San Miguel pours P281B in expansion projects

MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Corporation (SMC), the most diversified conglomerate in the country, is investing P281 billion to fund the expansion of its existing food, oil and fuel, power, as well as infrastructure businesses until 2020.

SMC Corporate Information Officer Ferdinand Constantino confirmed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, January 13 that such amount is part of the company’s P543 billion capital spending budget for its big-ticket projects.

“P262 billion of which has been spent as of the 3rd quarter of 2016,” Constantino said in the disclosure.

Its toll roads unit accounts for bulk of the pie, amounting to P119 billion, SMC said.

Some of its bagged toll road projects include P26.5-billion Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project via Citra Central Expressway Corporation, P24-billion TPLEX through Philippine Infrastructure Development Corporation, P15.5-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) expressway project through Vertex Tollways Development Incorporated, as well as P13.1-billion  Southern Luzon Expressway-Toll Road 4 deal.

Toll eats bulk of the pie

Constantino also confirmed in a disclosure that the capital spending budget covers expansion of its food (P3 billion), oil and fuel (P119.9 billion), power (P156.7 billion), as well as infrastructure (P210.7 billion) businesses. 

He added that SMC’s oil and fuel unit, Petron Corporation, is also spending P93.3 billion for a refinery upgrade.

Last month, the Ramon Ang-led conglomerate said it will issue P15 billion bonds with P5 billion oversubscription option as part of the company’s 3-year shelf registration of up to P60 billion. 

Proceeds from the bond offering will be used to partially refinance loans provided by various local banks to San Migue to prepay a portion of its US Dollar-denominated debt.

For the first 9 months of 2016, net income of San Miguel jumped 125% to P42.9 billion from P19.08 billion recorded in the same period a year ago, as all the core businesses posted double-digit growth in terms of operating income. – Rappler.com