BIZ BUZZ: Coming soon: Sy-led gold mining powerhouse

Conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) indicated plans to unload its 34-percent stake in copper/gold mining firm Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp. in early March.

But if you think that the Sy family is exiting the mining business, think again.

As an asset class, gold is still very much in play and a great hedge against the geopolitical uncertainties today. And why exit when the turnaround phase of Atlas has just begun?

From what Biz Buzz gathered, SMIC is just keen on transferring its stake to another privately held company that’s still controlled by the Sy family.

This streamlines the list of investee-companies under the portfolio outside SMIC’s core businesses — banking, property and retailing. It cuts the “odd one” out.

After all, the rest of the portfolio investments are still, in one way or another, related to SMIC’s core businesses.

Aside from Atlas, the Sy family also controls the Tampakan mine, touted as Southeast Asia’s largest undeveloped copper-gold project and potentially the Philippines’ largest mining venture.

And here’s a new twist. We hear that the Sys are now considering to consolidate all its mining interests under one roof.

This means: it could create the largest gold-copper mining firm in Southeast Asia.

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This is also reminiscent of how they consolidated SM Prime Holdings and SM Development Corp. back in 2013 to create a new property powerhouse.

What the Sy family is contemplating is even bigger than just backdoor-listing Tampakan. It’s a new mining blue chip in the making.

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