Ayala scion Jaime Alfonso Zobel de Ayala to lead AC Motors Group

It seems there are some very interesting happenings over at Ayala’s automobile arm: AC Motors Group.

Rumors are about of a change in distributorship in their favor for a promising Chinese automobile brand, but we’ll weigh in on that at another time. Instead, we will be talking about something happening at the very top of AC Motors Group.

Ayala Corporation has disclosed that there is a change of officers happening in their Corporate Strategy Group, and that they are appointing Mark Robert H. Uy to that position. However, they also stated that he will be succeeding the Jaime Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, and that the younger Ayala is resigning to take up the position as head of AC Motors Group.

There were no specifics yet on the appointment, but it is certainly interesting that AC Motors Group will have 32-year-old Jaime Alfonso to lead them. He is the son of Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) and Elizabeth Eder. JAZA is the current chairman of Ayala Corporation (AC) and many other Ayala-founded companies such as Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, and AC Industrials Technology Holdings.

While the Ayala brand may be generally known for its operations in banking, telecommunications, energy, real estate, and retail, they also have a very wide automotive portfolio under AC Motors, AC Industrials and AC itself.

AC Motors Group is organized under AC Industrials Technology Holdings. The company owns and operates various automobile dealerships such as Honda, Volkswagen, Isuzu, Kia, KTM and Maxus. AC Motors is also the official distributor of Kia, Volkswagen, KTM (they assemble some models here) and Maxus in the Philippines. Parent company AC Industrials has a 12.5% stake in Honda Cars Philippines (HCPI) and AC has a stake of 15% in Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC).

Time will tell what new directions AC Motors Group will take now that they have the younger Ayala at the helm… or steering wheel. But it seems there are more things cooking with AC Motors Group, and we’ll report on it when the details are all set.