MANILA, Philippines -- Shares of the conglomerate San Miguel Corp. are set to be declassified effective Aug. 26 to henceforth scrap the distinction between those that can be traded only by local investors and those that can be held by anyone.

The declassification of San Miguel's common class "A" or those open only to locals and class "B" or those open to both local and foreign investors, which is seen boosting stock trading liquidity, will take effect as the Securities and Exchange Commission recently approved pertinent amendments to the company's charter.

Aside from the shares declassification, the SEC also approved an amendment that would deny preemptive rights to any issuance of common shares, San Miguel disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Following the disclosure, the PSE implemented a one-hour halt on the trading of San Miguel shares from 9 to 10 a.m. to allow the investing public to digest those recent filings.

San Miguel currently has about 1.46 billion common class A shares and 843.27 million class B shares. It also has about 970.5 million preferred shares held by investors who chose to swap their common shares into these debt-like instruments with annual fixed returns.

Class A shares of San Miguel crept up by 0.29 percent to P67.90 per share on Thursday while Class B shares dipped by 0.07 percent to P68 per share - thereby narrowing the price gap - ahead of the declassification.

Meanwhile, the denial of preemptive rights is seen giving the conglomerate flexibility to take in new investors in the future.

Under the Philippine Code of Corporate Governance, all stockholders have preemptive rights, unless there is a specific denial of this right in the articles of incorporation or an amendment thereto. They shall have the right to subscribe to the capital stock of the corporation.

The shares declassification and the removal of preemptive rights had been approved by San Miguel's shareholders during their annual meeting last May 31.