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SM Investments Corp’s next wave of expansion will focus on logistics and clean energy
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The company already controls one of the largest logistics companies in the Philippines, 2GO
SM Investments Corp.’s next wave of expansion will focus on the fast-growing logistics industry alongside clean energy, besides its strong presence in retail, banking, and property development.
Frederick DyBuncio, SM president and CEO, said they remain committed to their principal segments, but is also leaning on emerging businesses to keep their momentum. “We need to look at other new sectors that can grow faster and can actually help with synergies with these other core businesses,” he said in a recent television interview.
“So, at the moment, we’re looking at logistics as one example. We control one of the largest logistics companies in the Philippines, which is 2GO,” DyBuncio said.
In addition to 2GO, SMIC has a stake in AIC Group of Companies Holding Corp. (Airspeed).
He said they are also looking at renewable energy, where they have a presence through Philippine Geothermal Production Co., which supplies steam with an equivalent of about 300 megawatts powering the Luzon grid.
SM Investments reported a 6% growth in first-half 2025 net income to P42.6 billion, boosted by strong results from SM Prime Holdings, BDO Unibank and China Bank, its retail and portfolio firms. Revenues similarly grew about 6% to P319.2 billion.
Said DyBuncio: “The second half of the year tends to be stronger for us. Because Christmas is coming up. So we’re still very optimistic that for the full year we’ll be able to achieve a much better growth trajectory moving forward.”
The group is learning to be more agile, shifting gears when new investments no longer align with its strategy, he added.
DyBuncio said they plan to depart their data center business – held through a minority stake in YCO Global Cloud Centers – due to the high cost of power in the country.
“We’ve been pushing for renewable energy, and that’s going to help bring down the cost of power,” he said.
“Hopefully, in the not too distant future, there’ll be more big hyperscalers who will come, move to the Philippines, and be able to really make the Philippines another data center hub in the region.”
For this reason, they believe their current share price is “significantly undervalued.”
With the second semester of 2025 underway, the SM president and CEO hopes investors take notice of their solid performance and growing dividends.
The SM Group was founded by their late patriarch Henry Sy, who started with a shoe store located in downtown Manila. It was called then called Shoe Mart, which later became SM.
