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SAN
Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB Inc.), the beer unit of food
and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. (SMC), has pared the
price of its initial public offering to a range of P8 to
P15.40 per share.
The new
price target has compromised up to 154.88 million new
shares and up to 1.39 billion in secondary held shares.
The share sale is in April.
In an
updated application for IPO submitted to the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Wednesday, SMB Inc.
was mum as to why it lowered the price range.
Analysts
surveyed by BusinessMirror, however, said the move was
triggered by the current volatility in the market.
The
price range was P9.50 to P16.30 per share.
With the
new price, SMB Inc. may generate gross proceeds of P1.24
billion to P2.38 billion from the primary shares on the
assumption that investors will buy all on offer.
The
selling shareholder—in this case parent SMC—will gain up
to P21.5 billion. It will use the money to pay for
debts.
SMB Inc.
will sell its shares to domestic and foreign investors.
The offer period is from April 10. The listing and start
of trading is April 22.
The
company has hired ATR KimEng Capital Partners Inc. and
BDO Capital & Investment Corp. as domestic lead
underwriters, and CitiGroup Global Markets Ltd. and ATR
KimEng as global coordinators, bookrunners and lead
managers.
At the
end of 2007, SMB Inc.’s net profit amounted to P8.015
billion. Net sales grew 8.8 percent to P44.14 billion.
SMB Inc. is the biggest income and revenue contributor
among SMC subsidiaries which include food, hard liquor,
packaging and feed units
Apart
from SMB Inc., SMC is also listing its packaging unit on
a time table that is still to set. The unit, according
to SMC president Ramon S. Ang, hopes to raise around
$125 million (roughly P5.1 billion) from the shares
sale.
Apart
from the two listings, SMC is also consolidating all
food-operating units under San Miguel Pure Foods Co.
Inc., a listed company.
“We are
pursuing the listing of our beer and packaging units and
consolidating all the food operations under Pure Foods.
Our goal is to have all our operating companies listed
for transparency. This will also guide the investors,
which SMC business they would like to put their money
in,” said Ang in an earlier interview.
Should
SMC succeed in its foray into new businesses like mining
and power, the same strategy will apply, added Ang.
SMC is
reshaping its portfolio to include new businesses that
will give them higher margin growth in the near- and
medium-term. |
