For the Gotianun family’s Filinvest Group, which celebrates a milestone 70 years in 2025, its foundation was built not only on the love between taipan Andrew and his spouse Mercedes but also on the powerful synergy of their partnership that launched a P90 billion empire spanning banking, real estate, energy, and sugar.
“For many of you who might have known them, it was a relationship built on love and passion in all aspects, personal and business,” tycoon and Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) vice chair Lourdes Josephine Gotianun-Yap said during a media event on Friday.
“They often quote a poem by Henry Longfellow about Hiawatha to describe their relationship,” she said. “The quote is about a bow and arrow—useless each without the other.”
Gotianun, who emigrated from China as a young boy, began his journey in Cebu salvaging ship parts in the aftermath of World War II before making the bold decision to move to Manila and start anew.
High stakes gamble
“When my dad, Andrew Gotianun, arrived from Cebu in 1955, he was starting from scratch,” Gotianun-Yap said.
“With grit and courage, he came to explore a city where he knew no one and no one knew him. Andrew started by borrowing money against the family’s property, causing great anxiety for my grandmother,” she added.
This became the seed money for his venture into financing second-hand automobiles, establishing the groundwork for the group’s consumer-focused lending that would later evolve into EastWest Bank.
But the stakes were high when he was starting out, Gotianun-Yap said.
“He had his widowed mother, a widowed sister-in-law with two daughters, a sister, and his family all looking after him. And he just had a new baby girl, making that three generations of women depending on him,” she said.
“I was that baby, so you now know my age,” she added with a playful smile.
A legacy passed down through generations
The company grew and thrived by expanding into other businesses, including property development in the late 1960s and later developing Filinvest City in Alabang, but it is the values that continue to sustain its enduring culture.
“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 the pursuit of excellence,” said Gotianun-Yap.
Banner year
The Filinvest Group turns 70-years-old in a much stronger position.
“We’re starting on good footing with 2024 registering the highest revenue and income numbers in our corporate history,” she said.
Its most recent financial filing covering the first nine months of 2024 showed a historic high profit of P9.5 billion, an increase of 59 percent over the previous year.
This was driven across the board by banking, power, and property, while total revenues and other income expanded by 34 percent to P86.8 billion.
“Anniversaries of business conglomerates are important, not so much because of the age or the years per se, but more for how it has progressively evolved, survived crises, and transformed themselves into meeting the demands of the market and in contributing to nation building,” said Gotianun-Yap.
Adding value with non-family professionals
She also takes pride in their efforts to professionalize 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,” Gotianun-Yap said.
Filinvest Development is led by CEO Rhoda Huang and Ysmael Baysa as chief operating officer, EastWest Bank is led by CEO Jerry Ngo, Filinvest Land is led by CEO Tristaneil D. Las Marias, and Filinvest REIT is led by CEO Maricel Brion-Lirio.
“It is the first time in the history of the group that all leadership positions are held by non-family. This has made great strides in optimizing returns on our substantial asset base and network,” she added.
Nurturing the next generation of leaders
The Gotianun family’s second generation, including chair Jonathan, continues to steer the group, while the third generation, including Francis Nathaniel Gotianun and Isabelle Therese G. Yap, joined key positions in Filinvest.
Much like the founders, the family and non-family professionals work as a bow and arrow—one offering stability and a steady draw while the other aims with purpose.
“We are confident in our ability to increase growth in the coming decade under new leadership,” said Gotianun-Yap.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.