BIZ BUZZ: SM out to encash some gold

The rumor mill has been aggressively running to keep tabs on the Tampakan mining project — Southeast Asia’s biggest untapped gold-copper reserve — and we’ve got news. A reliable source familiar with the matter confirmed that the Sy family, which owns the majority of the mine in South Cotabato province, is in talks to sell “part of their shares” to other investors.

“But they will retain majority [shareholding],” the source stressed. Biz Buzz earlier found that a Chinese group was taking interest in Southeast Asia’s largest untapped gold-copper reserve, in which the Consunji family also has a 10-percent stake. Bloomberg recently reported that Aluminum Corp. of China was in talks to buy into the project in an equity deal estimated at $2 billion.

Now the question is: Why is the SM Group willing to bring in another investor? What’s the benefit… or the catch? The source makes a fair point: “It makes a lot of money. If they (SM) sell [their shares] today, they will make nine or 10 times more the price [they initially paid],” especially with the record-high prices of gold in the global market.

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And while SM is a formidable conglomerate, it probably won’t hurt to raise a little bit extra moolah to fund its $3-billion Manila Bay reclamation project. We’ve yet to confirm whether SM will shed part of its shares before the start of Tampakan’s commercial operations in 2026, but with the $1-billion SM Prime real estate investment trust public offering not happening too soon, selling part of Tampakan is increasingly a tempting option.