San Miguel says looking to bid for Vietnam’s Sabeco
MANILA — The Philippines’ San Miguel Corp. is looking to bid for Vietnam’s largest brewer Sabeco, the conglomerate’s president said on Wednesday.
“Yes,” Ramon Ang told Reuters in a text message when asked if San Miguel is looking to join the bidding for the Vietnamese brewer.
Vietnam will kick off the sale of 54% of Sabeco, the maker of Bia Saigon and 333 beers, next month, in an ambitious deal the government hopes will raise at least $5 billion.
The long- awaited sale has already attracted interest from brewers seeking access to what is the second-most profitable market for Heineken, which holds 5% of Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp. (Sabeco).
But analysts said the tripling of Sabeco’s share price to 340,000 dong ($14.96) from its December 2016 listing, and a foreign ownership limit of 49% could deter some global brewers from participating in the auction.
The sale could provide a blueprint for other privatization which Hanoi is considering as part of broader economic reforms, including that of peer Habeco, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg owns 17.3%.
The minimum price for Sabeco’s sale was set at 320,000 dong a share, trade ministry official Truong Thanh Hoai told a news conference on Wednesday, days after the company held investor road shows in Singapore and London.
“The big sale is to increase the attractiveness,” Hoai said.
Foreigners already owned over 10% in Sabeco, and the total limit for such ownership was still capped at 49%, he said.
The government owns nearly 90% of Sabeco and analysts said the low float had inflated the market value.
“Through the two recent road shows, we saw a very high level of interest. Most investors highly valued Sabeco’s business performance and the potential of the beer market,” Sabeco Chairman Vo Thanh Ha told reporters.
Vietnam is on track to become Asia’s biggest per-capita beer market by 2021 and is shaping up as a battleground for global brewers thanks to a youthful population and beerdrinking culture.
However, Sabeco’s valuations have soared, with its shares trading at a price- toearnings multiple of 49 compared with 20 for Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings for Thai Beverage PCL and 15 for Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Kirin was also interested and would make a decision once sale details were finalized, a spokesman said this week after the Singapore road show. —