Philippines: San Miguel Corporation has purchased a 35% stake in Northern Cement Corporation for US$72.1m and plans to finance the aggressive expansion of the company. San Miguel president Ramon Ang said the conglomerate would spend US$750m for the construction of new cement plants for Northern Cement, a company that is controlled by San Miguel chairman Eduardo Cojuangco.

Ang, who is also the chief of operations of San Miguel, said the company plans to expand the operation of Northern Cement by building three more plants at a cost of US$250m each.

Ang said that one plant would be built in the existing site in Pangasinan, another in Southern Luzon and a third in Cebu. Each plant will have a capacity of 2Mt/yr.

"All of these projects will happen within 2013 and are likely to be completed within two years," said Ang. "Eventually, San Miguel wants to build more plants to become the dominant cement manufacturing company in the Philippines." He added that Northern Cement aims to secure at least a 30% share of the cement market, which had 'huge potential.' "The revenue potential for each 2Mt/yr plant is estimated at US$200m/yr," he said.