SUGAR MILLER AND REFINER CENTRAL Azucarera Don Pedro (CADP) Group Corp. is eyeing investments in port management and operation.

CADP executive chair Pedro Roxas said the company’s newly registered firm, CADP Port Services Inc., has lodged a bid with government agency Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to manage the Port of Nasugbu in Batangas province.

“This is an opportunity that was open. We looked at it and we bid for it. It made sense to have some role in operating a logistics terminal that is relatively close to where we have our plant in Batangas,” Roxas said.

CADP is the biggest raw sugar producer and the second biggest sugar refiner in the Philippines, taking up 19 percent and 20 percent of total production, respectively.

It is 90-percent owned by listed firm Roxas Holdings Inc. and was established in October 1918.

CADP has two wholly owned sugar manufacturing subsidiaries -- Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc. (Cadpi) in Nasugbu, Batangas and Central Azucarera de la Carlota Inc. (Caci) in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental.

The company also acquired a 45-percent share in Hawaiian Philippine Co. (HPCo.), a sugar company based in Silay City, Negros Occidental.

RHI earlier secured P6.7 billion in loans from a syndicate of local banks to bankroll the expansion of its sugar milling and refining capacities and its proposed foray into bioethanol or biofuels production.

A total of P4.7 billion of the capital will fund the purchase of factory equipment from two sugar mills abroad while P1.2 billion will be used to set up an ethanol plant.