San Miguel Brewery's 2007 domestic beer sales up 8%
By Enrico dela Cruz
Thomson Financial
First Posted 10:24:00 01/10/2008
MANILA, Philippines – Sales of San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMBI), the domestic beer unit of food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp., rose around 8.0 percent in 2007, driven by brisk consumer spending.
"San Miguel Brewery Inc.'s beer sales sustained volume and revenue growth since March last year. The performance comes as a fresh start for the newly spun-off subsidiary ... as this was a significant improvement from 2006," SMBI said.
Unaudited volumes rose nearly 8.0 percent in 2007, with estimated revenue growing at almost the same pace, it said.
"A more robust economy, expected to have grown at an accelerated pace of 7.0 percent in 2007, fueled consumption as household spending remained one of the drivers from the demand side," SMBI said.
San Miguel Corp. has announced plans to sell shares in SMBI this year in an initial public offering that it is intended to raise P25 billion.
San Miguel Corp. has already told the regulator that up to 1.5 billion shares in SMBI will be sold for P9.50-P16.30 per share. Of the total, 1.39 billion will be existing shares and 154.88 million new shares.
SMBI will receive P2.5 billion of the proceeds, while the parent will use the rest for working capital and general corporate purposes.
San Miguel Corp., which is 20 percent owned by Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd., has said at least 70 percent of the IPO shares will be made available to foreign investors and the remainder to domestic buyers.
Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and ATR Kim-Eng Capital Partners have been appointed lead underwriters for the IPO.
San Miguel recently sold its assets in Australia, including Tasmanian brewer J. Boag & Son for 325 million Australian dollars and dairy and juice company National Foods Ltd. for $2.8 billion.
Faced with a maturing domestic market for beer, San Miguel Corp. is looking to invest the proceeds from asset sales in high-growth businesses such as power generation and transmission, mining, property and infrastructure.
($1 = P40.56, 1.14 Australian dollars)
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