First Balfour celebrates 50 yearsFIRST Balfour, one of the leading engineering and construction companies in the Philippines, held a special ceremony on November 28 to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Then known as the Philippine Engineering & Construction Corporation (PECCO), the company began as a spinoff of the former power plant and design unit of Meralco in 1969. By 1976, PECCO became known as Engineering & Construction Corporation of Asia (ECCO-Asia), signaling its expansion into power transmissions, oil refineries and industrial plants. A series of name changes spanning almost a decade was capped off with the emergence of First Balfour in 2004.

First Balfour president Anthony L. Fernandez credits the company’s long-standing success to its capabilities system.

“This milestone is no small feat but I believe 50 years is just the result of having a strong and established capabilities system. While strengthening our core engineering and construction capabilities, we have also developed adjunct capabilities, including heavy equipment rental (T1 Rentals), geothermal drilling (ThermaPrime) and concrete and aggregates (Torreverde).”

Today, First Balfour is considered a bigger scale contractor that can jointly underwrite large engineering, procurement and construction or EPC contracts. Its services now cover a much wider range of markets, such as power and energy, transport infrastructure, highvalue buildings and water infrastructure.

Among its most recent prominent projects are the civil works and electrical network for Southeast Asia’s largest wind farm, Burgos Wind Farm; the North extension of LRT 1 completed in 2010 and the line’s ongoing rehabilitation; the design and construction of modern data centers for the Philippine Statistics Authority, ePLDT and Globe Telecom; and the upgrade of Luzon’s largest man-made reservoir, the N. Domingo water reservoir.

“The demands of a growing nation like the Philippines are evident in infrastructure that’s bursting at the seams and barely keeping up with our people’s needs. First Balfour is in position to help alleviate these gaps in collaboration with many of you, our partners, who are always ready to develop projects that rise to these challenges,” said First Philippine Holdings Corporation chairman Federico R. Lopez in his keynote.

The anniversary event gathered those who have been instrumental to the growth of the company over the past years including its valued clients, key business partners, top suppliers and government officials, among others.

The Orchestra of the Filipino Youth, a Lopez-supported orchestra of music scholars, rendered a 40-minute performance under the baton of maestro Joshua Dos Santos.

For more information, visit www.firstbalfour.com.