SMC hopes to hit P1-T revenues by 2019

San Miguel Corp. hopes to be able to reach P1 trillion in revenue as early as next year, ahead of the 2020 target, tycoon Ramon Ang said.

Ang, SMC vice chairman, president and COO, said the company could reach the P1 trillion target in 2019, a year ahead of schedule with the growing economy steadily pushing demand for SMC products and after it successfully added the 300-megawatt (MW) Masinloc power facility to its portfolio. “The P1 trillion mark, I hope next year we meet it. It’s possible especially with Masinloc,” Ang said.

He said the conglomerate has been hitching a ride on the growing economy which has been pushing all the business segments of SMC — from food, beverage, power, fuel and oil to infrastructure.

“The economy is doing well,” Ang said.

Last year, SMC won the bidding for AES Philippines’ assets, including its coal power facility in Masinloc, Zambales, for nearly $2 billion, making it one of the biggest corporate deals in the country.

SMC Global Power Holdings, SMC’s power arm, acquired both AES’ 51 percent stake and Thailand-based Electricity Generating PCL’s 49 percent stake in the 630 MW facility for $1.9 billion, bolstering its installed capacity to more than 3,000 MW.

Thus, with power sales from Masinloc — which has two 300-MW units and a third one being constructed and targeted for completion by mid-2019 — Ang said SMC’s P1 trillion mark would be easier to achieve ahead of schedule.

The rosy prospects of San Miguel Food & Beverage Inc., the conglomerate’s newly consolidated consumer giant, are also unparalleled and unlike no other food company in the country, Ang said.

“The combined income of food, beer and Ginebra is P30 billion a year. No other food company in the Philippines has a net income like that,” Ang said.

Last year, SMC grew its net sales to P826 billion, up 21 percent from a year ago, while net income rose 11 percent to P54.7 billion on the back of higher contributions from subsidiary Petron Corp.’s Philippines, Malaysia, and petrochemicals operations, along with the strong performance of its food and beverage businesses.

In the first half, net income grew to P27.6 billion from P26 billion a year ago.

Net sales grew to P499 billion, up 27 percent from P393.4 billion.

SMC, once just a beer producer, now has businesses across a wide variety of industries such as food and beverage, liquor, petroleum, power and infrastructure.