Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. expects to triple net income by 2020, when investments in toll roads and other infrastructure projects start contributing to the company’s bottomline, a top executive said Tuesday.
San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said during the annual stockholders’ meeting the company’s P52-billion net income in 2016 came mostly from traditional businesses, such as food, beverage and oil refinery.
Ang said by 2020, most of infrastructure projects would be completed and start contributing significantly to the company’s profitability.
Among these projects are Mass Rail Transit Line 7, Skyway Stage 3 Connector Road, Boracay Airport, the Star Tollway extension to Lucena City and the Tarlac-Panganisan-La Union Expressway.
Ang said the conglomerate would also book higher income once it paid off its obligations with state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. for the three power plants it acquired, including Sual, Ilijan and San Roque.
“I think if we are lucky, by year 2020 and up, our income should triple by then,” Ang said.
Ang said this year, the conglomerate was on track to hit P65 billion in net income. He said the beer business was poised to deliver P20 billion in profit, while Petron Corp., which was posting P2 billion profit a month, was also expected to deliver P20 billion this year.
San Miguel posted a net income of P13.8 billion in the first quarter, up by 2 percent from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, Ang said San Miguel would break ground over the next six months for a new integrated petrochemical plant worth up to $20 billion or about P1 trillion. He said the company was now in talks with two foreign groups as joint venture partners for the planned venture.
“This will be the single biggest investment in the Philippines,” Ang said.
The new petrochemical plant will have a capacity of 250,000 tons and will target the domestic and exports markets. It is expected to be operational in three and a half years.
Ang said San Miguel was in the process of securing 1,000 hectares of land for the planned investment.