That ALD has a 20 per cent stake in Seaoil Philippines is often forgotten among the excitement of the New Zealand-based Z Energy takeover by Ampol:

https://www.seaoil.com.ph/

Apparently the market share of the two biggest petroleum distributors in Philippines, Petron and Shell, has been declining. I'm unsure why.

Seaoil was ranked number four in the most recent media I could find, which was a bit dated. By October 2021, Seaoil had 600 retail petrol stations, with the aim of 1000 by an unspecified 2023 date.

About 63 million of the country's total 111 million reside on Luzon, the island that contains Metro Manila.

However the attractive Visayas Islands (a great place for a holiday with Boracay the most well known, but Bohol, Panay and Cebu also terrific - many white sand beaches) and further south, the less-typhoon prone Mindanao also have substantial populations.

This makes distribution of petroleum products costly and challenging, making ALD's expertise even more important.

Given median age of Filipinos is only 25.7 years (compared to Australia's 37.9, India's 28.7, Indonesia's 29.7, China's 38.7 and Japan's 48.4 years, the prospects for growth are good, despite natural disasters like annual typhoons that vary in severity.

This news from 'Philippine Daily Inquirer' is encouraging for Seaoil:

OECD: PH economy to grow fastest in Southeast Asia in 2022

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:58 PM March 22, 2022

MANILA, Philippines—The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of rich nations expects the Philippine economy to grow fastest in Southeast Asia this year, even as its labor market could take time to recover due to the scarring inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its “Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2022” report launched on Tuesday afternoon (Manila time), the OECD projected 7-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the Philippines in 2022, at the lower end of the government’s 7 to 9 percent target.

“The outlook is for robust growth. A faster implementation of investment projects in infrastructure, plus the recovery in cash remittances by overseas Filipino workers constitute upside risks to the forecast, although pandemic-related uncertainties continue to tilt the risk balance to the downside,” the OECD said.

The OECD’s estimated real GDP growth in the Philippines this year outpaced the forecasts of 5.2-percent expansion for Indonesia, 6-percent growth for Malaysia, 3.8 percent for Thailand, 6.5 percent for Vietnam, 3.5 percent for Brunei Darussalam, 4 percent for Singapore, 5.6 percent for Cambodia, and 4.6 percent for Laos. Myanmar’s GDP, on the other hand, was forecast by the OECD to shrink by 0.3 percent.

Including other emerging Asia economies, the Philippines’ estimated economic growth this year would also outpace China’s 5.1 percent, but below India’s 8.1 percent.

For 2023, the OECD projected the Philippine economy to grow by 6.1 percent, also within the government’s 6 to 7 percent goal.