Tag: SM Investments

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SM Group receives 12 Stevie® Awards for reporting and community programs

The SM Group received 12 Stevie Awards at the 2026 International Business Awards, recognizing both parent-company reporting and programs delivered through its malls and communities.

The SM Group’s parent company, SM Investments Corporation, received four awards. It received Gold Stevie Awards in the Conglomerates (Large) and Best Annual Report (Publicly Held Corporations) categories for its 2025 Integrated Report.

Its 2025 Sustainability Report was awarded Bronze for Best Sustainability Report. The SM Sustainability School was also awarded Bronze in the Asia, Australia, and New Zealand Sustainability Initiative of the Year category.

“Clear reporting provides investors and other stakeholders with a better understanding of how we make decisions, manage the business, and plan for the long term,” stated Frederic C. DyBuncio, President and CEO of SM Investments. “The other awards demonstrate how our businesses carry that same sense of responsibility into the communities they serve.”

That work can be seen in the eight awards received by SM Supermalls.

“People experience a mall based on what they do there, not what we say about it,” SM Supermalls President Steven T. Tan explained. “A place to read, an event that promotes local art, or a program that makes the mall more user-friendly can all make a tangible difference in a community.”

The Philippine International Pyromusical Competition won Gold for Brand Experience of the Year (Consumer), while the Find Your SM campaign took Silver in the same category.

The SM Green Movement received Silver for Achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility. The SM Cares Coastal Cleanup initiative received Silver for Environmental Achievement, and SM Cares: A Mall for All received Silver for Diversity and Inclusion.

The SM Cares Book Nook won Bronze for Most Innovative Creative Project. The program creates spaces in malls for people to read and share books. The Empowering Communities campaign was also named the Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

SM Mindanao Art received Bronze in the Corporate and Community (Community Engagement Event) category, bringing Mindanaoan artists and their work to a wider audience.

Over 300 business professionals participated in two months of judging. Winners were determined based on their average scores.

The International Business Awards, now in their 23rd year, honor organizations, executives, entrepreneurs, and teams worldwide.

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Innovation For Good: From Malls to School Halls

Just a few short years after the first SM mall opened its doors, its founder Mr. Henry Sy Sr’s vision extended beyond one establishment. The chain of malls would come later. When SM City North EDSA opened in 1985, the vision was clear: people’s access to products is important but Filipinos’ access to quality education is priceless.

In 1991, Mr. Sy turned his vision into a reality through a milestone partnership between SM Foundation, Inc. and IBM Philippines. This collaboration led to the establishment of Asia Pacific College (APC), embodying the timeless adage: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

“Right from the start, the vision was very clear—it was inclusivity, said APC President Dr. Teresita ‘Tata’ Medado.” “Quality education should be available to all and this was APC’s way of helping the youth to be competitive IT professionals for the industry.”

The SM group emphasized this commitment to inclusivity when the company insisted that APC operate as a non-profit and non-stock institution.

It was the ‘90s, and the boom of the information technology (IT) sector was in full swing. Countless theorizing and key innovators have alluded to interconnectivity beyond anyone’s imagination. Encapsulated in APC’s core values of industry, integrity and innovation, it became the College’s mission to educate students to become world-class with a strong IT-based foundation.

Today, APC continues its legacy of providing quality education, earning a perfect QS 5-star rating in four categories: inclusivity through a wide array of scholarships; online learning via Hyflex (Hybrid-Flexible), which emphasizes empathy, equity, and engagement; flexible teaching methods; and, employability, with 92.8% of graduates securing key positions in the industry. QS Stars is a world university rating system which was developed to give educational institutions an opportunity to showcase their strengths.

The institution has upheld its legacy of inclusivity, supporting 9,300 scholars: 7,000 from public schools, 1,000 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP), and over 1,300 from SM Foundation. Overall, APC provides scholarship support to 80% of its students, with PHP 9 million awarded in 2023 and a total of PHP 700 million in scholarships over the last 18 years.

What started with only a handful of around 15 students, today, APC has over 7,221 graduates.

Beyond SM’s scholarship program through its corporate foundation, its advocacy to promote quality education through APC also allows any accepted public-school student to pay only half of the posted tuition fee.

APC’s world-class students

Among these graduates is Mr. Rey Buyco, a former SM Scholar and cum laude graduate back in 2017. Mr. Buyco recalled that his journey, albeit tough, did not deter him from giving up on achieving his dream.

Looking back, Mr. Buyco shared how his mother and he had to sleep on a cardboard box along the streets of Manila when their home burned down (due to an accident near the firecracker store they used to own).

He also remembers when Mr. Sy used to attend APC’s general assembly.

“It was very inspiring for him to do that,” he added. “It goes to show that SM really wants to help us and ignited our passion to continue our studies.”

Mr. Buyco is currently based in London, England, as a senior qualified auditor for Ernst & Young.

APC’s excellence and impact to the IT industry marked another milestone with one of its alumni, Mr. Rom Gapuz, whose path to success was also supported by SM and APC. A couple of months ago, Mr. Gapuz achieved the feat of becoming the first Filipino to earn all 15 Amazon Web Services (AWS) certifications, including 3 already retired ones.

Mr. Gapuz and Mr. Buyco are only two of the many successful graduates of APC. In fact, from the graduating classes in 2020–2022, the employability rate of APC’s students is at 92.8% within 24 months from graduation.

“We are immensely proud of Rom and Rey,” said Dr. Medado. “Their journeys echo our core values of industry, integrity and innovation. Successes like these, with the likes of Rey and Rom, serve as inspirations not only to our students but also to us, their teachers.”

Championing education

With over 20 million enrollees this past school year (2023-2024) and classroom deficits reaching the thousands, the SM group continued its support to the educational facilities and capabilities of the country to address these challenges.

SM Foundation and SM Prime Holdings, Inc., together with the Department of Education (DepEd), partnered and have built 108 school buildings to date. With over 366 classrooms within these walls, the SM group has been able to serve 18,300 public school learners in single shift classes.

These initiatives helped close the gap between students and access to quality education, one school building at a time. As of end of 2023, the program was able to improve the average classroom-student ratio to 1:49 in schools where SM has built new buildings.

“APC was created 30-plus years ago to empower students with accessible, affordable, and quality education. Our mission stays the same today as we help more students realize their dreams,” Dr. Medado added.

Motivated by APC’s positive impacts on the education sector, Mr. Henry Sy Sr. was driven to further build on this advocacy of SM in championing education.

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SM Investments has been recognized as the most strong Philippine firm in Corporate Governance by HK magazine

Alpha Southeast Asia, a magazine located in Hong Kong, honored SM Investments Corporation at its 14th Institutional Investor Corporate Awards for having the strongest adherence to corporate governance of any Philippine company. Winners were chosen from among 586 investors and analysts from the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia, making it SM’s ninth triumph in the category.

According to Frederic C. DyBuncio, president and chief executive officer of SM Investments, “At SM, we uphold the highest standards of corporate governance in keeping with our commitment to attain shared value for our stakeholders—toward responsible and sustainable development for the communities we serve.”

For the thirteenth year in a row, SM Investments has won Best Strategic CSR and was also ranked among the top five performing businesses in Most Organized Investor Relations.

Participating in the Alpha Southeast Asia survey were equities and fixed-income brokers, as well as buy-and sell-side analysts, big institutional investors, insurance firms, pension funds, hedge fund funds, private banks, and fund managers with a focus on Southeast Asia. For this year’s ranking, we looked at 38 publicly-traded firms in Southeast Asia. These companies exemplified the very best in terms of CSR, dividend policy, financial management, investor relations, disclosure, transparency, and overall corporate governance.

About SM Investments Corporation

SM Investments Corporation is one of the leading Philippine companies that invests in market-leading businesses in retail, banking, and property. It also invests in ventures that capture high growth opportunities in the emerging Philippine economy.

SM’s retail operations are the country’s largest and most diversified, consisting of grocery stores, department stores and specialty retail stores. SM’s property arm, SM Prime Holdings, Inc., is the largest integrated property developer in the Philippines, with interests in malls, residences, offices, hotels, and convention centers, as well as tourism-related property developments. SM’s interests in banking are in BDO Unibank, Inc., the country’s largest bank, and China Banking Corporation, the fourth largest private domestic bank.

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SM Investments bags Best Environmental Excellence at Global CSR Awards

SM Investments Corporation (SM Investments), a leading conglomerate in the Philippines, clinched the Best Environmental Excellence Award (Bronze) in the recently concluded 15th Global Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Social Governance Summit and Awards held at Da Nang, Vietnam.

SM Investments was recognized for its sustainability initiatives across the group.

“We appreciate this award that recognizes SM’s efforts to operate as a steward of responsible economic and social development,” Frederic C. DyBuncio, SM Investments President and Chief Executive Officer, said.

SM’s sustainability efforts are consolidated under the SM Green Movement – a multi-year campaign that aims to make sustainability accessible to all by nurturing an ecosystem of stakeholders to live green in the easiest way possible.

This campaign covers the SM Group of companies including SM Investments, SM Supermalls, SM Store, and SM Foundation. The initiatives of the Green Movement focus on water recycling, waste segregation, renewable energy, disaster resilience, preservation and conservation, and building sustainable communities.

Dubbed Asia’s most prestigious recognition awards for Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG, the Global CSR & ESG Summit and Awards 2023 recognizes and honors companies for outstanding, innovative, and world-class implemented programs.

About SM Investments Corporation


SM Investments Corporation is a leading Philippine company that is invested in market-leading businesses in retail, banking, and property. It also invests in ventures that capture high growth opportunities in the emerging Philippine economy.

SM’s retail operations are the cuntry’s largest and most diversified with its food, non-food, and specialty retail stores. SM’s property arm, SM Prime Holdings, Inc., is the largest integrated property developer in the Philippines with interests in malls, residences, offices, hotels, and convention centers as well as tourism-related property developments. SM’s interests in banking are in BDO Unibank, Inc., the country’s largest bank, and China Banking Corporation, the fourth-largest bank by total assets among private banks.