San Miguel Purefoods sale may be concluded this week

San Miguel Corp. will decide by week’s end on the planned sale of its 49 percent interest in food subsidiary San Miguel Purefoods Co. Inc. Ramon S. Ang, San Miguel president and chief operating officer, said in an interview at the sidelines of Petron Corp's annual stockholders meeting Monday that the company would receive the final bids – from interested parties – for San Miguel Purefoods by July 15. "Malalaman natin by Thursday or Friday," Ang told reporters. Ang said that JP Morgan is the company's financial adviser on the sale of its 49 percent stake in the food company. Still, San Miguel Purefoods in a disclosure to the stock exchange said it also continues to explore the possibility of a secondary share sale. "We further advise that the company continues to evaluate a possible secondary share sale of SMPFC as an alternative," San Miguel said. Companies interested in San Miguel Purefoods include the Gokongwei Group through Universal Robina Corp., the Campos family through United Laboratories Inc., and Century Canning Corp. Other reported bidders were Filipino-Chinese businessman Alfonso Uygongco and foreign investors led by the US-based funds Carlyle Group and CVC Group. Analysts said that San Miguel Purefoods could be the biggest Philippine corporate deal of 2010. They valued the transaction at $2 billion. San Miguel Purefoods reported a net income of P2.7 billion last year, a 17-fold increase from P149 million in 2008. Revenue for the period totaled P75 billion, up by 6 percent. —MR Gavin/VS, GMANews.TV