September 3, 2025 | 12:00am
(Half 1)
Constructing a enterprise within the Philippines calls for greater than grit. Entrepreneurs should navigate persistent challenges: inconsistent insurance policies, constrained capital and continually evolving investor expectations. It’s towards this backdrop that rules like clear management, clear communication and the power to earn market confidence turn out to be paramount – rules that fashioned the core of this yr’s Investor Relations Discussion board, held on June 11, 2025, and hosted by the Shareholders’ Affiliation of the Philippines (SharePHIL).
The discussion board featured candid insights from trade leaders: Edgar “Ed” Saavedra, CEO of Megawide and Citicore Power REIT and Robrina “Robby” Go, nation head of UBS Securities Philippines. They shared sensible methods for fostering efficient investor engagement, in a dialogue skillfully moderated by Rens Cruz II, group investor relations supervisor of Filinvest Improvement Corp.
The function of investor relations in constructing market belief
In her keynote handle, SharePHIL chairperson Aurora “Boots” Geotina-Garcia hailed the appointment of former SharePHIL president and present trustee, Francis Edralin Lim, as the brand new Securities and Alternate Fee chairman, calling it “a milestone for the capital market trade.”
Geotina-Garcia expressed widespread confidence in Lim’s management: “All the enterprise neighborhood believes Francis will usher in a brand new period of improvement for our capital markets.”
Highlighting the importance of this transition, she underscored the important significance of investor relations (IR) professionals. Geotina-Garcia burdened that core rules – management in company technique, unwavering transparency and cultivating strong market confidence – are basic, not merely aspirational:
“These rules kind the bedrock of profitable and sustainable IR methods. Your very important function in bridging firms with the funding neighborhood makes this dialogue important.”
Entrepreneurial spirit and management in Philippine enterprise
Offering insights into Megawide’s journey and the creation of its devoted investor relations staff, Saavedra shared his private evolution as an entrepreneur. He recalled that his early path was pushed extra by an inherent entrepreneurial spirit than a transparent, long-term imaginative and prescient.
“Once I began, even till we received listed, it was actually the spirit of being an entrepreneur. You simply wish to do one thing,” Saavedra admitted. “That was the fact, till possibly once I turned older, it modified a bit, a imaginative and prescient emerged. However throughout my youthful age till we received listed, it was actually character greater than imaginative and prescient that was driving me.”
Saavedra expressed that he hadn’t found the methods he used till he turned older: “One (technique) is you do a rifle method. Whenever you do a rifle, you do the sniper method. You spend in a single day, half-hour, one hour to attempt to spot and strategize earlier than you hit the goal.”
“The opposite technique is sort of a cowboy. You pull the gun, you intention it. You will not be one hundred pc right – possibly 80 p.c right, but you shoot it. In fact, you’re not going to hit the goal, and within the cut up of two seconds, you hit it once more. In 5 seconds, you’re completed. You’re in a position to hit the goal,” he added.
On the time, Saavedra mentioned he didn’t acknowledge them as methods; he was merely pushed by a robust need to construct Megawide. Trying again, he now sees these instincts as deliberate approaches that also maintain worth for him in the present day.
“I at all times make an 80 p.c plan, after which execute straight away. I believe it’s the pace of Megawide that brings us to the place we are actually. I’m not going to say that we at all times do proper. We now have quite a lot of imperfections, quite a lot of errors, however we simply study from our errors,” he revealed.
Saavedra went on to share his expertise throughout Megawide’s transition to a publicly listed firm in 2011.
He brazenly acknowledged that his preliminary method lacked formal construction or monetary coaching. He mentioned that folks requested him again then why he began the enterprise with out expertise.
“I keep in mind as a civil engineer, 36 years previous, our expertise was purely building,” he defined. “My mindset was simply challenge administration, no accounting background. Whenever you go to the general public market, we discuss to the ‘palengkera’ (market distributors)… as building engineers, we simply do a easy money circulate. And governance, we generally overlook about that.”
Megawide’s transformation right into a multi-listed group with specialised investor relations professionals was a course of that demanded each time and humility. Saavedra mirrored on this development: “The extra I turn out to be older, I understand that you simply put the worth first, after which the remainder will observe. Values, which means the tradition and the technique, that’s what I’m specializing in now. Having the appropriate technique, having the appropriate values and having staff members who will assist you execute the enterprise.”
This led to him displaying his deep sense of gratitude to the Investor Relations staff at Megawide, P&A as their auditor and the Sy households and Ed Francisco who believed in him and the enterprise.
“I assume there are people who find themselves very skilled. They will see the worth greater than the competence. I believe, in the long run, character is extra necessary than pure competency. These are my realizations,” Saavedra famous.
When interacting with traders, Saavedra described himself as unstructured and lighthearted – at the very least till he started to see the worth within the course of. He shared that the extra he met with traders, the extra he acknowledged how these conversations translated into enterprise alternatives.
“More often than not, I joke round with the traders. That’s the place I wish to be true to myself. I believe a few of the traders prefer it as a result of they see the true self greater than memorizing. I assume being true to your self is necessary and getting the appropriate individuals in your staff that will help you,” he disclosed.
However, Go believes that they, as leaders, have a task to present by constructing a strong basis for the capital market to thrive to the following era. In line with her, she could not know tips on how to be an IR, although she was in a position to share her expertise after being available in the market for 3 and a half a long time.
“That interval noticed a surge in publicly listed firms, a surge within the CFO professionals and IR professionals developing, and we’ve been very lively in working with them,” she mentioned.
Go opened up about doing IR rounds earlier than the duty was created. She praised the businesses represented within the occasion, together with Saavedra.
“Kudos to individuals like Ed who really sit again and acknowledge the necessity for this to flourish and to present a voice to IR individuals,” she mentioned in appreciation.
These foundational tales spotlight the evolution of management and the indispensable function of genuine, values-driven IR in navigating the Philippine market’s complexities. However how do these rules translate into concrete IR technique and motion in in the present day’s quickly shifting panorama? (Half 2 will discover the important abilities, strategic shifts and future focus wanted for efficient investor relations).
* * *
To study extra about SharePHIL, go to https://sharephil.org/
