SMC to triple profit by 2020

SAN MIGUEL Corp. (SMC) is aiming to triple its net income by 2020, as the diversified conglomerate completes its major tollway projects in the next three years, and finishes making payments for three power plants.

SMC President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang said the bulk of its income would come from tollways in the next few years.

“Our 2016 income was basically coming from our beer, food, packaging, and our Petron operations... So I think if we are lucky, by year 2020 and up, our net income should triple by then,” Mr. Ang said during the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting in Pasig City.

In 2016, the conglomerate’s earnings soared to P52 billion, 80% higher than the P28.99 billion it generated in the previous year.

SMC said it is on track to complete projects such as the highway connecting the South Luzon Expressway to Lucena, Quezon; the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx), and the North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway (NLEx-SLEx) connector road or Skyway Stage 3, as well as the Metro Rail Transit Line 7, by 2019.

MRT-7 to bring relief to commuters – SMC

FOOD-BASED conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC), which will serve as the sole concessionaire of the multibillion peso Metro Rail Transit-7 project connecting Quezon City to Bulacan province north of Manila, assured the commuting public of “great relief” when the transport facility becomes operational in 2020.

MRT-7 is expected to accommodate 850, 000 passengers a day.

“It will decongest Metro Manila and make Bulacan a more viable location for residential developments, call centers and BPO businesses,” SMC Chairman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr said during a stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday.

The P69.30-billion MRT-7 project includes the construction of 14 stations that will connect North Avenue in Quezon City to San Jose del Monte town in Bulacan.

SMc also said Bulacan province will benefit from the incoming investment and the additional infrastructure in the area.

“It will inconvenience the public in a while but once it is completed, there will be great relief. Traveling from Quezon City to Bulacan would already cost less,” SMC President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Ang told reporters later at a news conference.

The Regalado Highway in Quezon City has been closed temporarily to give way to the construction of MRT-7, which is expected to be completed in 2019.

Ang said the Skyway 3 connecting Buendia to Balintawak will be finished by the last quarter of 2019, and the construction of the expressway connecting Rosario to La Union will be finished next year.

SMC is also hopeful of connecting the South Luzon Expressway to Tagaytay, Ang added.