Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. plans to invest more in its core food and beverage business, infrastructure and energy projects to ensure the company’s long-term profitability, a top executive said Tuesday.
San Miguel president and chief executive Ramon Ang said in a message contained in the company’s annual report the group plans to build several mega poultry plants in strategic locations across the country over the next 10 years.
Ang said this move would bring down logistics cost, prevent supply shortage and provide more stable pricing.
“This is part of our larger push to boost food security nationwide, which started with the expansion of our beer business, value-added meats, ready-to-eat and logistics business in the last couple of years,” Ang said.
He said for the power generation business, San Miguel Global Power would increase its investments in transition technologies and for the reconfiguration of coal facilities to accommodate alternative fuels.
SMGP expects to complete by end-2023 about 610 megawatts of the total 1,000-MW target capacity of the battery energy storage system. The rest will be completed by 2024.
Ang said the group’s first solar power project is also in the pipeline and targeted for commercial operations in the next few years.
SMC is expanding its liquefied natural gas facility, with the construction of the 1,313-MW Batangas combined cycle power plant ongoing. The project is set for completion by 2024.
Ang also reported that land development of the P740-billion New Manila International Airport was now over 55-percent completed.
“We expect substantial completion of the land platform by December 2024, and we are looking to jumpstart other work streams such as the terminal and runways by early next year,” Ang said.
The world-class airport, spanning over 2,500 hectares in Bulakan, Bulacan, will be developed in phases, with an initial capacity of 35 million passengers annually and a target of 100 million passengers once fully completed.
Other infrastructure projects that are progressing well are the Mass Railway Transit Line 7, South Luzon Expressway Tollroad 4 and the SLEX Tollroad 5.
Ang said 2023 could be a challenging year for the group because of the high-inflation environment, coupled with higher cost of borrowing, fluctuating crude prices and lower power and food demand.
He said despite these factors, sales volume would remain strong.
“If we can at least match the previous year’s performance, I think we should be very thankful,” Ang said during the stockholders meeting.