Ayala Corp. president and chief executive Fernando Zobel de Ayala resigned from all his positions in the conglomerate and other listed firms, less than a month after taking a temporary medical leave of absence.
Ayala said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Monday Zobel de Ayala resigned as vice chairman of the board, president and chief executive of the company effectively immediately “to allow him to focus more on his recovery and health”.
He also tendered his resignation from the Ayala Group’s listed subsidiaries.
Ayala Land Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands, ACEN Corp. and Globe Telecom Inc. also disclosed Zobel de Ayala’s resignation from his posts in the companies.
Ayala Corp. earlier reported that its board elected Cezar Consing as acting president and chief executive following the medical leave of Zobel de Ayala on Aug 15.
Zobel de Ayala, 62, also sits as chairman of ALI and ACEN, co-vice chairman of Globe and director of BPI.
ALI, ACEN and BPI said Zobel de Ayala’s replacement would be announced in due course.
Regina Capital Development Corp. managing director Luis Limlingan said the investors should not be worried about the prospects of the group following the resignation of Zobel de Ayala.
“A lot of family members are still running the company, and they have a lot of highly-qualified people helping,” Limlingan said.
Ayala is one of the country’s oldest and largest conglomerates with investments in banking, real estate, telecommunications and power generation.
Zobel de Ayala became the chief executive of Ayala Corp. in April 2021 in place of his older brother Jaime August who became the group’s chairman.
Fernando Zobel led the conglomerate through the pandemic and steered the group towards recovery.
Ayala Corp. reported a 61-percent growth in net income to P27.8 billion in 2021. This continued this year with a 56-percent profit rise in the first half to P16.3 billion as revenues improved with the reopening of the economy.
The conglomerate reported the strong performance of its banking, real estate and telecommunications businesses this year.
The group said it was cognizant of the macroeconomic headwinds that impacted its businesses in varying degrees. Zobel de Ayala said there was still growth to be realized for the rest of the year.
Ayala’s share price rose 2.23 percent Monday to close at P7.33.