The Company was granted a 40-year legislative franchise to operate international and domestic air transport services in 1991. Cebu Pacific commenced its scheduled passenger operations in 1996 with its first domestic flight from Manila to Cebu. International operations began in 2001 with flights from Manila to Hong Kong.  The Company’s common stock was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on October 26, 2010, through an initial public offering (IPO). As of 30 September 2020, JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (“JG Summit”) is the largest shareholder of Cebu Pacific with a combined effective equity interest of 67.9%, of which 1.1% is held directly by JG Summit and the remaining 66.8% is held via CP Air Holdings, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of JG Summit. Free float is c. 32.1%, made up of both Filipino and foreign investors.

With a history tracing to 1957 and headquartered in Manila, JG Summit is one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines with business interests in air transportation (Cebu Pacific), banking (Robinsons Bank), food manufacturing (Universal Robina Corporation), hotels, petrochemicals (JS Summit Petrochemicals and JG Summit Olefins), power generation Meralco and Global Business Power, publishing, real estate and property development (Robinsons Land Corporation), and telecommunications. Incorporated on November 1990, it was founded by John Gokongwei Jr., as the holding company for  this group of companies. JGS was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1993 and is controlled by the Gokongwei family.

The Company has invited IFC and the IFC Asset Management Company Emerging Asia Fund to participate in the capital raise of US$500 million of equity-linked instruments to local and international investors, including to the Company’s majority owner, JG Summit.

The proposed IFC investment to the Company consists of an equity-linked investment of up to US$125million in the form of convertible bond or other similar instrument. The proposed investment includes the potential mobilization of financing from IFC Asset Management Company Emerging Asia Fund.

The Company is headquartered in Manila and the Project is located in Philippines. The Company, as of 2019, flew to 38 domestic destinations and 25 international destinations, through from seven strategically placed hubs: Manila, Cebu, Clark, Kalibo, Iloilo, Davao, and Cagayan de Oro.                                                   

The governance risk to development impact is deemed to be low as the Company aligns with Philippine Stock Exchange listing rules and IFC, as a shareholder, will continually encourage high standards of governance.                                                   

This is a Category A project according to IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability due to risks normally associated to significant retrenchment, which in this case was caused by the COVID-19 crisis, and the corresponding planning and management of the process by the Company.  Otherwise, air transport is a highly regulated industry that has well-established policies and procedures for managing ESHS performance of accredited carriers such as Cebu Pacific.