Splash Group of Companies of the Hortaleza family will expand its operations abroad by penetrating other Asean countries such as Thailand.
Dr. Rolando Horta-leza, chairman and chief executive officer of the Splash Group of Companies said it will penetrate Thailand after its planned Initial Public Offering in 2007.
According to Hortaleza, the strategy will be to takeover a Thai firm and use this as a vehicle to introduce its products particularly its whitening products.
"The idea there is to bypass the start up barriers. We will buy a company there (Thailand) to get rid of the entry barriers and then we will introduce our products," Hortaleza said.
Splash Group of Companies has already penetrated 17 countries worldwide including a joint-venture partnership in Indonesia and distributorships in Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and the Middle East.
Various skin care products manufactured by Splash are being distributed in these countries. Splash is hoping to bring in more of its products to other countries including nutritional brands which it has recently launched locally.
Splash Group of Companies has recently formed Splash Pharmaceutical Corp. to manufacture nutritional brands such as Accuherb for its coconut virgin oil; Theraherb for its tea products and; Livemore for its skin whitening products.
Hortaleza said the Group is eyeing
P4.5 billion in sales this year with Splash Pharmaceutical expected to contribute a significant amount.
The Group made
P3.8 billion in total sales last year, 80 percent of which came from sales of skin whitening and other personal care products.
Splash is expected to go public by 2007 proceeds of which will be used for the expansion of the company’s pharmaceutical and international operations.
The Group is eyeing to unload between 20 percent to 30 percent of its shareholdings to raise
P3.5 billion. Part of the proceeds will also be used to put up its own manufacturing plant possibly in Subic or Clark. 
