The Yuchengco Group of Companies remains resilient amid the pandemic as it taps technology to drive growth and explores new opportunities.
House of Investments president Lorenzo Tan is confident in the conglomerate’s ability to weather the crisis and the economy’s capacity to bounce back from the impact of the pandemic. HI is the listed holding company of the Yuchengo Group.
“If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us in YGC, it’s that our concerted resourcefulness and creativity will pull us all through,” Tan said.
He said YGC has had its share in responding to the needs of the people who were affected by the crisis. It contributed to Project Ugnayan while banking arm Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. provided grocery vouchers to households in Metro Manila and surrounding areas.
YGC’s overall capacity toward recovery has been getting a big lift from subsidiaries in banking, education, life and non-life insurance, renewable energy, pharmaceutical and property.
RCBC, a YGC flagship company, started pushing innovative services to meet new normal demands in banking even beyond the pandemic.
Its inclusive DiskarTech app is the first in the country to make banking transactions simple and easy for the grassroots communities.
It has also reengineered its banking processes to digital across all branches through its Branch of Today project. Its mobile app has been enhanced, while an end-to-end online account opening facility is set to be launched by 2021.
RCBC helped in the quick disbursement of the government’s P200-billion emergency subsidy to over 18 million families through its mobile automated teller machine called ATM Go which continued to be used to disburse conditional cash transfers under the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino.
The payouts are held in more than 70 provinces via over 1200 ATM gold terminals. An additional 2,000 units will be deployed, to bring the service to the barangay level in this critical period.
House of Investments also continues to explore new opportunities that complement core competencies. HI chief operating officer Gema Cheng said that while it is normal for businesses to experience losses during crises, recovery can be achieved through sound decision-making.
“The second half of the year is a catch-up period from the losses incurred during the months when we couldn’t operate. Even during the lockdowns, we continued to explore opportunities and fine-tune our business development plans. We are not looking for what’s trending, but rather what will benefit us for the long-term,” Cheng said.
Student applications and actual enrollment figures for HI’s education portfolio are also showing encouraging progress as of end-July for schoolyear 2020-2021.
Malayan Colleges Mindanao, A Mapúa School, attributed its impressive 74-percent increase in number of applicants to the waived admission fee and entrance exams. With four more weeks before deadline of enrollment, the institution has already hit a 4-percent growth compared to the previous schoolyear.
Mapúa University, on the other hand, recorded a 51-percent increase in number of applications due to fully online application and exam system. However, there was a slight decline in actual enrolment from the previous school year.
Cheng said this is understandable considering the economic challenges brought about by the COVID pandemic but she remains confident that enrollment will pick up because of the school’s reputation for readiness in online education.
“Our students are used to the setup way before the pandemic happened because our teaching model involves supplementation of students’ regular face-to-face classes with online lessons. Needless to say, our faculty also has the experience in conducting online instruction methods,” Cheng said.
While recovery for EEI Corp., the group’s construction arm has found the perfect pace to speed up activities for projects that were delayed during the lockdown period.
EEI expects to recover from losses as the government already allowed the construction sector to restart activities. EEI also resumed operations to quickly work on its backlogs, with new projects lined up.
Tan said other YGC companies are undertaking various efforts as they move forward in the 21st Century.
“The Yuchengco Group of Companies finds itself in a world that is very different from the one in which it had its modest beginnings in 1911. Right now, we are invested in the recovery of the economy. We are invested in improving the quality of lives of Filipinos. It can’t just be one or the other,” he said.