Australian financial firm Macquarie Group Ltd has committed to increase its investments in the Philippines in digitalization, renewable energy, and mining.
President Marcos Jr. yesterday received the executives of Macquarie led by managing director and chief executive officer Shemara Wikramanayake on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-Australia in Melbourne.
The Macquarie Group has been operating in the Philippines for over 15 years with more than 1,000 direct employees through Macquarie Offshore Services, which supports the company’s global business across operations, finance, technology and risk management.
The Group operates in 34 markets, specializing in resources, agriculture and commodities, energy and infrastructure, with particular knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region.
Wikramanayake said Macquarie is very interested in investing in the country due to its demographic profile for having “a young and growing population,” which is “a bigger opportunity in terms of growth and organization” of their company in the Philippines.
“We certainly invest in digitization and we invest in energy transition and in mining and building bigger advisory businesses,” she said.
Wikramanayake said at present, the Macquarie Group provides sufficient funds not only in the US and Europe, but also in Southeast Asia and they are “keen” about working with the Philippines.
“What we’re keen to do is to partner with Southeast Asia particularly with places like the Philippines, which are proving to be very good to create that environment for the pension savers money here. To bring capital to health, investing in infrastructure, etc.,” she added.
The Board of Investments has granted a green lane certificate for the 1.3 gigawatt floating solar project in Laguna Lake, which Macquarie Group is financing.
In 2012, Macquarie won a bid to manage the P25 billion Philippines Investment Alliance for Infrastructure partnership with the Government Service Insurance System.
The Macquarie Asset Management (MAM)-led consortium also acquired a majority stake in the Philippines’ largest renewable energy company in 2017 to 2018 — the Energy Development Corp. which manages 1.5 gigawatts Wof renewable energy generation capacity.