PureFoods open to make tender offer to Ginebra shareholders

San Miguel PureFoods Co. Inc. will launch a tender offer to minority shareholders of Ginebra San Miguel, one of the companies to be consolidated into this company, if required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

During a special meeting yesterday—which was convened to ratify the changes in bylaws needed to consolidate the San Miguel group’s food and beverage businesses into PureFoods—the stockholders approved the possible tender offer for minority Ginebra shares.

This is to give the company flexibility to undertake the tender offer if required by the SEC in line with PureFood’s acquisition of the controlling stake in Ginebra. This is part of a plan to fold in all of San Miguel’s traditional businesses into PureFoods, creating a new local consumer powerhouse with the infusion of P336.35 billion worth of shares in the beer and other beverage businesses, including the controlling shares in San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) and Ginebra.

In response to numerous queries about a tender offer for shares of Ginebra—which is separately listed on the PSE, unlike SMB—PureFoods president Francisco S. Alejo III said the company’s stance was that this restructuring plan would not require a tender offer to minority shareholders. But if the SEC requires it, he said PureFoods would be ready to comply. DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA