San Miguel postpones IPO of its beer unit
The much-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of stock of the beverage and food group San Miguel Corporation’s beer unit has been postponed by almost three weeks, according to a new schedule released by the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The new tentative listing date for San Miguel Brewery (SMB) is now 12 May 2008. This is 20 days later than the 22 April listing date initially applied for by San Miguel.
Although no reason was given for the postponement, analysts believed that the company might be trying to sidestep weak conditions in the local and international markets, which continue to be hounded by the fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis.
Earlier the parent group had revised the price range for the listing of San Miguel Brewery, cutting the maximum proceeds to around USD 576 million from around USD 610 million, it was reported.
The domestic roadshow for the IPO will start on 11 April. The international roadshow will begin on 15 April. The final offer price will be set on 24 April.
The parent company will use the IPO proceeds to fund its foray into new capital-intensive businesses such as energy and mining.
San Miguel also said the move was part of a broader plan to list all of the company’s operating units on the stock exchange, divided according to their lines of business. The reason? So that management “will be more transparent.” Readers who remember only too well the byzantine history of the San Miguel Corporation, especially in the early post-President Marcos years, when no one knew who owned it (in 1987 its chairman Eduardo M. Cojuangco fled into exile and the government sequestered more than half of its stock) will be pleased to hear that.
