Beer unit to buy overseas beer business from San Miguel

San Miguel Brewery Inc. will acquire the entire international beer business from parent firm San Miguel Corp. for $300 million. In a statement, San Miguel and SMBI said the Philippine beer subsidiary, a joint venture partnership with Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. has signed a share purchase agreement with the parent company to acquire San Miguel Brewing Intl. Ltd., San Miguel’s international beer business subsidiary. “SMB will acquire all 100% of SMBIL with an enterprise value of $300 million. The transaction will be funded by external debt and is expected to be completed sometime end-January 2010," the company said. Ramon S. Ang, San Miguel president, said the integration of both the domestic and international beer business will pave the way for an improved growth and returns of the business “and broaden SMBI’s geographic participation, strengthening our brands and presence in the region." Roberto N. Huang, president of SMBI, said, “With this acquisition, San Miguel Brewery is expanding its footprint to a bigger and broader platform in Southeast Asia and China, and potential access to Kirin’s platform in other developed and emerging markets in Asia." The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was SMC’s sole financial adviser for the transaction. ING acted as an independent financial adviser for SMB Inc. SMBI has earlier raised some P38 billion through the issuance of bonds for its acquisition of unit beer brands worth P32 billion and land on which the breweries stand at P6.8 billion. San Miguel, Southeast Asia’s largest food and beverage company, has been diversifying into heavy industries including power, roads, oil, and telecommunications. -CMA, GMANews.TV