Hong Kong-based conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd. plans to increase its ownership in two Philippine sugar milling companies–Roxas Holdings Inc. and Victorias Milling Co. Inc.
First Pacific managing director Manuel Pangilinan said the group would shortly raise its stake in Roxas Holdings to 51 percent from the current 34 percent through a combination of new and secondary shares.
“It should be done pretty soon,” Pangilinan said when asked about the timetable on the increase in ownership. “This will inject fresh capital into RHI.”
Roxas Holdings is expanding into electricity production by building co-generation power plants in its facilities in Negros Occidental and Batangas provinces.
Through a partnership with First Pacific, Roxas Holdings also plans to develop an integrated sugar milling complex in Indonesia.
First Pacific in 2013 acquired a 34-percent interest in Roxas Holdings. Roxas & Company Inc., the holding company of the Roxas Group, sold 279 million shares, representing 31 percent of Roxas Holdings, to First Pacific Natural Resources Holdings BV for P8 apiece in November last year.
First Pacific bought additional shares from the holdings of other stockholders to increase its ownership to 34 percent.
Pangilinan, meanwhile, said First Pacific was keen on further increasing its stake in Victorias Milling.
“We currently in discussion with other shareholders of Victorias Milling,” Pangilinan, who was recently elected to the board of the country’s largest sugar milling company, said.
First Pacific group, through privately owned unit First Agri Holdings Corp., owns a 16.8 percent stake in the Victorias Milling after slowly buying shares in the market.
First Pacific earlier said it was looking for more investment opportunities in the Philippine sugar industry.
PT Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur Tbk., a subsidiary of First Pacific, is a leading food company with operations in all stages of food manufacturing from the production of raw materials and their processing to distribution to wholesalers and retailers.
Roxas Holdings is the third-biggest sugar refiner in the Philippines. The company has three sugar mills, including one in Batangas and two in Negros Occidental. It has an ethanol plant in Negros Occidental.
Its sugar mills have a combined capacity of 38,500 tons of cane per day.
Victorias Milling is engaged in integrated raw and refined sugar manufacturing with plants in Victorias City, Negros Occidental.