San Miguel Corp to tie-up with Telstra, enter telecom industry

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) chief executive officer and president Ramon Ang (Photo from SMC)

MANILA – San Miguel Corporation (SMC) will be launching its mobile telecommunications business in the country by 2016, according to SMC president Ramon Ang.

“We’re building a mobile global company. We think we can switch on the network next year so I think there will be no more problems for those of you who are experiencing problems,” Ang told global CEOs and businessmen at the Forbes Global CEO Conference.

Partnering with Australian telecom Telstra, Ang believed that there was a need to break the duopoly in the Philippines and provide better services to the Filipinos.

“We are building a network that will provide better service and that will work. It’s not impossible to have three players in one country,” he said, adding that SMC will focus on mobile broadband and in the wired and wireless sector.

Already a leader in beer and food products, Ang wanted to venture out into other industries.

“We had nowhere to grow. Our beer then had a 95 percent market share and what else can we do?” he asked. “We invested into power generation. We own coal fired power plants… We went into oil refinery and petrochem business and gas stations and invested into tollways… And we are building a new airport now in Boracay.”

“Our dream is to provide better infrastructure, better products and a better place for our countrymen,” he added.

SMC now has $20 billion in revenue and aimed to reach $40 billion to $50 billion in the succeeding years.