Ramon S. Ang

"What motivates him?"

With San Miguel Corp. drawing no challengers last July 31, 2019 to its P735-billion New Manila International Airport in Bulakan town, Bulacan province, SMC vice chair, president and COO Ramon S. Ang has become a cynosure of attention.

Can RSA deliver as promised, to build a world-class international airport north of Manila in record time of four years—meaning two runways by 2024 servicing at least 50 passengers, complete with connecting roads or railways to Clark, NAIA, and Sangley Point?

Tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. became chairman of SMC in July 1998, although he had had equity control since 1983. ECJ wanted RSA to take over and manage SMC. “He was a diamond in the raw,” ECJ said. RSA earned ECJ’s trust because he did not steal nor dissipate ECJ’s assets when the latter went into four years of exile in the US.

Ang became vice chairman in January 1999 and president and COO on March 6, 2002.

Half-Chinese and a mechanical engineer by training, Ang is a low-key executive who shuns stiff suits and fancy ties, except when attending board meetings and negotiating with partners and bankers. Often, he reports for work in a simple shirt or t-shirt and wearing only slippers. Humble of manners, he disdains antagonizing people and firing subalterns. He works hard, coming to the office before eight in the morning and going home when nearly all the executive staff had called it a day.

At the conglomerate’s sprawling Ortigas garden headquarters, RSA opened SMC’s sanctum sanctorum, the eighth-floor offices of the CEO and the president. “Before, under the Sorianos, visiting the 8th floor was like making a pilgrimage to God,” says one insider. “Now, you can walk in and discuss things with RSA. The second floor executive dining room was also opened to all SMC employees, not just to senior executives.

RSA’s management style is hands-on. His mind is like a sponge. He has a prodigious command of details.  He always carries with him a notebook and a pen or pencil. Information is a compendium of technical knowhow and prowess on many subjects, from brick and mortar to clicks, from airplanes to car engines to cement, from power plants to petrochemicals, agriculture to biotechnology, genetics and logistics, and yes, to even basketball strategy and tactics.

A keen entrepreneur, RSA’s mind works like a computer.   He knows his topline and his bottomline from the palm of his hand.  He taught himself many things—how to assemble, fix and repair motorcycles, cars, and huge industrial machinery.  How to fly helicopters and planes.   He loves machines. So he taught himself how to fix cars. He loves flying. So he taught himself how to be a pilot and how to fix jet engines.

Cojuangco and Ang first met in the 1980s. They shared the same passion—collecting classic or top-tier cars. Each has easily a collection of more than 200 cars. In Manila, Ang operated a shop that specialized in importing the fancy wheels and customizing cars to their owners’ specs.

At 13, RSA built up his auto parts and machinery business using only PLDT’s telephone directory. Clients would walk into their Abad Santos, Tondo shop or call up asking if a particular part was available. Ramon would jot down the part number or description of the item and then rifle through the PLDT pages to get a quotation from other suppliers. Then he would get back to the customer and quote a price, adding an infinitesimal margin. Eventually, he made his first million importing and reconditioning heavy equipment.

In 2008, as SMC president, RSA had an epiphany. San Miguel could be many times bigger than itself, have a larger footprint, and participate in a big way in the country’s development. The company could not do that by just producing beer, food and beverages, and packaging materials.

RSA proceeded to remake San Miguel and launched its largest expansion, acquisition and diversification program ever.

From 2008 to 2015, while competitors were hardly looking, San Miguel bought four of Luzon’s biggest power plants; acquired rights to and developed the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) that connects Manila to the far north; bought and five years later sold at a huge profit of $2 billion, 32.8 percent of electricity monopoly retailer Meralco; became a 90 majority owner of Petron Corp. which has the largest network of gas stations in the Philippines; bought Exxon-Mobil’s refinery and 600 service stations in Malaysia; built three expressways to NAIA; acquired and later sold at a small profit control of Philippine Airlines; acquired La Pacita biscuits, and begins the Skyway connector road from Magallanes to Balintawak.

Almost instantly, in just seven years, San Miguel became Luzon’s biggest power producer, the country’s largest petroleum refiner and retailer with 34 percent of the market, and the biggest infrastructure and toll road operator with 55 percent of the business. It has since dominated three substantial businesses—power generation, infrastructure, fuel and oil refining. The three have accounted for the bulk of San Miguel’s revenues ever since.

In 11 years, from 2008 to 2018, SMC chalked up cumulative revenues of P6.56 trillion and cumulative profits of P434.5 billion. Easily half of those revenues and half of those profits came from diversification businesses—power generation, fuel and oil, and infra.

The remaining one-third is shared for by traditional products beer, food, and packaging. San Miguel is also into petrochemicals, banking, BMW autos, and property, plus a new growth area—water. Of late, the company has gone in a way into airports and ports. In six major areas—beer, food, packaging, fuel and oil, power, and infrastructure, San Miguel, under President Ang, has become the dominant No. 1.

What motivates Ramon Ang? He says:

“At San Miguel, love for country is important. That is why we continue to help as many Filipinos as we can through our products, roads, airports, and infrastructure. Building a better future for the next generation is our ultimate goal.”

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