(15 December 2017. Pasay City, Philippines) The SM Group bagged six corporate awards from Hong Kong magazine, The Asset, led by SM Investments Corporation (SM) which received the Platinum Award for Excellence in Environment, Social and Corporate Governance for the ninth year in a row.
Also cited as Platinum awardees are SM’s banking arm BDO Unibank, Inc. and property conglomerate SM Prime Holdings Inc. which have been awarded in this category for the 8th consecutive year.
SM also clinched the Best Investor Relations Team under The Asset Corporate Awards for a second year.
It also received an award for Best Initiatives in Social Responsibility for its Technical Vocational education initiative. SM, through SM Foundation, designates a significant amount of its social investments in education by building public school buildings and providing college and technical-vocational education scholarships. It sees technical-vocational education as a practical alternative to a college education for the youth to acquire skills and find livelihood sooner to help lift their families out of poverty. In 2016, it expanded its efforts by providing 1,000 technical-vocational scholarship grants to its partner schools.
It also won an award for Best Initiatives in Diversity and Inclusion for its initiatives on Women and Senior Citizens in Leadership Roles. SM recognizes the role of women in their families, communities and in nation-building and encourages and invests in the development of women’s leadership skills. SM also engages senior citizens in leadership roles in the company to help steer its direction and serve as mentors to its succession planning.
Mr. Franklin Gomez, Senior Vice President for Finance at SM received the awards on behalf of the company and its units at a gala dinner hosted at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong Wednesday night.
The Asset Corporate Awards are the longest-running ESG awards in Asia bestowed annually by research house, Asset Benchmark Research (ABR). The Platinum, Gold and Titanium awards offer a rigorous benchmarking service for the region’s listed firms.
The assessment is based on an online questionnaire submission made by the company and the supplementary information they provide. Factors that are taken into consideration range from an evaluation of financial performance, management, corporate governance, social and environmental responsibility and investor relations.
About SM Investments Corporation
SM Investments Corporation is a leading Philippine company that is invested in market-leading businesses in retail, banking, and property. It also invests in ventures that can capture high growth opportunities in the emerging Philippine economy. It looks for market leaders or those with the potential to become leaders in their chosen sectors that offer synergies and attractive returns and cashflows.
SM’s retail operations are the country’s largest and most diversified with its food, non-food and specialty retail stores. SM’s property arm, SM Prime Holdings, Inc., is the largest integrated property developer in the Philippines with interests in malls, residences, offices, hotels and convention centers as well as tourism-related property developments. SM’s interests in banking are in BDO Unibank, Inc. (BDO), the country’s largest bank and China Banking Corporation (China Bank), the 7th largest bank.
For more about SM, visit smicweb.smicit.com