internationally recognized as one of the best managed companies in the country.
The awards presentation for the Philippine winners was held on September 1, 2016 at the Conrad Centennial, Singapore.
The Hong Kong-based magazine Alpha Southeast Asia gave SMIC a total of four awards following its recent poll among investors and analysts in Southeast Asia.
SM bagged a total of four awards including Best Chief Finance Officer for SM Executive Vice President and CFO Jose Sio for the fifth consecutive year.
SM also clinched Most Organised Investor Relations for the sixth straight year and Best Senior Management IR Support for the fourth consecutive year. SM was cited for Strongest Adherence to Corporate Governance
The awards were gathered from an annual poll conducted between February and June 2016 among 507 investors, pension funds, hedge funds, equity and fixed income brokers and analysts with investment interests in the Southeast Asia region.
Listed-companies in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia were ranked according to investors' perceptions of their performance in financial management, corporate governance, integrated reporting/ corporate social responsibility and investor relations' strategy.
Alpha Southeast Asia is a monthly magazine primarily written for institutional investors, asset and fund management companies in Hong Kong, Singapore, other parts of Asia, US, Europe and the Middle East. The magazine also has a strong following among the region’s largest local corporate.
Corazon Guidote, senior vice president for investor relations of SMIC, said that the company is now geared in expanding and pouring more investments in Visayas and Mindanao where a burgeoning growth is unstoppable.
“We have the intention to go these places, but if the basic needs are not there, it would be more expensive to us to go to any area, especially in retail industry, because we need to supply them, so connectivity is a key,” Tim Daniels, consultant for Investor Relations of SMIC, for his part, said.
“Visayas and Mindanao are new growth areas for SM where significant opportunities await investors. Its underserved markets are hungry for the kind of aspirational products and services that SM tends to bring into its development,” Guidote said.
Pushing for expansion, the company will open its eight-hectare second mall in Cagayan de Oro City by second semester next year. Also, a 12-story SM office tower will rise in the same city.
For Mindanao, the company intends to set up additional malls, Savemore branches and stores like Ace Hardware and Watsons.
Also, the company is up for establishing a minimart called Alfamart here in the island.