Aboitiz Equity eyes bigger exposure in SE Asia

Conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. is scouting for more opportunities to build a bigger footprint in Southeast Asia for its food and power businesses, focusing on Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar.

AEV has sent a team to Myanmar a few times looking to invest in the power sector, AEV chief finance officer Manuel Lozano said in a press chat.

“Myanmar needs power and they lack supply, and they have resources. They have gas and a few other things like hydro,” Lozano said.

“They have opportunities there and now, the government is quite open to having foreign investors come in. It is an intriguing opportunity,” he said.

In 2015, flagship unit AboitizPower (and partner SN Power) had teamed up with PT Energi Infranusantara to conduct a feasibility study for the exploration and development of a potential 127-megawatt hydropower plant along the Lariang River in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.

In Myanmar, sites are being explored for potential hydropower plants.

In the food business, Pilmico Flour had ventured into exporting its products to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations market in 2013, prompting Pilmico to build an Asean team based in Indonesia and Vietnam. In 2014, Pilmico acquired a 70-percent stake in Vietnamese aqua feed firm Vinh Hoan Feeds, marking the Aboitiz Group’s first formal international foray.

This year, Pilmico aims to expand flour exports and explore production in Asean and new flour products for local and international markets, export animal feeds to Vietnam, Indonesia and the Pacific, and grow in the region by operationalizing its aqua feedmill in Vietnam and export aquafeeds to other Asean countries.—DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA