SMC capex up to ’22 seen to hit P700B

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. expects its medium-term capital spending to sum up to P700 billion through 2021 to 2022 with the expansion of traditional and new businesses.

In an interview at the sidelines of SMC’s recent investors briefing for its P30-billion fresh bond offering, SMC chief finance officer Ferdinand Constantino said that the capital outlays started in 2015-2016, which included the upgrading and modernization of Petron’s refinery in Bataan.

Since then, Constantino said more expansion plans were underway. Two breweries will be constructed—one in Mindanao and another will rise south of Luzon—each with new capacity of two million hectoliters. He said this would boost the production capacity of San Miguel Brewery by about 15 percent.

For the food business, he said the allotment for capital outlays would be P60 billion in the next three years.

In power generation, he said SMC would soon complete the second 300-megawatt plant in Limay, Bataan.

In infrastructure, Constantino said SMC was working to complete the Boracay airport upgrade, the South-North Luzon Expressway connector road, the SLEx extension, C6 tollroad, MRT7 and a bulk water project alongside a new airport project in Bulacan that is now being evaluated by the government.

Constantino added that SMC’s goal of hitting P1 trillion in revenue would be achieved soon, but not necessarily within this year. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA