SMC folds packaging businesses in one entity

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is moving to consolidate its packaging businesses under subsidiary San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp. (SMYPC), building up this unit as a standalone business complementing other traditional businesses.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, SMC said its board had approved a resolution to merge San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp.  and San Miguel Yamamura Asia Corp. (SMYAC), with the former as the surviving entity.

SMC will also buy an additional 5-percent stake in SMYAC, raising its interest to 65 percent.

“With the merger, all the packaging business of the corporation together with its joint venture partner, Nihon Yamamura Glass Co. Ltd., will be consolidated in SMYPC,” the disclosure said.

Asked whether SMC was still keen on merging the packaging business as stated in 2017 before its consumer arm San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. went public, SMC president Ramon S. Ang said this was no longer the intention.

The recent move was meant for “packaging consolidation only,” Ang said in a text message. “Food and beverage investors don’t want packaging.”

SMC’s packaging operations are  a total solutions business servicing many of the leading food, pharmaceutical, chemical, beverages, spirits and personal care manufacturers in the region. This group has one of the largest packaging operations in the Philippines, producing glass containers, metal crowns and caps, plastic crates, pallets and other plastic packaging, aluminum cans, paper cartons, flexibles packaging and other packaging products and services such as beverage toll filling for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and aluminum cans.

This group is the major source of packaging requirements of other SMC business units. It also supplies its products to customers across the Asia-Pacific region, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, as well as to major multinational corporations in the Philippines, including Coca-Cola Femsa Philippines, Inc., Pepsi Cola Products Philippines, Inc. and Nestle Philippines Inc.

This unit operates 14 international packaging companies scattered across China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA