Conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc. is preparing to discuss succession planning as part of its governance process, after chairman, president and chief executive Isidro Consunji hinted plans to retire.
“DMCI Holdings is undertaking succession planning as part of its governance process, guided by merit, values, principles, and continuity of the corporate strategy,” the company said in a statement sent to Manila Standard.
“The board of directors is expected to deliberate on the matter toward the end of next year,” it said.
DMCI Holdings is the parent firm of several companies engaged in construction, real estate, power, mining and water services.
Consunji, 77, has served as the head of the corporation for 28 years since 1995. He also holds key positions in several listed and non-listed companies including Semirara Mining and Power Corp., CEMEX Holdings Philippines, Inc. and Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp.
Consunji, in a recent speech during the Financial Executive Institute of the Philippines forum, hinted plans to step back from active management in DMCI and focus on the family’s agriculture ventures.
“Agriculture has one of the highest poverty rates in the country at around 27 percent. So our goal is to develop marginal land, which is denuded, logged-over land, where there are very few economic activities, and turning idle land into real livelihoods,” he said.
While the family had once operated logging areas in Mindanao, Consunji said the group has converted them into plantations for rubber, palm oil, coffee and durian.
To date, the family has more than 3,000 people in the agricultural venture and operates palm oil and rubber in Zamboanga, coffee and durian in Sultan Kudarat and fruit trees in Sarangani and Davao.
The family is also in the final stages of securing permits for an African palm oil project in Candoni, Negros Occidental.
“So if everything goes as planned, we aim to develop 6,000 hectares in the next two years and expand to 12,000 hectares in five years,” Consunji said.
