ANGLO PHILIPPINE HOLDINGS CORPORATION Home

ANGLO

PHILIPPINE HOLDINGS CORPORATION

A Holding Company for Investments in Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Property Development

THE COMPANY IN RETROSPECT- The Fifties and Sixties

ANGLO-PHILIPPINE OIL CORPORATION

The year was 1958 and the Philippines, with then President Carlos P. Garcia at the helm, was in the midst of what many would consider as one of the best decades of the country’s economic history, then second only to Japan in Asia in terms of economic performance. In June of that year, a group of prominent Filipino businessmen and an enterprising American executive formed Anglo-Philippine Oil Corporation to engage in the highly speculative but very promising business of oil exploration. Messrs. Andres Soriano, Jr., Francisco Ortigas, Sr. and Ernesto Rufino Sr., with their American partner, Howard Hick, were the original incorporators and board members, with Mr. Hick managing the Company’s operations.

Company founders Andres Soriano, Jr. (seated, extreme left); Howard R. Hick (seated, second from right); Ernesto Rufino, Sr. (standing, second from left); and Francisco Ortigas, Sr. (standing, extreme right) witness the signing of a petroleum concession contract granted to the Company in the late 1950s by the Philippine Government, as represented by then Secretary Juan de G. Rodriguez of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

In 1959, the Company opened itself to public ownership by listing its shares on the Manila Stock Exchange. The proceeds of the initial public offering enabled the Company to become one of the most active players in the Philippine oil exploration industry at the time. Numerous drillings were conducted in various parts of the country, such as Cagayan Province, Cebu, Cotabato, Davao, Panay and Mindoro, under petroleum concession contracts granted by the Government through the Bureau of Mines. The oil exploration ventures of the company lasted for more than a decade, although without commercial success.

Group photo of the technical staff of Anglo-Philippine Oil Corporation taken in the late 1950s. Shown seated, second from left, is Walter W. Brown, then a junior geologist of the Company. Dr. Brown, who holds a doctorate in geology from Stanford University is now Chairman and CEO of Philex Mining Corporation, the country's largest producer of gold and copper.

The Seventies and Eighties (click here ...)