Good evening.
It is wonderful to see all of you here. Some of you have shared the journey with us all these years, sharing our stories with the public and for that I am deeply grateful.
We have much to celebrate in 2025, the 70th anniversary of the group. We are starting on good footing with 2024 registering the highest revenue and income numbers in our corporate history.
Anniversaries of business conglomerates are important not so much due to its age per se but how it has progressively evolved, survived crises and transformed itself into meeting the demands of the times and in contributing to nation building.
When my dad, Andrew Gotianun, arrived from Cebu in 1955, he was starting from scratch. He had just sold their family's shipping business. Many of the families in Cebu were involved in inter-island shipping.
He decided to take a different path. With grit and courage he came to explore a city where he knew no one and where no one knew him.
Andrew started by borrowing money against the family's properties causing great anxiety to my grandmother. He had his widowed mother, a widowed sister in law with two daughters, a sister and his family all looking up to him. And he just had another new baby girl, making that three generations of women depending on him. I was that baby. So now you know my age.
He came with his secret weapon a UP magna cum laude, Manileña, Mercedes and the two of them made Filinvest history. They often quote from the Longfellow poem on Hiawatha to describe their relationships. The quote is about a bow and arrow: “Useless each without the other.”
For many of you who might have known them it was a relationship built on love and passion in all aspects, personal and business.
Mom and dad passed on a lot of values that continue to guide us: Integrity to customers, credit reputation, fairness to partners, concern for our co-workers, entrepreneurial spirit, and innovation in pursuit of excellence.
These values have provided us the foundation for starting and the fuel for growing our businesses.
The nine-month 2024 results show a 36-percent revenue growth and a 60-percent income growth. All of our subsidiaries contributed to this overall improved performance of the group.
In the last five years, we have made significant progress to prepare for the future.
Starting from the top, we have welcomed new leaders in all our subsidiaries. It is the first time in the history of the group that all leaderships positions are held by non-family members.
The leadership has made great strides in optimizing return on our substantial asset base and network. We are confident in our ability to accelerate growth in the coming decade under new leadership.
Your support has been instrumental, Our story is worth telling and you have helped us connect with more people, build trust and share the purpose that drives us.
Thank you for joining us tonight and here's to a bright future for our country and for us all.
— Ed: DLL
