SMC

San Miguel Corporation(SMC) is a company almost synonymous to being Filipino. A company that has for more than a century provided our fathers and their fathers a reason and means to stay up late. Recently, this company has ventured into non-traditional business sectors such as energy, oil, telecommunications, infrastructure, etc. and it has paid off.

A few months ago, I would have been hesitant with all the stock rights offering, bond sales, diversification, with no concrete direction(at least nothing was obvious to me). I found no reason to invest in this company, even less reason to recommend it as a stock to watch. But their 2010 annual report gave me an insight and instilled in me a strong resolve that SMC is a determined company that would one day dominate the Filipino corporate scene. The recent 30 percent drop in price, by no means paints a complete picture of what this company has to offer today or in the near future. With a 146 percent increase in profit for the 1st quarter of 2011, I believe I can safely assume that their investments have paid off. This week's Inquirer has an article on how two foreign investment firms believe that SMC's investment in non-traditional businesses are paying off. Although it would be great to have more information on this stock, I wouldn't be surprised if this particular outperforms the rest of the PSE, despite the 30 percent drop. The drop was rumored to be caused by people acting on their own best interest, I would rather not comment on it, since this is, to date, unverified.