As Asian companies aspire to grow, they become more inclined to look beyond their home turf. Some of the successful forerunners present at the FT-Nikkei Asia300 Forum on Monday morning embody the importance of companies diversifying their business portfolios.
In recent years, San Miguel’s diversification has gone beyond its core business of beer, food and packaging — and into infrastructure. The main driver was the fact that the company was controlling 95% of the local beer market, and infrastructure in the Philippines was “very, very, inadequate.” Taking advantage of the recent two administrations’ moves to privatize formerly state-owned energy and infrastructure assets, the company diversified into a very different field.