A tale of two dragons

Two men, a generation apart, wore the same sign, the luckiest of all. It’s a sign that carried them all the way from their faraway childhood hometown to the helm of their growing empire.

They lived the same success story, though at separate times, and both were destined to be great. The sign knew it from the beginning — it was written in the fire that it spewed and visible in its reptilian scale.

And the two were destined to meet; the sign said so. Such meeting would come one fateful day in an airport lounge, somewhere between time and space.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The older man is Tony Tan Caktiong, founder of Jollibee, the younger man is Injap Sia II, the man behind Mang Inasal. They were both born under the Chinese dragon sign, a symbol of power and good luck for people worthy of it.

 They are partners in DoubleDragon, a property company that is finding its own place in an industry dominated by giants.

I sat down recently with Sia in his new office in the sprawling Double Dragon Plaza in Pasay and asked if the partnership is indeed as solid as it seems.

After all, the two were not spared from nasty rumors when market talk last year said they were on the verge of breaking up.

“It’s been tried and tested. We complement each other,” Sia says, dismissing the buzz.

It helped a lot that they both have similar journeys – building a company from scratch and turning it into a giant.

“We both know the two sides – entrepreneurship and management. We both know the three phases in a business – start-up, transition and maturity,” he says.

And believe it or not, for the two giants, money is not the core reason they’re in business.

“The fulfillment comes from having a single idea and making it work,” Sia says.

Indeed, the success stories of these two men are similar, yet different, and their sign has guided them. But luck is just one part, Sia says. The more important secrets to success are hard work, perseverance, and good will.

Now, the partnership is as strong as can be. Sia likened it to a successful marriage.

DoubleDragon is on track to having 100 CityMalls by 2020. These small community malls are introducing modern retail in tier 3 provinces all over the country and there are now 25 CityMalls.

The office space business is, likewise, doing well with the whole DD Meridian Park complex in various stages of completion of 280,000 square meters of leasable space.

So far, DoubleDragon has been able to keep its targets and promises. I wouldn’t be surprised if like Jollibee and Mang Inasal, this too would disrupt an industry that is already dominated by giants.

In Chinese mythology, the dragon is the most power creature. Legend has it that they are the wisest of all, older than time itself.

With the two men guided by their auspicious sign and armed with the value of hard work, they have nowhere to go but to even greater heights.

Will the Campos family finally list its businesses?

Speaking of successful businesses, the Campos family’s empire in Pasig, has been the target of investment bankers for decades now.

United Laboratories Inc. (Unilab) has been the dream IPO for stock market investors and so is Greenfield Development Corp.

But the family has successfully kept away from the spotlight, to the frustration of investment bankers who have been courting them to list Unilab and Greenfield.

Both companies are doing well and have been profitable for years now.

Greenfield, for instance, is launching a new high-end subdivision on a 30-hectare property in Sta. Rosa, Laguna in the first quarter of the year.

Will they ever list?

An official privy to the matter said that despite the advantages of being a listed company, the Campos family just doesn’t want that and prefers to keep their business family-owned.

 Unilab is an empire in itself and does not need to raise capital from the market.

As one source said in jest, if there’s any funding requirement the Campos family needs, the sales of just one of its products are more than enough.

“Biogesic can take care of it,” said once source.

‘President Rodrigo sounded like Frank Sinatra’ - Trump

It’s cold in the US now. The thermometer reads seven degrees; even colder at night. But the relations between Manila and Washington are warming up. The country’s envoy to the US, Ambassador Jose “Babe” Romualdez has buckled down to work.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim posted on Twitter a photo of Romualdez getting settled in D.C. Kim says he looks forward to working with Romualdez.

 And when President Trump welcomed Romualdez at the White House last week, he talked about his warm encounter with “President Rodrigo.”

“I was extremely pleased with my conversation with President Trump. He truly appreciated President Duterte’s warm welcome and the gala dinner where the President sung. He jokingly told me, ‘President Rodrigo sounded like Frank Sinatra!’” Romualdez says.