E-Malt.com News article: Philippines: The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the P23-billion initial public offering of San Miguel Brewery

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the P23-billion initial public offering of San Miguel Brewery Inc., the flagship domestic beer unit of food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp, Manila Standard Today published March 14.

Documents showed that the company would offer between 770 million and 1.54 billion common shares, consisting of 77 million to 154 million primary shares and 693 million to 1.3 billion secondary shares.

San Miguel Brewery plans to offer at least 30 percent of the total shares to domestic investors and 70 percent to foreign buyers.

The company earlier reduced its offer price from P9.50 to P16.30 per share to P8 to P15.40.

Total proceeds from the initial offering are expected to go down to P23 billion from P25.2 billion due to the reduced share price.

Banco de Oro Capital president Ed Francisco said lingering uncertainties in the US market prompted the company to trim the offering price.

The company will start its international road-show on March 28 and end on April 6. Listing is tentatively set on April 22.

The mother company plans to use bulk of the proceeds to finance its diversification into infrastructure, mining and power sectors.

San Miguel Brewery, meanwhile, will receive up to P2.3 billion in proceeds to finance capital expenditure this year.

The company plans to spend P700 million for the replacement and maintenance of its manufacturing plants, P155 million for operations improvement, P43 million for expansion and P16 million for administrative expenses.

It earlier tapped ATK Kim Eng Capital Partners Inc. and Banco de Oro Capital as domestic underwriters and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and ATR Kim Eng as global lead managers for the offering.

The company is the largest producer of beer in the Philippines, with a total market share of approximately 93 percent in 2006.

It operates five breweries strategically located across the country and a highly developed distribution system serving 470,000 retail outlets.

Its top-selling brands include San Miguel Pale Pilsen, Red Horse, San Mig Light and Gold Eagle.


14 March, 2008