Business career
After World War II, he started his own shipping company called Amasia Trading, which imported flour, onions, fruits, used clothing, old newspapers, and magazines from the United States into the Philippines.[7]
In the early 1950s, along with his brothers and sisters who temporarily stayed in and returned from China due to hardship in the war, he started to import cigarettes and whiskey too. By 1957, seeing that trading would always generate low margins of profit[7] and would always be dependent on the whims of government policies, the family concern shifted towards industrial manufacturing. With a loan of 500,000 pesos from Albino Sycip, then chairman of China Bank, and Dee K. Chiong, Gokongwei established a corn milling plant producing glucose and corn starch. The first company in the Gokongwei Summit Holdings Company was born. It was named Universal Corn Products (which later evolved into his even larger corporate conglomerate, Universal Robina Corporation) famous for its Panda Corn Starch marquee.[8] San Miguel Corporation was a big customer of the company. It caused a price war and the closure of one corn starch company, which led to the dismissal of a young chemical engineer named Lucio Tan. Tan later jested with Gokongwei that he costed Tan his employment.[9]
In 1961, he established Consolidated Food Corporation (later known as CFC Corporation, which later merged with Universal Robina Corporation), which launched its instant coffee brand Blend 45.
In November 1990, Gokongwei incorporated JG Summit Holdings was floated as a publicly listed holding company on the Manila Stock Exchange. In March 1996, his airline, Cebu Pacific Air began operations. In 2010, the airline underwent major refleeting with a $3 billion order with Airbus. From 2003, his telecommunications company Digital Telecommunications Philippines spent nearly $800 million for its mobile carrier, Sun Cellular, which was the third-largest mobile operator in the Philippines at that time before selling to the PLDT group for $1.7 billion.
In 2013, his company bought the stake of San Miguel Corporation in Meralco, Philippines's largest power distributor for close to $1.8 billion. In July 2014, Universal Robina acquired Griffin's Foods from Pacific Equity Partners, a New Zealand food producer for $609 million.
In 2014, Gokongwei attempted to mastermind a $1 billion corporate takeover of United Industrial Corporation Ltd (UIC), a Singaporean property giant of which he owned in excess of 30%. UIC controls Singapore Land, which is one of the biggest property landholders in Singapore.[10]
He also owned Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. and Robinsons Land Corporation.
The Gokongwei family controls over $20 billion of combined market capitalization for all the companies they own.
In February 2008, Forbes Asia magazine's first Heroes of Philanthropy list included four Filipinos – Gokongwei, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Ramón del Rosario Jr. and Oscar López. The list was composed of four philanthropists each from 13 selected countries and territories in Asia.[11]
