A barrio boy from Bulacan is set to become the country's newest and apparently youngest billionaire, thanks to the wonders of financial alchemy.
Fertilizer and feeds distributor Joseph Calata, 31, of barangay Banga 1st in Plaridel, will formally join the mythical 1 percent club this Wednesday when his company, Calata Corp., gets listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange with a starting market valuation of about P2.7 billion.
Calata's 60 percent stake in the eponymous company in turn translates to about P1.6 billion, a rarefied neighborhood that would make some of his Manila-based La Salle classmates green with envy.
In comparison, another business boy wonder, Edgar Sia II, was 33 in 2010 when he sold 70 percent of his Mang Inasal chicken chain to the listed Jollibee for P3 billion.
Known in the show business circles as the boyfriend of actress Nina Jose, Calata with his good looks and marketing flair -- he visits provincial branches in a suit even in the tropical heat -- parlayed the mom-and-pop store he inherited from his parents to become the leading distributor of agro-chemicals in the country.
From annual revenues of P200 million in 2003, Calata Corp. ended 2011 with P2 billion in combined sales.
"He is very focused and very knowledgeable about the market," said former Central Bank Governor Jaime Laya, when asked what secret sauce Calata had that earned him the trust of the San Miguel Corp. and be appointed as exclusive distributor for B-Meg Feeds in the region.
Laya sits in the Calata board as a director. along with a San Miguel veteran, George Nava.
Advised by Unicapital headed by former GMA7 chief executive Meynardo Jimenez Sr., Calata is raising a modest P270 million from the bourse, the proceeds of which he intends to build 100 retail branches in two years to expand his agro-business trading company.
He is also diversifying into hog and broiler growing business, taking a leaf from Thailand's richest man, Dhanin Chearavanont, who transformed the chicken feed dealership he inherited from his family into what is now the agribusiness giant Charoen Pokhand.
And like San Miguel boss Ramon Ang, Calata is apparently smitten with flying, having formed an aircraft leasing company, Calata Air Inc., as a side venture.
But that, as they say, is another story.
source: interaksyon.com
