By James Loyola

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation has reduced the size for its sale of shares of subsidiary San Miguel Food and Beverage (SMFB) amid bearish market conditions.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said it has reduced its secondary base offer to 348.64 million common SMFB shares with an upsize option of up to 174.32 million shares or a maximum size of 522.96 million shares.

SMC has also set a narrow price range of P85 to P95 per SMFB share, from its initial maximum offer price of P140 per share, for a maximum offer value of P49.68 billion.

SMC had initially planned to offer 1.02 billion common SMFB shares, consisting of 887 million secondary shares with an over-allotment option of up to 133.05 million shares for a maximum offer size of P142.8 billion.

It has tapped J.P. Morgan Securities Plc, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte. and UBS AG Singapore Branch as the joint global coordinators while Standard Chartered Bank is the financial adviser.

It has also named Deutsche Bank AG Hong Kong Branch and Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte. as joint bookrunners while BDO Capital & Investment Corporation and BPI Capital Corporation are the local lead underwriters.

SMC plans to sell the shares to institutional investors as well as local retail investors while a portion may also be offered to yet-unconfirmed cornerstone investors.

SMFB said earlier that the price and terms of offer of the secondary shares will be determined by SMFB management and agreed with SMC.

SMC completed the consolidation of its food and beverage businesses last June 29, 2018, thus, the performance numbers reflect the consolidated financials on a comparative basis with last year.

San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) continued its solid performance delivering strong volumes for the first half driven by increased consumption of beer products nationwide.

SMB consolidated revenues reached P62.5 billion, 18 percent higher than the same period last year. Operating income rose 23 percent to P17.3 billion.

Ginebra San Miguel Inc. (GSMI) also recorded a strong first semester performance as net income almost doubled from last year. Revenues and operating income rose 19 percent and 57 percent to P12 billion and P862 million respectively from previous year.

Meanwhile, SMFB’s Food Group posted consolidated revenues of P62.9 billion, 12 percent higher mainly driven by the strong performance of Feeds, Poultry and Meats and the Branded Value-Added businesses. Operating income grew 6 percent to P4.7 billion.