By Romsanne R. Ortiguero
Operating on its core values of integrity, ethics, and quality set by its founder, chairman, and CEO Guillermo D. Luchangco, ICCP Group has been a successful leader for 30 years in various business ventures including investment banking, venture capital, property development, and exposition complex management.
Its first company, the Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines, which started operations in 1988 just after an economic recession in the Philippines, set the groundwork for a respected mid-sized conglomerate ICCP Group is now. Not tied to a domestic bank, Investment and Capital Corporation of the Philippines is an investment house that caters to large and mid-sized companies in the Philippines with DBS Bank of Singapore as one of its shareholders. It offers full-range of investment banking services from raising capital in the debt and equity markets to financial advisory services including mergers and acquisitions.
Known as a leading independent investment house in the country, it was the first local investment house cited by the Ethics Committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines for high ethical standards. It was also the first local investment house to be accredited by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under its Privatization Support Fund to advise the Philippine Government on privatization.
A few years after, in 1997, ICCP Group’s venture capital arm, the ICCP Venture Partners, Inc. (IVPI) was founded. Now known as ICCP SBI Venture Partners after Japan-based SBI Group infused equity with IVPI, the firm — with offices in Manila and Silicon Valley in California — provides early to expansion stage funding to companies in high-growth industries.
Consistent to its vision in providing quality service, the likes of Dado Banatao, a Filipino entrepreneur and venture capitalist; and John C. Dean, former chairman and CEO of Silicon Valley Bancshares and Silicon Valley Bank, are sitting today on the firm’s advisory board.
Having a developmental kind of mind, which Mr. Luchangco attributes to his engineering background and seeing the need for a reliable facility where factories could be set up, the Science Park of the Philippines Inc. (SPPI) was established in 1989. An industrial estate company, SPPI has been known for its Light Industry & Science Park projects in Laguna, Batangas, Bataan, and Cebu, which became a home to multinational companies such as NEC, NXP, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Pepsi.
As a testament to its pioneering efforts in developing industrial estates, SPPI has consistently received awards since 1998. These include Hall of Fame for Best Community Projects in 2001 and Hall of Fame for Outstanding Environmental Projects in 2008 by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA). It is also the first privately-owned industrial estate in the Philippines to obtain ISO 9001 for Quality Management System, and ISO 14001 for Environmental Management System. Moreover, it was granted the OHSAS 18001 for Occupational Health and Safety Management System.
Seeing that there’s a huge housing backlog especially in regional centers, Mr. Luchangco put up Pueblo de Oro Development Corporation in 1995, which developed township and residential projects in areas such as Sto. Tomas, Batangas; Lapu-Lapu, Cebu; and San Fernando, Pampanga.
To date, its largest project is a 360-hectare township in Cagayan de Oro. In 1996, The Pueblo de Oro Golf and Country Club Inc. was formed to develop a world-class golf course in the Cagayan de Oro township as designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr.
Pueblo de Oro had been consistently recognized as one of the top five best-performing developers in the Visayas region since 2014.
ICCP Group also formed the Manila Exposition Complex and partnered with the World Commerce Center Inc. to form the World Trade Center Management Inc. which holds the franchise from the World Trade Centers Association based in New York. This gave birth to the world-class Metro Manila World Trade Center, which has been hosting international exhibitions and conferences since its establishment in 1996.
ICCP, ICCP SBI Venture Partners, SPPI, Pueblo de Oro, and Manila Exposition Complex are ICCP Group’s major companies. However, the group also has subsidiary companies like property investment companies including Regatta Properties Inc. and Beacon Property Ventures that provide support to the aforementioned companies.
To date, as the Group celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, it has a total of 14 companies under its conglomeration. ICCP Group looks forward into expanding its portfolio of services in the next few years with the same company values.
“From the start, we set out to be known for three main characteristics which are integrity, ethics, and quality. We’ve carried on those three characteristics through the 30 years, and I think it served us in good stead because people now go to us because they know we have professionalism; we emphasize quality in our work; and also that we have integrity,” Mr. Luchangco said.
