Page 54 - Forbes - Asia (October 2019)
P. 54
The Philippines’ 50 Richest
Building two fresh graduates wanted to build
eye-catching structures.
It was 1997, an inauspicious year to
Momentum start a business. When the Asian finan-
cial crisis hit, the cost of importing ce-
ment and steel soared as the Philippine
peso plunged and with it any profits
Edgar Saavedra has gone from building for Megawide might have earned. Just as
Manila’s biggest tycoons to bidding against them. the economy recovered, China’s roaring
economy kept steel prices soaring.
BY ROEL LANDINGIN Desperate to cut costs, Saavedra and
Cosiquien reached out to a German
company that sold them the technology
he usual suspects submitted Since Saavedra formed it with to begin prefabricating and, in 2005,
bids last year to rede- cofounder Michael Cosiquien in 1997, Megawide built its first prefabrication
velop Manila’s dilapidated Megawide has grown into a diversified plant. By casting concrete in a central
international airport. But construction group, with 16.8 billion location and then transporting sec-
Tamong the lumbering pesos in annual revenue last year. tions of a building to a site, Megawide
conglomerates run by the country’s Saavedra owns about 46% of Megawide, could cut the cost not only of transport-
biggest tycoons, there was one unex- enough to put him among the country’s ing and pouring concrete at multiple
pected—more modestly fortuned— 50 richest, at No. 34, with an estimated sites, but also the number of workers it
contender: Edgar Saavedra, the mere fortune of $260 million. (Cosiquien, needed at each site to pour it.
multi-centimillionaire chairman of who ranks No. 35 with an estimated The result wasn’t just lower costs, but
local construction company Megawide, $250 million, divested from Megawide also quicker construction. “They were
which came in with a 156 billion pesos in 2017 and last year resigned from the one of the first construction companies
($3 billion) bid that would have given company’s board to start other ventures. which managed to complete one floor
Megawide and its Indian partner, GMR He and Saavedra continue to work of a high-rise building in just a week’s
Infrastructure, an 18-year concession together on some projects.) time,” says Manolito Madrasto, the
to run the Ninoy Aquino International Behind Megawide’s rapid growth former executive director of Philippine
Airport (NAIA). was the founders’ early decision to Contractors Association, on the impact
After more than a decade building build a prefabrication plant that would of Megawide’s prefabrication plant in
structures for the Philippines’ biggest cut labor costs and construction time. 2005. “That allowed property develop-
developers, the 44-year-old engineer Able to build quicker and more cheaply ers to build and sell residential condo-
is competing head-on with some of than rivals, Megawide became the minium units faster.”
his wealthiest customers. Megawide’s go-to builder for many of the country’s Clients soon flocked to Megawide,
bid lost—the government picked a biggest companies. Now, Megawide is sending the company’s annual rev-
“superconsortium” made up of seven ready to make the leap from a construc- enues in 2008 over the billion-peso
conglomerates. But the battle may not tion-only company into a diversified mark. Among them: SM Group, the
be over: the government is due to put infrastructure group. leading property developer founded
the contract back up for challenge later by the late billionaire Henry Sy, Sr.,
this year. And Saavedra’s bid laid down SAAVEDRA AND COSIQUIEN started as well as Andrew Tan’s Megaworld
a firm challenge: that his company’s out in construction shortly after earn- and the Gotianun family’s Filinvest
affordable engineering solutions give ing their civil engineering degrees Land. Megawide listed on the Philip-
it a competitive advantage over its big- from Manila’s De La Salle University. pine Stock Exchange in 2011, selling
money rivals. “They may have more They could have worked for their a third of the company for 2.3 billion SONNY THAKUR FOR FORBES ASIA
money, but it’s not all about money. families’ businesses, the Saavedras in pesos. Two years later, Saavedra and
You also need technical know-how,” shipping and the Cosiquiens in resi- Cosiquien joined Forbes Asia’s list of
Saavedra says. dential property construction. But the Philippines’ 50 richest.
52 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2019
