JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (JGS), the flagship of the Gokongwei Group, is directly shouldering the debts of its petrochemicals subsidiary which will soon be letting go of its workers due to its two-year plant shutdown and possible disposal.

During the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting, JG Summit President and CEO Lance Y. Gokongwei said “we have stopped production in our petrochemical business since January of 2025 as approved by the JG summit board. The petrochemical plan will remain on a prolonged shutdown for at least two years.

“Given persistent challenges in the global petrochemical space, JG summit Olefins Corporation will also implement a manpower rationalization in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.

“In light of this, we have instituted an employee care program to aid affected individuals in this transition,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gokongwei said “we have proactively transferred all of JG Summit Olefins’ debts to the parent company, JG Summit Holdings...All these actions enable us to focus on preserving our assets in Batangas and on evaluating various strategic options for the business, while ensuring that all our obligations to our creditors are met.”

Henoted that, “we are confident that the decision to shut down our petrochemical plant will help improve the group's overall consolidated results compared to the previous year.

This is as cheaper oil prices, a stronger peso, lower interest rates, and easing inflation “all bode well for our businesses.”

The firm is optimistic that its revenues and core earnings will continue to improve this year although shutdown costs of its petrochemical plant took a sizeable bite out of profits.

“We are hopeful that the encouraging trends we are seeing in improving consumer sentiment brought about by the tempering inflation coupled with the favorable forex and oil prices will help accelerate demand and translate to better topline growth and improving margins for the balance of the year,” said Gokongwei.

He noted that, “We continue to build on the momentum brought about by the strategic interventions we have implemented in the second half of last year.

“This is evident across our core units in food, with its branded consumer foods business posting double digit volume growth, and airline, with strong passenger and cargo volumes in the recently concluded quarter.”

Gokongwei also cited that “Our new businesses in logistics and airport operations are now profit generating while we are seeing a very good trajectory for our digital bank to break-even in the near term.”