San Pablo Manufacturing Corp. (SPMC), a subsidiary of CIIF Oil Mills Group and market leader in edible oil domestic industry, has completed acquisition of the 40 percent stake of Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan of its unit Minola Refinery Corp. (MRC).

CIIF Oil Mills Group chairman Jesus B. Arranza said the acquisition, which was undertaken on a gradual basis, was completed on Friday, April 23, to mark the Golden Anniversary of Minola, the country’s dominant cooking oil brand.

Arranza refused to divulge the amount of the purchase, but said they are investing about P100 million for the expansion and upgrading the capability of MRC to produce special fats and oils, which is high value products for use by biscuit companies and other consumers.

This would cement MRC’s dominant market position to 27 percent from the current 25 percent for improved sales of 100,000 metric tons from 95,000 metric tons last year. There are over 100 cooking oil brands being marketed in Luzon alone excluding several regional cooking oil brands.

As a result, the company expects revenues to hit close to P2 billion this year from P1.7 billion in 2009.

Arranza further said the company is going to beef up its distribution system to promote its products.

The company has also started exporting Minola products to Canada, China , Pakistan and Japan while India has proposed for a licensing agreement to be able to use its Minola brand for the huge Indian market.

Arranza further revealed they are investing an additional P250 million for the purchase of 7 power generator sets to provide the 15-megawatt power requirement for its four oil refineries in Mindanao.

“We need this to ensure continuous production in our plants since Mindanao is badly hit by the worsening power crisis in the region,” Arranza said.

The four subsidiaries are Legaspi Oil, which has two plants in Davao City and in Albay, Cagayan de Oro Oil and Granex Export Manufacturing Inc. in Iligan.

These four subsidiaries export 85 percent of their bulk coconut oil produce to the US and the EU and 15 percent to Japan and Asia .

The four plants have an installed combined coconut oil production capacity of 700,000 tons a year. The country exports 1.2 million tons of coconut oil every year.

Last year, the group reported a total of P11 billion in gross revenues and made about P100 million in profit. According to Arranza, the coconut oil refinery group is going to invest P800 million for the development, planting and replanting of coconuts via the Coconut Farm Development and Coconut Agribusiness Program in collaboration with the Coconut Development Authority.

They are also in touch with over 200 coconut cooperatives in the country. The fund is part of the P1 billion dividends from the CIIF shares in San Miguel Corp. which was granted to them in 2007.

As of October last year, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has approved the granting of P1-billion quarterly dividends for CIIF from its 24.3 percent share in San Miguel Corp. following the conversion of common shares to preferred or as much as P5 billion in dividends annually.