SMC set to start sale of shares in food unit

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp.(SMC) is targeting to start the sale of shares in its flagship food unit by the end of the month, a preliminary prospectus showed on Monday.

San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc., the holding company for key brands such as San Miguel beer and processed meats producer San Miguel PureFoods, said the public offer period would run from Oct. 29 through Nov. 6 this year.

The final price will be known by Oct. 25 after the international roadshow which started last Oct. 19 and will end on Oct. 24.

Last week, SMC cut the offer size of the secondary offering. SMC will now sell around 523 million shares, excluding a 15 percent overalloment option in case of high demand, at P85 to P95 per share. At that range, SMC could raise a maximum of P46.7 billion.

That compares with an initial plan to sell up to 1.02 billion shares at a maximum of P140 per share. That deal could have raised as much as P140 billion.

According to the prospectus, 97 percent of the shares will be offered to institutional investors while 3 percent will be sold to Philippine Stock Exchange trading participants.
SMC said the proceeds from the offer will be used for its investments. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS