Insider Spotlight
Born from the pandemic-era restructuring of BDO Leasing and Finance, the dormant vehicle has now become the hottest Philippine stock of 2026 with a gain of over 800 percent.
Behind that rally is a much bigger move, with the Sy and Consunji families laying the groundwork to transform Dominion into the country’s top mining firm.
During a media briefing on Wednesday, Dominion president Frederic DyBuncio confirmed InsiderPH reporting about plans to move SM Investment’s 34 percent Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp stake and, potentially, the Sy family’s controlling interest in the massive Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato to Dominion.
“We’re working on it,” said DyBuncio, who is also president and CEO SM Investments, one of the country’s largest banking, retail and real estate conglomerates.
Asked on Wednesday if Dominion could become the biggest mining firm in the country, he said: “It can be.”
Dominion recently took a 20.43 percent stake in Atlas, giving the firm its first major mining asset.
Tampakan to operate as early as 2028
Creating the country’s leading miner is not hard to envision, given that the Tampakan project in South Cotabato is said to be Southeast Asia’s largest copper-gold resource.
Operated by Sagittarius Mines, its development has been hampered for decades by regulatory roadblocks.
Thanks to a more supportive mining regime under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Finance Secretary Frederick Go, the project is moving forward.
“We’re building the road network and that’s going to get bigger,” DyBuncio said.
Asked when operations will begin, he said their goal is to begin mining in two to three years, or as early as 2028.
Sy capital, Consunji mining muscle
Tampakan, whose shareholders include the Consunji family and Alcantara Group, is currently in the pre-development stage.
InsiderPH previously reported that the Consunjis are taking a key role as an operating partner for the mining assets.
One of the recently appointed directors at Dominion is Tulsi Das C. Reyes, who brings operational experience as president of DMCI Mining.
DMCI Holdings chair, president and CEO Isidro Consunji is the company’s chair while SM Investments vice chair Henry Sy Jr. is a director at Dominion Holdings.
New market favorite
Dominion is the runaway winner of the Philippine stock market in 2026, with its shares up 820.86 percent year to date as of Aug. 12, data from Bloomberg showed.
That is more than four times the almost 185 percent gain of second-place Asiabest Group International, while Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. ranks third with a 166 percent return.
Based on its latest closing price of P12.80 each, the stock is now worth P27.7 billion.
This is still smaller than other large mining names like tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.’s Apex Mining (P94 billion), OceanaGold Philippines (P82 billion), Manuel V. Pangilinan-backed Philex Mining (P58.86 billion), Atlas Mining (P56.9 billion), and the Zamora family’s Nickel Asia Corp. (P59 billion).
SM Group’s mining exit
Meanwhile, SM Investments has started reorganizing its portfolio to move mining outside the conglomerate, with plans to sell its roughly 34 percent Atlas stake to Dominion in 2027, DyBuncio said on Wednesday.
This adds to a separate 20.43 percent stake in Atlas that Dominion acquired from the Ramos family’s Anglo Philippine Holdings Corp.
“We’re going to move that to one of our listed entities that will bring it into Dominion Holdings,” DyBuncio said. “Our plan is to do that sometime next year.”
“The intention is for SMIC to completely move out from the mining sector,” DyBuncio said.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
