First Pacific management loses biggest players

First Pacific management loses biggest players

HONG KONG (AFP): Indonesian tycoon Sudono Salim and his partner Sudwikatmono have stepped down from the management of the Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd, the company announced on Thursday.

The company said Manuel Pangilinan was also stepping down as managing director and would take up a new position as the company's executive chairman to "devote more time to the company's substantial investments in the Philippines."

Pangilinan will be succeeded by executive director Thomas Yasuda.

Pangilinan will succeed Sudono Salim, who is retiring from the board.

Pangilinan was quoted as saying: "First Pacific's largest single management task right now is the Philippines and I wish to devote myself more fully to overseeing our progress there."

Sudwikatmono, one of the original investors in First Pacific, is also stepping down as a non-executive director. He will join Salim as an advisor to the board, the statement added.

In other management changes, Ronald Brown, who has served as group legal counsel and company secretary, was named executive director.

James Ng, managing director and chief executive of First Pacific Bank, is to become an executive director of First Pacific.

First Pacific Co. Ltd. said it had also sold one of its units as part the ongoing restructuring exercise.

FPD Guardforce Holdings Ltd. was sold to Williams plc for US$120 million, First Pacific said in a statement.

It called the sale a further step in the company's restructuring process, "which is refocusing the group's investments on a select group of brand-oriented blue chip Asian companies that dominate their local markets, or possess the potential to do so."

"In addition to these major companies -- which currently include Indofood in Indonesia, Berli Jucker in Thailand and PLDT/Smart and Fort Bonifacio in the Philippines -- the group shall continue to own second-tier companies which will grow to substantial size or ultimately divest."

Executive director Thomas Yasuda said the sale was "another important step" in First Pacific's effort to position itself "to benefit from opportunities arising in the new operating environment that is emerging in the region."