SMIC bankrolls P115 billion anew for 2025 capex

MANILA, Philippines — SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the investment holding company of the Sy family, is expected to spend as much as P115 billion again for its capital expenditures next year to support its growth initiatives.

Erwin Pato, executive vice president for treasury, finance and planning at SMIC, said the group is likely to allocate a similar amount of capex for 2025 as it did this year.

“It will be around the same as this year, more or less,”  he said.

SMIC has earmarked up to P115 billion for its capex this year for the continuing expansion of its various businesses.

SMIC has an existing euro medium term note (EMTN) that is available to the company as a funding option.

“The EMTN we have is a program. So what that means is it will allow us to access the markets when the windows are available for us. So that can be anytime. Because when we look at funding, we ask ourselves how do we access the most efficient. So it’s not really pre-planned. It is really when the market is most efficient,” Pato said.

Last May, SMIC and SM Prime established a $3 billion multi-issuer EMTN program which will allow the companies to tap the offshore bond market to fund their continued growth and expansion.

SMIC raised $500 million from the first tranche of its EMTN program last July, marking its largest offshore bond issuance since 2014.

Pato said the group continues to see a strong growth potential for its logistics and renewable energy businesses.

Aside from geothermal, he said SMIC is also open to venturing to other types of renewable energy projects.

“Whatever makes sense. The approach that we do is where we will be most effective,” Pato said.

“Clean energy is a space that we’re looking at. That has a lot of potential,” he said.

Philippine Geothermal Production Co., which is under SMIC’s portfolio investments, currently has ongoing exploration activities in five new geothermal contract areas which can add up to 250 to 400 megawatts of capacity.