Gokongwei—president and CEO of JG Summit, one of the country’s biggest conglomerates—bought 159.5 million common shares and 93.8 million preferred shares of PhilWeb for 2 billion pesos ($33 million), the Manila-based company said in a stock exchange disclosure.

The acquisition of the common shares gives Gokongwei an initial 10% stake that could go up to 15% if all the redeemable preferred shares are converted, the company said. That will make Gokongwei the company’s second-largest shareholder, next only to PhilWeb chairman Crisanto Roy Alcid, who led a management buyout that bought 57.8% of the company last year from property tycoon Gregorio Araneta III, brother-in-law of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

PhilWeb, which has a market cap of 20.8 billion, operates 670 onsite eGames venues across the Philippines. It’s also a provider of infrastructure for online and offline gaming platforms and a distributor of gaming content.

Online gaming exploded in the Philippines following the broad adoption of mobile Internet gambling during the pandemic, turning education and port tycoon Eusebio Tanco’s Manila-based DigiPlus into an online gaming giant.

The Philippines generated 201 billion pesos in online gaming revenues last year, 51% of the country’s total gambling revenue and six times more than the 32.2 billion pesos the segment delivered in 2019 before the pandemic.

PhilWeb earlier this year forged strategic partnerships with brick-and-mortar casino operators Okada Manila and Hann Casino Resort to build and help manage their online gaming platforms. The company booked 13.9 million pesos in net income in the first quarter on sales of 233 million pesos.

While helming his family’s businesses, Gokongwei has been actively pursuing other ventures. Prior to his purchase of a stake in PhilWeb, Gokongwei has invested in Premiumbikes Corp., which distributes Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, TVS, and Kymco motorcycles across its 214 stores nationwide. Gokongwei sold Premiumbike to his family’s Robinsons Retail in July 2025 for 146.4 million pesos.

Gokongwei and his siblings have a combined net worth of $1.8 billion, according to the list of the

that was published by Forbes Asia in August last year. JG Summit, which was founded by their late father John Gokongwei, has interests in airlines, banking, food manufacturing, petrochemicals, power, real estate and telecommunications.