A Top Line fuel station in Liloan, Cebu —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
MANILA, Philippines – When this reporter met Erik Lim for an interview, it was raining.
For the longest time, rainy days have been associated with gloom, especially when their sudden arrival disrupts plans long in the drawing board.
But the 38-year-old CEO of Top Line Business Development Corp., a Cebu-based fuel retailer, was all smiles during his brief yet busy time in Manila.
His company, after all, will raise the curtains of this year’s initial public offering (IPO) stage despite what experts see as a gloomy season for equities.
“I always hope we have a crystal ball,” Lim tells the Inquirer when asked about how he thinks the market will receive their relatively young firm. “But you know what they say, right? If the market is very low or any kind of fundamentals are low … the only way it’s going is up.”
Erik leads the third-generation Lims, who are now running the homegrown family business that appears to be taking the local bourse by storm.
READ: Fuel distribution play: PSE oks P3.16-B Top Line IPO
Established in 2013, Top Line is the holding firm of the Topline Group, whose main businesses include commercial fuel trade, logistics, ports, energy and real estate.
It boasts of a business-to-business model that weaves together its subsidiaries to create synergies and ensure access to essential fuel resources.
LIM SIBLINGS From left: Constance Marie, Brigitte Carmel and Eugene Erik
Niche market
But conquering the country’s second most populous metropolis is no easy feat, especially since everyone seems to be dead set on establishing their own empires in Cebu City as Metro Manila becomes crowded.
So what’s fueling the optimism for the Lims, who plan to raise P732.62 million from Top Line’s IPO?
As the CEO puts it, Top Line is targeting a very “niche” market that is dominating the streets of his hometown: motorcycles.
READ: IPO-bound Cebu fuel retailer wants to cash in on motorcycle influx
“Right now, we’re still focused on Metro Cebu and Central Visayas because there’s still a lot of opportunities,” Lim says. “Particularly in Metro Cebu, we see that potential because there’s a niche market.”
As it stands, motorcycles account for 68 percent of vehicles in Central Visayas, according to Lim. This makes it easy for them to veer away from the four-wheel market, in which competition is already tough to begin with.
Top Line addresses this potential demand through Light Fuels Corp., its 2-year-old retail arm and the protagonist of the group’s IPO on April 8.
As of this month, Top Line has put up four Light Fuels stations across Cebu. Through their much-awaited IPO, the company plans to grow this five times to at least 20 in the next two years.
“If you think about the expansion program for Light Fuels, it’s actually more aggressive than before,” Lim says, noting that they only targeted 10 stations last year post-IPO.
Top Line tank trucks waiting to deliver inventory
Back to their roots
Top Line’s advantage also comes from its roots in Cebu, nearly 600 kilometers away from its newly opened Taguig City office.
Before the company was able to go beyond Cebu’s borders, Lim and his siblings, Top Line chief operating officer Brigitte Carmel Lim and chief financial officer Constance Marie Lim, were steering the ship.
When the three are in the same room, their unique bond is obvious when they converse, and especially when passing the mic to answer questions specific to each person’s expertise. To outsiders, it is evident that they work with the ease carried only by the people you grew up and shared a home with.
“Top Line is really basically our family—my dad, my mom, my siblings, everyone,” Erik tells the Inquirer in a July 2024 interview. Back then, Erik was on a brief business trip in Manila before going back home to Cebu, where he had wanted to celebrate Brigitte’s birthday.
Perhaps it is precisely this relationship that allows them to operate Top Line with care and in consideration of each other’s capabilities.
Since the family business was established in 2013, the siblings were able to grow it from primarily being a real estate company under
Topline Properties and Development Corp. to the fuel retailer it is today.
“When we saw the fuel tankers fueling the vessels, we said: ‘Maybe this could be profitable—another business,’” Erik says.
True to the siblings’ word, retail and commercial fuel trade has become Top Line’s main business, with the company’s net income soaring by 157 percent to a record high of P90.5 million in the first nine months of last year.
During the period, Top Line sold 50.8 million liters of liquid fuels, up by 19 percent.
“Ever since we started, we’ve been growing radically for the last few years, and we will work hard to continue that growth,” Brigitte shares during a recent media briefing.
For the Lims, the potential to grow and expand is the reason why pursuing an IPO remains a good idea despite current conditions. As Erik stressed during that rainy day in Manila, an IPO is “the best way to accelerate.”