[Acknowledgements]
Ladies and gentlemen, magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) congratulates Monde Nissin Corporation on its Initial Public Offering Listing today. With the ringing of the bell at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), you are now truly a global public company, raising more than USD 1B from this IPO—the biggest public offering so far in the country.
We would also like to thank Monde Nissin for doing the IPO at this time as it underlines investors’ confidence in the Philippine economy despite the current pandemic.
Monde Nissin has always produced brands loved by Filipinos over the past forty-two years of its operation. With your strong brand equity, growth track record, and a wide set of portfolios of iconic brands across fast-growing categories, it’s not surprising that you pose as a good investment opportunity globally.
Your amazing growth story presently serves as an inspiration for our country’s business sector. Founded in 1979, you started with first-year revenues of less than USD 100K, and now you’ve managed to grow the business to a USD 5B company, and that is amazing!
Likewise, many of your brands are household names in the Philippines—like Lucky Me! Noodles, Sky Flakes Crackers, and Fita Crackers—and some more are growing to become one, like the Monde baked goods, and the Quorn meat alternative products.
Your “Lucky Me!” anchor product started in 1989 as a distant third behind global instant noodle brands in the local market before achieving the No. 1 market position in a P38B noodle industry. And based on Kantar’s global brand footprint research, this brand is present in 95% of Filipino households and is the most chosen brand by Filipinos!
Wow, 95%! I am sure, the envy of many brands.
Last year, “Lucky Me!” had also cornered 68% of the local market. This shows that the “Lucky Me!” brand has become a well-loved staple in every Filipino home for the past 32 years.
Monde Nissin’s listing today shows that there is light at the end of tunnel. Despite the recent community quarantine lockdowns, we see that the economy is still on track for a V-shaped recovery with macroeconomic indices pointing towards an overall improved investment climate for 2021.
Our unemployment rate has decreased to 7.1%, and the PMI indices have managed to hurdle the 50-point index. Our exports are up 31.6% year-on-year, faster even than the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
We know that there is a strong basis for investors’ confidence in our economy, given our expected recovery this year with 5-6% growth and with the accelerated vaccine rollout this second semester.
Likewise, our economy still exhibits solid fundamentals with a 110M population, that has a demographic sweet spot, with an average young age of 24 years old. And that means more productive years ahead of them that should serve as a rich pool of manpower resources needed for growth, as well as a continuously growing consumer base with increasing income and purchasing power.
As we manage through the pandemic, the leadership of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte still gives priority to the needed economic reforms that will future-proof the Philippines. As we speak, Congress has accelerated the deliberation on the bills certified urgent by the President.
Recently passed was the Corporate Recovery and Tax incentives for Enterprises (or CREATE) Act, a game-changing law on tax reform, with a more meaningful set of investment incentives that will promote more modern and innovation-oriented industrial capacities. This is a game-changing reform led by the Department of Finance (DOF) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), together with DTI and other agencies.
Together with a very aggressive infrastructure development program, these strategic reforms will certainly create a better business climate for companies like Monde Nissin and even for the millions of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to prosper.
This should bring in more investments, jobs, and income—leading to a better quality of life for the Filipino people.
Again, we congratulate Monde Nissin on your IPO and we thank you for serving the Filipino people all these years.
Maraming salamat po at mabuhay tayong lahat! ♦
Date of Release: 02 June 2021