San Miguel raises P7.3 billion from sale of preferred shares

MANILA, Philippines - Diversifying food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. has raised P7.3 billion from the sale of preferred shares through a private placement.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, San Miguel corporate information officer Ferdinand Constantino said the company issued yesterday 97.333 million Series 1 preferred shares to qualified buyers by way of private placement at a price of P75 each share.

Proceeds from the private placement would be used to fund new ventures and acquisitions.

San Miguel was originally looking at issuing up to 226.8 million preferred shares valued at P17 billion.

In October, San Miguel issued more than 870 million Series 1 preferred shares at P75 each for a share swap offer in which it converted common shares to preferred shares. These preferred shares carried a dividend rate of eight percent per annum.

San Miguel president Ramon Ang earlier said the company was looking at new acquisitions in the power and energy sector, studying new investments in a gold and copper mine, and more tollway and expressway projects.

The 119-year-old company is venturing into heavy industry to fuel faster growth after dominating its home market in food and beverages.

San Miguel won in September the auction for the 620-megawatt Limay combined-cycle power plant after submitting the lone offer of $13.502 million. It also bagged the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) contract for the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Sual coal-fired plant in Pangasinan.

Following the purchase of a 35 percent stake in Philippine Infrastructure

Development Corp., San Miguel is hoping to further build up its infrastructure portfolio through airports.

San Miguel’s diversification has also seen it acquire a minority stake in power utility giant Manila Electric Co. and an option to buy a majority stake in local oil refiner Petron Corp. It has also recently acquired 32.7 percent interest in Liberty Telecom Holdings Inc. and is now in discussions with the stockholders of Extelcom the terms and conditions of a non-binding memorandum of understanding with respect to its possible acquisition of Extelcom shares.