San Miguel forms subsidiaries for beer business

MANILA, Philippines- Food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. has formed two new subsidiaries as part pf its "restructuring program". The two new wholly-owned subsidiaries are Brewery Properties Inc. and Iconic Beverages Inc. for its land holdings in the beer business and beer brands, respectively. No other details were disclosed. For the January to September period, beer unit San Miguel Brewery Inc. posted a 10-percent improvement in revenues to P35.2 billion and net profits of P7 billion, almost a quarter higher than a year earlier San Miguel has been aggressive in expanding into new ventures such as the telecommunications and energy sectors. It had acquired up to 60 percent of Liberty Telecom Holdings Inc. and partnered with Qatar Telecom for the project. The company has also acquired stake in electricity distributor Manila Electric Co. and 51-percent interest in oil refiner Petron Corp. Last year San Miguel has announced that it will be allocating about $750 million, equivalent to a 10th of its total assets, in new businesses such as power generation and transmission, mining and infrastructure.GMANews.TV