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Kenneth Ko

The Jardines group has expanded in the region with its construction unit, Gammon Construction, establishing a foothold in the Philippines.

Gammon, equally owned by Jardine Pacific and Trafalgar House, yesterday concluded a joint venture with the Philippines' largest property developer, Ayala Land, to secure construction contracts in the country.

The alliance marks Gammon's first venture in the Philippines and a further move by the company and Jardines to regionalise their businesses.

The new venture, Gammon Philippines, will focus on design and construction of high-rise buildings, civil engineering and specialised foundation works.

Both Gammon and Ayala declined to disclose their investment in the venture.

Ayala's Makati Development Corp was said to have a 60 per cent interest in the new company with Gammon owning the rest.

The Jardine Matheson group chairman for the Philippines, Aloysius Colayco, said the joint venture demonstrated Jardines' confidence in the country and was the latest Philippine venture by companies associated with the group.

 Jardines' property arm, Hongkong Land Holdings, recently entered into a US$400 million joint venture with Ayala to build luxury condominiums in Manila.

 It also joined four partners to develop middle-income housing in the Philippines.

 Jardines' Philippine arm, Jardine Davies, is planning a rights issue to fund its own expansion projects.

 Gammon managing director Martin Hadaway said its decision to do business in the Philippines was a sign of its long-term commitment to the Asian region.

 'The move also puts us a step closer to achieving our objectives of regionalising the company to ultimately become predominantly staffed and managed by locals - a strategy we have employed in all of our Asian operations which has proved highly successful,' Mr Hadaway said.

 Ayala president Francisco Licuanan said the partnership was part of his group's bid to forge alliances with major players in the region.

 Gammon and Ayala officials said their joint venture put emphasis on the transfer of modern construction technology through the systematic training of domestically employed workers and staff members.

 Gammon has 2,000 employees and also operates in other Asian economies including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

 With its headquarters in Hong Kong, the company launched its regional expansion plan in 1993.

 Besides expansion abroad, Gammon is also securing work in Hong Kong.

  Recently, it was awarded its biggest contract, worth $3.3 billion, in a joint venture with Paul Y Construction to construct the main building of the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals' air cargo complex at Chek Lap Kok.



Gammon moves Jardines deeper into Philippines