Petron, recently acquired by Philippine food and beverage giant, San Miguel Corp (SMC), announced that their board has approved a revamp of its business to include energy generation and sale.
SMC, prior to its acquisition of Petron, has made known that they wanted to venture out from their core business into heavy industries such as mining and energy generation. Most recently they also announced that they wanted to venture into the telecoms, broadband and water distribution. They had already purchased stakes in energy distribution firm, MERALCO as well as announced plans to bid for the 620-megawatt Bataan Combined Cycle Power Plant in Manila Bay.
To fund this acquisition spree they are planning to sell some of their shares in their flagship business, San Miguel Brewery Inc and some other businesses.
With this announcement, it could mean that Petron could be the spearhead for their entry into the energy generating industry. One could only speculate that the purchase of the MERALCO shares was to done to guarantee a ready market for their energy generating business. MERALCO, during the height of the overcharging controversy, was being accused of favoring their own power plants when purchasing electricity from the energy market.
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Category: Oil, Petron, San Miguel
