Business Business News Dave Consunji keeps his word
Dave Consunji keeps his word
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- Published on Monday, 28 May 2012 00:00
- Written by AMADO P. MACASAET
By A Web design Company
At close to 91 years old, David M. Consunji, contractor, property developer and farmer among several professions, has kept something he believes is more important than money, his word. That he keep his promise is most important to him.
Dave set out to be on his own when he was a P700 -a month employee of Jose P. Marcelo. His billion-peso property empire started 60-odd years ago. The last of his projects as an employee was was a six-story building on the corner of Azcarraga and Juan Luna for a Lebanese named Majul.
By 1951, he won a P300,000 contract to build a Coca Cola plant in Leyte. His commitment to Don Andres Soriano was to finish construction in 18 months to two years.
In less than 12 months, he told Don Andres that the plant has been constructed. He told Don Andres to inspect it to see for himself if he complied with specifications.
Long before his ability as a civil engineer and contractor was noticed by Don Andres, David M. Consunji was working without pay as driver of his cousin Ricardo Consunji who owned Sta. Clara Construction. It was with his help that Sta. Clara was awarded a public project that cost P8,000. He and his cousin participated in the bidding of a Napocor project in 1946. By that time, Dave was getting P400 a month after he transferred to Kuenzle & Streif, a Swiss company managing Alhambra cigars.
In all of his professional life David never relied on public construction projects to make the business grow.
Still, it was DMCI which won the contract to build the PNB office on the Escolta and the DBP building when Gregorio Licaros was its chairman of the board.
Consunji did not exactly shun public construction but he thought he had enough friends whose respect he earned by the sweat of his brows and by keeping his word.
Little is known that Dave has an undying love for agriculture. Almost simultaneously with the establishment and successful operation of DMCI he set out to Davao City and with a capital of P161,000 started planting pomelos and durian among the more expensive commercial crops.
He also went into logging to produce materials similar to plywood for the construction company.,
Asked which gave his family bigger profits, Dave shook his head as if he did not know but gave us the impression that he was making money from all his ventures, agriculture included.
More money, estimated at P3 billion a year, is expected from the Semirara coal project in Zamboanga which he bought from the government after it lost around $2 billion in its many years of unsuccessful operation.
Dave is not afraid to walk into projects where others have failed. His mindset is that “if there is a problem there must be a solution”
He said he studied the volume and quality of the coal deposits, he found out it is not the best in the world but its BTU is high enough to fire a electricity generating plant.
Now he is using Semirara coal for a plant that will help ease power shortage in Mindanao. In his most serious tone, Dave intoned his adage about problems and solutions when questioned on the effect in the environment of coal-fired plants.
The DMCI Group has listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange 30 per cent of its 700 million outstanding shares. Based on last week’s closing of P60 per share, the company is worth close to P30 billion.
That’s a lot of money for a man who started working without pay for a civil-engineer cousin when Dave himself was already a licensed CE from the University of the Philippines.
The Consunji family delivers on its word. According to Elmer Civil, a civil engineer who works for DMCI Homes, the company pre-sells the bulk of its apartments at rates far higher than the market.
Yet, DMCI could not seem to build enough although its monthly cash flow is about P600 million.
Dave does not want to say a word about it as if in keeping with his other virtue of humility, but when DMCI Homes promises the buyers the units will be delivered in December, the buyers can move in by September or three months in advance.
That, to the officials and stockholders of DMCI, is how the company keeps in step with its competitors.
According to Dave, property development was not in the cards of DMCI as a construction company. But he had used a good portion of company profits to buy 120 hectares in Taguig.
Dave knew that value of land will always appreciate. It appreciates better if they are sold with apartment buildings standing on those prime properties. That is what DMCI continues to do.
Dave comes to the office at Pasong Tamo at about 9:00 in the morning. He scales two flights of steps from the ground floor with a walking stick. I did not see any man or woman who was dressed like a nurse when I went to see him for the interview.
