SanMig seeks new business opportunities

       The Philippine diversified conglomerate San Miguel said yesterday it was on the prowl for big natural resource investments abroad as part of an increasingly aggressive expansion outside of its core brewing business.
       "It does not matter where, as long as it is viable and is a big company with big volume, we will be interested in investing in coal companies,(and) for oil and gas," San Miguel president and chief executive Ramon Ang told Agence France-Presse.
       In an interview, Ang said Southeast Asia's largest food and beverage company was also looking to invest in more major infrastructure projects in the Philippines,including toll roads and airports.
       Ang has over the past year led the domestically listed firm's diversification drive with multi-billion-dollar acquisi-tions in local power firms, oil refining and retailing, telecommunications and toll roads.
       Last month San Miguel won the right to sell power from the country's largest coal-fired plant, with a capacity of 1,000-megawatts,and bought a 620-megawatt power plant on Manila Bay for a combined $1.085 billion.
       The investments outside of its core brewing, food processing and packaging businesses offered highgrowth opportunities and a hedge against economic downturns, according to Ang.
       "You can't have all your eggs in one basket in case there's a downturn," he said.
       Ang spoke enthusiastically about San Miguel's global ambitions, although he would not give any specific details about
       where the company was hoping to invest.
       "We are leveraging left and right. I hope we can buy some good oil fields, gold mines or gas fields ... something that will propel the company," Ang said.
       San Miguel this year expressed interest in acquiring a stake in top Indonesian coal miner PT Adaro, but then pulled back from the deal,saying the stake offered was not big enough.
       Domestically, Ang said San Miguel planned to build its infrastructure portfolio, after recently taking a 35% stake in Private Infra Dev Corp, which will build a $312-million toll road in the northern Philippines.
       He said the company would make a bid to extend an existing toll road linking Manila with the northern provinces,called the North Luzon Expressway.
       "We (also) hope to develop more new,major airports to help our country," he said, but declined to give details.
       Ang said San Miguel would likely not exercise an option to acquire a 51% stake in a holding company that controls top Philippine oil refiner Petron until next year.
       "Because we can use our money for a lot of other things beforehand," he said.
       In the same interview, San Miguel chief financial officer Ferdinand Constantino told AFP the big-ticket acquisitions had been safely financed by a combination of equity and debt.
       "I think it's really moderate leveraging.We have our own cash and borrowings,and we are very conservative when it comes to borrowing," Constantino said.