Filipino Value Investors

Bee Happy. Tony Tan Caktiong's Jollibee is now larger than its "langhap-sarap" beginnings. It has acquired restaurant subsidiaries and builds them into strong brands.

A fellow investor once raised a concern on the applicability of value investing here in the Philippines. Paraphrasing his comments: he observed that many Filipino investors try to mimic their US counterpart—then again, do we have the likes of Jim Rogers and Warren Buffett locally? It seems no one here succeeded using value investing alone.

It was a good, stimulating question which challenged the universality and relevance of value investing across borders. Immediately, I tried to reflect on it. My top-of-mind recall pointed to Manny Pangilinan. I didn’t know the knitty-gritty details of his investment checklist/filters, but I thought that when his investment vehicle, Metro Pacific, acquires whole businesses, it's definitely got to be rooted/grounded on the idea of having a return on investment not by way of stock price appreciation but by way of fundamental earnings generated by the business.