The Ayala Coop held its annual general assembly last April 23 at the Employees’ Canteen at Tower One in Makati, with members being informed of a dividend rate of 7.16 percent for 2014.

This represents a modest increase from the 7.08 percent rate declared in 2013, and augurs well for the more than 25,000 Coop members as of the end of 2014.

Coop Chairman Randy Maranan reported during the general assembly, which climaxed the series of annual meetings conducted by the Coop, that the Coop’s having had a “full plate” in 2014 did not prevent it from notching a number of trail-blazing accomplishments.  These included having come up with innovative products that benefitted more members and the completion of its membership and loans management system (MLMS) that would now make it easier for members to avail themselves of the Coop’s services.

Maranan said that such milestones resulted in the Ayala Coop’s having been recognized as No. 1 among Makati coops in net worth, top five in membership acquisition, and 14th among 23,600 coops in the country as well as 416 millionaire coops nationwide.

Treasurer’s report

The Coop’s treasurer, Romualdo Katigbak, reported to the assembly that the Coop breached the billion-peso mark in 2014 with P1.2 billion in loan portfolio, surpassing the previous year’s total of P989 million by 19 percent.  He also reported that the Coop’s assets grew by 14 percent to P1.6 billion from P1.4 billion over the same period while revenues rose by the same percentage to P178.4 million from P156.5 million.

Katigbak presented the Board’s proposed surplus distribution of 15 percent for reserves and 85 percent for dividend and patronage refund, using a ratio of 66:34 that’s similar to the previous year’s.  This resulted in the higher dividend rate and a patronage refund rate – 28.94 percent – that was also higher than the previous year’s 27.36 percent.

Earlier, Maranan was informed by Atty. Allan Osero, the Coop secretary, that out of 8,098 members in good standing with voting rights, a total of 3,910 members, or 48 percent of the total membership with such rights, attended the general assembly and 14 separate chapter meetings held nationwide from April 14 to 22, 2015.

Chapter meetings

Chapter meetings were held this year in various places like Bacolod, Batangas, Laguna, Cebu, Iloilo, Pampanga, Pangasinan, at Manila Water, Honda and Isuzu in Alabang, Globe Telecom and Bank of the Philippine Islands.

With an achieved quorum, the assembly proceeded with several businesses that needed its approval.  These included the reelection of Maranan himself, newly-appointed Ayala Foundation President Ruel Maranan and Atty. Elis Tanlapco of Ayala Corporation to another term in the Coop’s Board of Directors, the election of Ayala Aviation President Jaime Villegas, Leovigildo Abot of Ayala Land and Catherine Ang of AC to the Audit and Inventory Committee, and the reelection of incumbent chairman Aurelio Alonzo of BPI, Evangeline Bongon of the Auto Group and Nino Raneses of BPI to the Election Committee.

The assembly also ratified the Board’s resolution declaring that all acts and resolutions passed by it and the Executive Committee since the previous general assembly in 2014, including the distribution of net surplus, the 2015 budget and the 2015 development plans, are approved and confirmed.