MANILA, Philippines-The Roxas Group plans to raise fresh capital for its flagship sugar business by selling new shares to a strategic partner, as it intends to diversify its product line-up to include higher value-added sugar-based products.

Roxas and Co. Inc. (RCI)?one of the largest sugar corporations in the country and formerly known as CADP Group Corp.?named boutique investment banking firm Mabuhay Capital Corp. Inc. as financial adviser for the capital-raising, RCI chair Pedro Roxas said.

?We?re more interested in getting a strategic partner to allow us to take the company to the next stage,? Roxas said in an interview with the Inquirer.

After investing P8 billion in a bio ethanol plant and in the expansion of its sugar milling and refinery, RCI wants additional financial muscle to boost production of higher value-added sugar-based products for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industry.

The realignment, Roxas said, would make the overall business more resilient to global commodity cycles alongside an impending reduction in sugar tariffs through 2015.

By next month, RCI through bio ethanol unit Roxol Bioenergy Corp., will start the operations of its bioethanol plant in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental.

The plant, which has a rated daily production capacity of 100,000 liters, has the flexibility to produce not only fuel for oil companies but also potable alcohol for the beverage industry. It will use molasses, a by-product of sugar, although Roxol is also considering using other raw materials like cassava, Roxas said.

RCI recently completed the expansion of its sugar operations in Batangas and La Carlota which resulted in an average increase in capacity of 50 percent.

The Batangas facility, which houses its sugar refinery, accounts for more than half of RCI?s business because it is where higher value-added products are produced. Its capacity was raised from 10,000 to 13,000 tons a day. The capacity of La Carlota was also increased to 18,000 tons from only 11,000 tons a day.

RCI claims to be the largest producer of raw sugar in the Philippines and the second largest in refined sugar production. Its market share in each category was estimated at about 17 percent.

About 80-85 percent of its business now comes from raw and refined sugar while the remainder represents the molasses business.