Philippine powerhouse Ayala says it may look outside the founder’s family for a chief executive to lead it into the future

The head of a family-owned empire that’s worth tens of billions of dollars said his company may be ready for an outsider at the helm.

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Philippines’ Ayala Corporation, said a CEO from outside the family is one option when the group passes power to new leaders. Part of his legacy, he said, has been paving the way to make such a move possible.

“I like to think the team we have in place could provide leadership at any point for Ayala if my brother and I were to disappear,” Zobel said in an interview in the Makati business district, which his group built. “We have all kinds of options for leadership both at the professional level and potentially the family level,” he said, referring to three family members from the next generation who are currently working at the company.

Succession is a key issue in the Philippines, where families either control or have a large stake in many of the biggest companies.

Ayala traces its roots to a small distillery founded in 1834, with the controlling family descended from Europeans who arrived during the colonial era.

It’s a powerhouse in the country. Ayala is the holding company for a group that includes Ayala Land, the largest property developer by revenue, Bank of the Philippine Islands, the oldest lender, and Globe Telecom, the biggest mobile phone company. Those four entities alone have a combined market capitalisation of more than US$36 billion. Zobel’s family owns 47 per cent of Ayala, which has large stakes in the others.