San Miguel to focus on expansion plans

More importantly, many of the big-ticket projects – especially in the infrastructure sphere – were slated to be completed before the end of President Aquino’s term in 2016, SMC president Ramon Ang said.

“Many of our expansion plans for our projects will be completed by 2014 or 2015,” Ang said. “Before 2016, we will have completed our investments in two new power plants, our [planned] airport project, the Petron [refinery] expansion, our mining investments and the toll roads.”

San Miguel has been on an acquisition spree in recent years when it acquired the country’s biggest petroleum refiner and distributor Petron Corp, flag carrier Philippine Airlines and a slew of toll road concessions, among others – part of 35 deals worth $7 billion over the last decade.

One company that will benefit from an aggressive expansion programme is PAL, where San Miguel holds a 49-per cent stake along with management control, while the Lucio Tan group holds 51 per cent.

“Our total investments planned for PAL will be around $10 billion,” Ang said, explaining that most of this would be in the form of new aircraft.

If the government approves San Miguel’s proposal to build a new international airport, Ang said the total investments into the project would easily contribute another $10 billion to the economy.

He said the conglomerate has identified a “Korean partner” for the project and was just waiting for the government’s green light for the private undertaking. He declined to disclose whether the proposed four-runway international airport would be located to the north or south of Metro Manila — a precaution, he said, to prevent land speculation that would push up acquisition costs for the 2,000 hectares needed for the project.

On the power sector, Ang outlined plans for San Miguel to build an additional 3,000 megawatts of capacity all over the country.