Yuchengco group upbeat about recovery

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/

The Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC) has said it is poised to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the back of its “resourcefulness and creativity.”

In a statement on Monday, the conglomerate said its capacity to recover would depend on its banking, education, life and nonlife insurance, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and property services subsidiaries, which continued to operate amid state-imposed quarantine measures.

“If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us in YGC, it’s that our concerted resourcefulness and creativity will pull us all through,” House of Investments (HI) President Lorenzo Tan said in the statement.

One of its companies, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., has begun offering innovative services to meet the demands of the new normal, including its DiskarTech app, which aims to make banking transactions simpler.

The lender has also enhanced its mobile app and is set to introduce an end-to-end online account opening facility soon.

HI continues to search for new opportunities, with Chief Operating Officer Gema Cheng saying the “second half of the year is a catch-up period from the losses incurred during the months when we couldn’t operate.”

“Even during the lockdowns, we continued to explore opportunities and fine-tune our business development plans. We are not looking for what’s trending, but rather what will benefit us for the long-term,” she added.

Student applications and actual enrollment figures of schools under HI showed “encouraging progress” as of end-July.

One of them, Malayan Colleges Mindanao, saw a 74-percent increase in the number of its applicants after waiving its admission fee and entrance exams.

“With four more weeks before [the] deadline of enrollment, the institution has already tallied a 4-percent growth versus [that in] the previous school year,” YGC said.

Another, Mapúa University, posted a 51-percent rise in the number of applications because of an online application and examination system.

But despite this, YGC expects a slight decline in actual enrollment.

Construction unit EEI Corp. is expected to recover its losses in the coming months, Cheng said, “because we have resumed work on our backlogs, with new projects lined up. That means we might have to call back our crew who went home to their provinces and perhaps hire more.”