• San Miguel Food lowers follow-on offering price

San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. (SMFB) will proceed with its planned follow-on offering despite volatile market conditions, setting an indicative price range of P85 to P95 per share yesterday.

“It’s a go,” San Miguel Corp. vice chairman president and COO Ramon And said yesterday on the sidelines of the 44th Philippine Business Conference held yesterday.

SMC is the parent firm of SMFB.

The indicative price compares to the maximum offer price of P140 per share.

The offer consists of 522.9 million shares with an over allotment of 15 percent, almost half the original proposed float of up to 1.02 billion secondary shares.

Asked why the company decided to proceed with the share sale despite the volatile market conditions, Ang said the company wants to comply with the public float requirement of the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Pricing of the shares was set on Oct. 25.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has already approved the offering.

SMFB tapped J.P. Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley Asia, UBS AG Singapore Branch as joint global coordinators; Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs as joint bookrunners; BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. as local lead underwriters; and Standard Chartered Bank as financial adviser.

Part of the proceeds will be used for investments in the San Miguel Group including capital and funding requirements of future projects.

SMC has investments in food, power, beer, infrastructure and packaging, among others.

SMFB, on the other hand, is the result of the consolidation of San Miguel’s food and beverage businesses.

It is behind key brands such as San Miguel Pale Pilsen San Mig Light and Red Horse for beer, Ginebra San Miguel for gin, Magnolia for chicken, ice cream and dairy products, Purefoods for processed meat and Monterey for fresh and marinated meats.

The company reported a net income of P15.4 billion in the first half, up 20 percent. Operating income rose 20 percent to P22.9 billion.