San Miguel Brewery to go private via P1.88-B buyback deal

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is taking its flagship San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) private in a deal worth around P1.88 billion.

 

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, SMB said its board approved the voluntary delisting of its shares from the bourse.

 

SMB, a joint venture of SMC and Japanese beer brewery Kirin Holdings Company Limited, said it would stage a tender offer to buy back 94.24 million shares or approximately 0.61 percent of its outstanding capital at P20 apiece.

 

The offer price was 31.74 percent lower than SMB’s last traded price of P29.30 per share on Dec. 28.

 

Once approved by regulators, the tender offer will run from March 4 to April 3.

 

In view of this, the SMB board approved the postponement of the firm’s annual stockholders meeting scheduled on May 28 until after the completion of the tender offer.

 

Trading in shares of SMB was suspended starting this year after it failed to meet the PSE's 10 percent public ownership requirement.  Neither of its two major shareholders wanted to dilute its holdings in the country’s biggest beer maker.

 

SMC owns 51 percent of SMB and Kirin Holdings owns a little over 48 percent. , The Philippine beer brewery has a market capitalization of P451.53 billion. — VS, GMA News