Ferrari Reopens in the Philippines Under Billionaire Ramon Ang's Group

Ferrari—for some the pinnacle of automotive engineering and craftsmanship—is officially back in the Philippines through a group owned and managed by billionaire Ramon Ang. 

Velocita Motors, which is a unit under Ang’s San Miguel Corporation, has been appointed the authorized importer and distributor of the ultra-luxury brand in the country. The appointment has been an open secret for many motoring insiders for months but was finally made official through a simple gathering at the new Ferrari showroom along EDSA near the intersection with Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong City on Friday (September 1).

Velocita Motors Inc Chairman and President Ramon Ang with Dieter Knechtel, President of Ferrari Far East and Middle East

Photo by Velocita Motors Inc.

“I’ve known Mr. Ang for many years and I have a very keen knowledge about the fact that he’s a successful businessman,” said Dieter Knechtel, president of Ferrari Far East and Middle East during a short briefing. “And he’s a true car guy. He has a true passion for Ferrari. And that’s already a good combination. We wanted to have a strong partner who lives up to this passion, who can represent the brand properly and bring it up to new levels in the market.”

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Ferrari was previously distributed in the Philippines—along with other luxury car brands like Maserati, Jaguar, and Land Rover—by Autostrada Motore, a company majority owned and managed by businessman Wellington Soong. In 2019, Knechtel himself announced that the distributorship had been handed over to Dennis Uy, who had initially come onboard as investor and business partner of Soong in Autostrada Motore. Uy’s company was called Motostrada Inc. 

Uy is perhaps best-known for chairing the Udenna Group, which counts among its many businesses oil retailer Phoenix Petroleum, the Family Mart chain of convenience stores, hospitality school Enderun, restaurant chains Wendy’s and Conti’s, as well as third telco Dito.

Less than four years later, Knechtel is turning the keys over, so to speak, to another distributor. But something tells us this time, it’s going to stick. 

I ask how many cars the brand is targeting to sell, given how, during a previous interview in the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy, a brand representative said that, for a small market like the Philippines, moving six or seven units was considered good business.

Ramon Ang meets a select group of journalists at the Velocita Motors Inc. showroom

Photo by PJ Cana.

“We have much more potential and much more expectation than just six or seven cars per year,” Knechtel says. “That’s not a very good business case anywhere. So even if the Philippines is one of the smaller markets, we still have expectations to outperform and to exploit the potential. We believe there is a huge potential that was not always properly addressed in the past.

“Ferrari has a long, long history in the Philippines,” he adds. “It’s not that we have sold so many cars, but we have been here for decades. The first Ferrari imported into Asia was actually to the Philippine, back in the early 1950s. So it’s not a new brand in the market. But we need to elevate the brand experience and do much better.”

Ang joins the briefing a little while later. Immediately he starts talking about his love for the brand, and how, even if a considerable number of Ferraris currently on the road in the Philippines were acquired in the gray market, the units would be welcome in the local Ferrari service center for repairs and regular maintenance. VMI said it is close to completing a flagship building along Connecticut Street in San Juan that will include the permanent Ferrari showroom and full-service facilities. 

And, to demonstrate his knowledge of the Ferrari lineup, Ang proceeds to identify one by one the photos of the Ferrari cars mounted behind him and Knechtel—from the 1975 Daytona Spyder, the 412, the 1967 275 GTB4, to the LaFerrari, 458 Speziale, and the SF90.

Asked if he pursued the distributorship of Ferrari even though he already owns the distributorship in the Philippines of another premium car brand—BMW—Ang says he couldn’t have even if he wanted to. 

Launched at the event was the Ferrari Purosangue

Photo by PJ Cana.

“You can’t really do that,” he says. Ferrari invites you to pitch. You can’t just go and apply. You wait for an invite from them. If they don’t invite you, sorry.”

“We don’t have to be in every market,” Knechtel adds. “We only go to the markets where we believe can truly embrace the probability of this proposition, and the Philippines is one of them, of course.” 

At the launch, the big reveal was the arrival in the Philippines of Ferrari’s first-ever “SUV.” The Purosangue is the Italian brand’s first ever four-door four-seater and possesses a 6.5-liter V12 engine.

Don’t get your hopes up if you’re planning to walk into the showroom and expect to drive out with the Purosangue. Officials say the wait time for unit deliveries could take at least a year, probably even more for the Purosangue as it’s seeing incredible demand worldwide. And don’t forget, there’s no such thing as a pre-made Ferrari: every car is made-to-order.