Why SM Investments mulls exit from data center, mining businesses

MANILA, Philippines – SM Investments Corporation (SMIC) announced plans to exit the Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corporation and its data center business in the near future, its president and chief executive officer Frederic DyBuncio said.

In a press conference on Monday, March 2, DyBuncio said SMIC is looking to possibly reduce its stake in Atlas Mining due to its lack of synergies with the rest of the company’s portfolio. SMIC currently owns around 30.4% of Atlas Mining.

“Mining is a very cyclical business. If the dollar goes down, prices go up. If the dollar goes up, prices go down. It’s really a cyclical business, and right now it’s probably a good time to be able to dispose of it given the need for copper for all of these EVs and whatever else that’s being done,” he said.

DyBuncio also pointed out that gold prices are currently at $5,300, saying that it may be a good time to dispose of Atlas Mining shares. But he clarified that the move is still subject to board approval.

Atlas Mining — which operates mines in Cebu, South Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat — manages its core interests through specialized subsidiaries such as the Carmen Copper Corporation.  This arm oversees the full lifecycle of metallic mining and serves an international market by exporting copper concentrate to smelters in China.

The company saw its revenue decline 12% in 2025 to P16.5 million, but its net loss improved to around P100 million.

No data center buyer

Aside from Atlas Mining, DyBuncio also reiterated SMIC’s plans to exit the data center business at a time when Southeast Asia is in a data center boom. A report by audit and advisory firm KPMG estimates that data capacity in Southeast Asia is expected to triple by 2030 thanks to a tenfold surge in AI use.

The Sy-led firm currently owns 18% of YCO Global Cloud Centers, a digital infrastructure firm that currently develops carrier-neural and greenfield data centers.

“That data center business actually has not progressed very much. So we’re probably going to be exiting that business,” DyBuncio said.

DyBuncio earlier cited the Philippines’ high power costs, which is the second highest in Southeast Asia.

“Right now, we are not really focused on data centers because from our perspective, the power cost is very expensive and the small minority we have in the data center business we’ll probably sell that eventually,” he told reporters in August 2025.

SMIC’s net income grew 10% in 2025 to P90.5 billion as growth in its banking segments’ loan books contributed to a 49% share of consolidated net income. Its retail arm’s bottomline also grew 1% to P21.1 billion amid steady department store growth due to contributions from the kids category in the fourth quarter. – Rappler.com