Gokongwei-led firms, Megaworld join Fortune list of best SEA employers

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December 3, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Gokongwei-led firms and property giant Megaworld are among the six Philippine companies that made it to Fortune’s top 100 companies to work for in Southeast Asia.

The inaugural Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For-Southeast Asia 2025 ranks organizations that excel in performance and in creating outstanding workplaces.

Companies recognized in the list have employees “who trust their employers, take pride in what they do and enjoy their colleagues.”

To qualify, companies must be “Great Place To Work-Certified” and employ at least 200 people in Southeast Asia.

A total of six firms from the Philippines entered the list, led by Balibago Waterworks System, one of the largest privately owned provincial water distributors in the Philippines, at No. 24.

Two Gokongwei-led firms followed, with Robinsons Hotels and Resorts at No. 35 and Universal Robina Corp. (URC) at No. 44.

Robinsons Hotels and Resorts is a diversified hotel group with six homegrown brands and four international brands in its portfolio. It has 31 hotels in 20 locations, with 5,100 room keys.

URC, meanwhile, is a food and beverage company that produces iconic brands such as Great Taste, C2 Cool & Clean, Piattos, Maxx candy and Cream-O cookies.

The company also has significant and growing presence in ASEAN, with Lexus, Tivoli and Fun-O among its leading regional brands.

URC was recently named one of Asia’s Best Companies to Work For by HR Asia for a third straight year and has also received top marks from an Asia-based talent and employer branding firm for its recruitment program.

Coming in at No. 90 on the list is Megaworld, one of the largest real estate companies in the country, with total assets reaching around half a trillion pesos as of end-September.

Megaworld has 36 township developments all over the country and a land bank covering about 7,000 hectares.

Completing the Filipino companies that made the list are Infinit-O Philippines Inc. at No. 93 and PeoplePartners Inc. at No. 96.

Infinit-O is a private company engaged in business process optimization for small and medium businesses in the financial services, health care and technology sectors, while PeoplePartners is a private firm that helps businesses through innovative people solutions.

Overall, the DHL Group topped the list, followed by Hilton Worldwide Holdings at No. 2 and Capella Hotels & Resorts at No. 3. Completing the top five are Cisco Systems and Coats Group.

The inaugural Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list is based entirely on confidential employee feedback gathered by Great Place to Work.

Great Place to Work is the data scientist behind the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list and other respected benchmarks.

Fortune said that the assessment examines how well companies build trust, fairness and purpose, and how consistently these values are lived across teams and markets.

It said that this year’s list draws on the voices of 1.3million employees from over 450 companies across a diverse array of industries in Southeast Asia.

According to Fortune, data shows differences across Southeast Asia’s many markets.

In Indonesia and Singapore, it said that employees prize integrity and transparency in leadership, while employees want a voice in decision-making and clear expectations from management in Malaysia.

Employee well-being and appreciation for their work, meanwhile, take center stage in the Philippines and Vietnam.

“But despite these differences, the message across Southeast Asian workplaces is the same: Integrity, inclusion and respect are what makes a thriving workplace,” Fortune said.