AYALA Corp. celebrates its 175th year today with a mass and an appeal to group employees to donate 175,000 books for distribution to the poorest municipalities, the company said yesterday.

?The low-key celebration will be in keeping with the times, and in staying true to the same vision, foresight, optimism and leadership that has distinguished the business house since its founding 175 years ago,? the company said in a statement.

Ayala started in 1834 as Casa Roxas, which was founded by Domingo Roxas in partnership with Antonio de Ayala.

The company raised sugar cane, coffee, cotton and indigo, manufactured liquor, metal castings and gunpowder, traded in commodities, and operated mining concessions.

The company was renamed Casa Ayala in 1851 and gained representation on the board of Banco Espa?ol Filipino de Isabela Segunda, the very first private commercial bank in Southeast Asia and precursor of today?s Bank of the Philippine Islands.

In 1876 Casa Ayala enlarged its ownership and became Ayala y Compa?ia. It was Ayala y Cia that introduced the tranvia, the first streetcar system, to Manila in the late 1880s.

Soon, with fresh ventures and opportunities, Ayala y Cia quickly established strongholds. In 1910 it established Insular Life Assurance Co., the first Filipino life insurance firm and precursor, two decades later, of Insular Life Assurance Co., which would become the Philippines? first mutualized insurance company.

In 1929 the ownership of Hacienda San Pedro de Makati, originally acquired in 1851, was turned over to Ayala y Compa?ia. The property would become the springboard for one of the company?s most audacious?and most visionary?business ventures. By the late 1960s, Makati had become the country?s premier commercial and residential district.

Ayala then quickly developed a succession of upscale residential subdivisions in Makati, and eventually in strategic areas across the country.

The post-war years saw Ayala become mainly a real estate company. But the economic optimism of the times, combined with Ayala?s visionary approach to entrepreneurship, engendered a push toward pioneering innovations that would characterize the company?s path in the succeeding decades.

The conglomerate put up Filipinas Life, the Philippines? first industrial life insurance company, in 1958; Ayala Land in 1960; Bank of the Philippine Islands in 1970; Globe Mackay Cable & Radio Corp. in 1974; and Integrated Microelectronics Inc. in 1988.

It wasn?t long before the group went into water distribution by putting up Manila Water Co. after successfully bidding for a water concession. It then made a foray into business process outsourcing by putting up LiveIT Solutions in 2006.