San Miguel Corp. now owns 68% of Petron Corp.

(Updated 1.55 p.m.) San Miguel Corp. (SMC), one of the country’s largest business conglomerates, said Thursday it has bought 24 million shares of SEA Refinery Corp., a company that owns 50.1 percent of Petron Corp. The transaction raised SMC’s share holdings in Petron, the country’s largest oil refinery, to 68 percent, the company said in a disclosure with the Philippine Stock Exchange. It also made the food and beverage and energy conglomerate the controlling stakeholder in the oil firm. "With the exercise of such option, the company beneficially owns 68 percent of the outstanding and issued shares of stock of Petron," SMC said. SEA Refinery is a unit of Ashmore Group's SEA Refinery Holdings B.V. (SRHBV), which also owns 40.5 percent of Petron. The conglomerate on Dec. 24, 2008 agreed with Ashmore Group to buy 40 percent of SEA Refinery before April 30, 2010 and the rest of the company by Dec. 23. Once it completes the acquisition of SEA Refinery, SMC said it may also buy SRHBV’s shares in Petron. "Upon completion of the tender offer, [SMC] may enter into an agreement with SEA BV in respect of their respective ownership of shares in Petron," SMC said. — VS/LBG, GMANews.TV