Petron CEO says firm willing to sell refinery to govt

Petron Corp., the country's largest oil refiner, on Thursday said it is willing to sell its refinery assets to government. The is a growing for government to re-invest in the company as a way of having a direct participation in the industry to tame surging oil prices. In a letter to the Department of Energy, Ramon S. Ang, Petron chair and CEO said the repeal of the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Law (RA 8479) "is not the solution." The letter was sent to the Philippine Stock Exchange as a disclosure. "The company believes that deregulation has been the most beneficial to the economy as well as the downstream oil industry and should thus be continued to be implemented by the government," said Ang, also president of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., which owns the majority stake in Petron. "Worldwide market forces" were responsible the series of oil price increases, the Petron CEO noted Petron is aware of public opinion clamoring for government to reinvest in Petron as a way to have better participation in the oil industry, Ang said. "The company is open to this idea. In particular, we are ready to offer our refinery assets (the Petron Bataan Refinery Complex in Limay, Bataan) for possible re-acquisition by government if this will assist in attaining government's objectives at this time," Ang said. Valuation and transaction structure Petron is ready to discuss the appointment of a mutually acceptable third party to establish a valuation basis and transaction structure, he noted. "Through this acquisition, the government will enjoy significant influence on the prices of petroleum products and in securing the supply of petroleum products in the country," said Ang. San Miguel raised its stake in Petron to 68 percent in December. The company did not provide details about the acquisition. In August 2010, the conglomerate paid $10.9 billion to London-based investment firm Ashmore Group for 1.52-million Petron shares. Ashmore purchased the 40 percent stake of state-owned Philippine National Oil Corp. in Petron for some $544 million. The deal raised Ashmore’s stake in Petron to 90.6 percent. In the first half of 2011, Petron said its earnings more than doubled to P6 billion from P2.96 billion a year earlier. — CMA/VS, GMA News