PSE approves San Miguel Brewery delisting on May 15

Shares of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) beer unit San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) will no longer be traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange starting May 15 for not meeting the required 10 percent public ownership rule. In a board meeting held on April 24, the PSE board of directors granted the petition for voluntary delisting filed by San Miguel Brewery. "... [T]he shares of SMB shall be delisted from the Exchange effective 15 May 2013, Wednesday," the PSE said in a memo posted on its website. The delisting is subject to the payment of a delisting fee. In a separate disclosure posted on its website Thursday, SMB said it received on May 6 a letter from the bourse dated May 3 on the approval of the delisting. "The company paid today (May 6) the delisting fee as required by the PSE in the said letter," the company said. The beer maker, a joint venture of SMC and Japanese beer brewery Kirin Holdings Company Limited, set a tender offer from March 4 to April 3 to buyback minority shares at P20 per share, or at a 31.74 percent discount from its last traded price of P29.30 last December 28.   SMB was one of the suspended firms beginning January 2 for non-compliance with the 10 percent public ownership requirement of the PSE. SMC, which owns 51 percent of SMB, and Kirin Holdings, which owns a little over 48 percent, did not want to dilute their respective holdings in the largest Philippine beer maker. — Danessa Rivera/VS, GMA News