The banking, retail and property giant’s latest push in the technology segment came as it acquired 6.9 million shares of US-listed Grab Holdings Ltd. after swapping its investment in the 2019 venture GrabPay, where it owned 34.5 percent.
The swap gave it control of nearly 0.2 percent of the $13 billion technology giant— a leader in ride-hailing, food delivery and digital payments services with over 35 million users in the Philippines and other major economies in Southeast Asia.
“At the moment we have no current plans for our stake in Grab,” Frederic C. DyBuncio, president and CEO of SM, told InsiderPH.
“We moved up to Grab so we are holding something more liquid than just staying at GrabPay.”
DyBuncio led the P1 trillion group to profits of P77 billion last year, a growth of 25 percent. This was the highest profit recorded by a Philippine listed company.
To sustain future growth, SM has underscored efforts to grow its non-core portfolio investments, which contributed nearly 10 percent to profits in 2023. These include companies such as Goldilocks bakeshop and logistics provider 2GO Group.
The Sy family has made personal bets in the technology space through its private investment firm Gentree Fund.
In 2021, Gentree joined a $1.6 million investment round in homegrown digital payments firm NextPay.
Last February, DyBuncio said they will venture into data centers — or high-tech information warehouses — with plans to build their first facility in Batangas this year.
SM said in a recent financial filing that it acquired a 10.1-percent stake in the Ynchausti family’s YCO Global Cloud Centers Holdings Inc.
YCO earlier announced the launch of its data center project in Malvar, Batangas.
DyBuncio said they were still finalizing their data center strategy.
“The data center business is very new and we are still learning about it,” he said.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
