Singapore's Ikhlas Capital Eyes Further Philippine Investments in AI, Cold Chain

MANILA, Philippines — After betting on the Philippines’ cold chain logistics and banking sectors, Singapore-based Ikhlas Capital is scouting for its next investments, including opportunities with Filipino conglomerates. In an exclusive interview with The STAR, Ikhlas founding partners said the company is entering the next phase of its Philippine investment push as it advances its broader regional growth strategy. “Given that we’ve just raised our second fund, we are looking for more opportunities here in the Philippines,” Ikhlas chairman and founding partner Nazir Razak said. Razak said the firm is exploring potential partnerships with all conglomerates while also looking to support the Philippines’ efforts to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) adoption. Beyond providing capital, Ikhlas sees its role as helping businesses unlock their regional potential as they expand their reach across Southeast Asia. “You can imagine a good business here in the Philippines that wants to go to Indonesia and wants to expand to Malaysia or Singapore,” Razak said. Ikhlas, a pan-Southeast Asian private equity growth platform with former finance secretary Cesar Purisima as a founding partner, has raised $370 million for its latest fund. Its first fund, which totaled about $250 million, supported at least eight investments across the region. As the global pandemic disrupted supply chains in 2020, Ikhlas invested roughly $18 million in Glacier Megafridge Inc. (GMI), one of the Philippines’ leading integrated cold chain logistics service providers. The company later expanded its Philippine footprint into banking, investing $21 million in Bank of Commerce, an affiliate of diversified conglomerate Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Corp. “I think assessing the entrepreneur itself is a big part of the investment strategy. Scaling up, obviously, follows the potential of the business,” Ikhlas CEO and founding partner Kenny Kim said when asked how the company evaluates potential investments. GMI, for one, reflects Ikhlas’ strategy of backing businesses with strong growth potential. Ikhlas, Kim noted, saw an opportunity in the country’s “fragmented” cold chain industry, which became even more critical during the pandemic as the movement of essential goods continued despite mobility restrictions. “So it became more of a lifeline business because when humans couldn’t move, the goods had to continue moving,” he added. Kim, Razak, Purisima and another Ikhlas partner, former Indonesian trade minister Gita Wirjawan, made a courtesy call to Malacañang this week. Joining them was Taiwanese AI expert Kai-Fu Lee. “We welcome Ikhlas Capital’s keen interest in investing in the Philippines’ AI future. It comes at the right time as we accelerate efforts to build more data centers, implement our national AI strategy and develop New Clark City as the country’s next AI hub,” Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said.