SMIC to Spend P90B for Expansion in 2018

SM Investments Corporation (SMIC), the holding firm of the Sy family, has allocated a total of PHP90 billion for capital expenditures (capex) this year to support its expansion program as it looks for more emerging business opportunities.

SMIC Senior Vice President of Finance Franklin Gomez said the group’s property arm, SM Prime Holdings Inc., will get the biggest chunk of that amount at about PHP80 billion. SM Prime is set to open four more malls, launch over 15,000 residential units, and open third office building in the Mall of Asia Complex this year.

Gomez said SMIC will spend PHP5 billion each to beef up its banking and retail businesses. “Most of our capex are financed by internally-generated cash,” he said in a press briefing after the holding firm’s stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday.

SMIC President and Chief Executive Officer Frederic Dybuncio said SMIC remains on the lookout for more emerging sector investment opportunities.

“We are following the government in terms of priority projects. As we know, the plan is really to increase the growth of the economy nationwide even in the Visayas, Mindanao areas… That’s one reason why we got in logistics space to be able to be part of that growth of the economy moving forward,” Dybuncio said.

In 2017, the holding firm made investments of a 30.5-percent stake in leading Philippine end-to-end logistics company, 2GO Group Inc., and 61.2 percent in dormitory provider to young urban professionals, Philippines Urban Living Solutions Inc.

“We continue to explore which or how we can actually get involved in the e-commerce space. We are definitely focused in terms of looking at opportunities in that space,” he added.

SMIC posted a net income of PHP32.9 billion last year, up 5.5 percent from the PHP31.2 billion in 2016. (PNA)