SMC may buy back stake in Nestlé Phils

Food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. could be inclined to buy back its stake in Nestle Philippines Inc., as the non-competition clause covered by its sale in 1997 expires by year-end, a top SMC official said.

"We have enough time to plan for that," said SMc chief finance officer Ferdinand Constantino in response to queries during their corporate presentation at the Philippine Stock Exchange roadshow yesterday.

SMC sold its 45 percent interest in Nestle, a global leader in ice-cream and other confectionery products, to the latter’s Swiss-based parent firm, earning for SMC a net gain of P21.6 billion.

Constantino added, however, that there are already many other opportunities the SMC conglomerate in studying aside from the possible repurchase of Nestle.

"Each of our acquisitions has allowed us to increase market share in virtually every major product category in our beverage and food businesses," he said.

During the company’s stockholders’ meeting last June, vice chairman Ramon Ang said they are negotiating for the acquisition of a major regional food player with an annual revenue base of about $1.5 billion – half the size of SMC itself.

There were several speculations on which food company SMC is targeting, one of which that floated was Indofood, the Indonesian-based world leader in noodle production.

Since 1999, or just a year after Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. reassumed the chairmanship of SMC, the company has embarked on a dizzying acquisition binge, starting off with relatively smaller companies such as Metro Pacific’s bottled water unit Metro Bottled Water Corp., Australian brewer J. Boag & Son, powdered juice maker Sugarland Corp., then progressing to bigger firms such as Purefoods Corp., Cosmos Bottling Corp. and Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc., a re-acquisition itself.

The possible addition of Nestle will further bolster SMC’s dominance in the domestic food and beverage industry as Nestle will expand its product lines to ice cream, chocolates, ready-to-eat snack food and other confectionery items under the brand names of Nestle, Magnolia and Maggi, among others.