PHILIPPINES: Reduced size, price bodes well for San Miguel IPO - report

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 6 May 2008

The local offering of San Miguel's domestic brewing arm has been oversubscribed, according to reports.

San Miguel Brewery, the Philippines-based beer unit of San Miguel Corp., has completed the domestic leg of its IPO, ahead of opening on the Philippines Stock Exchange on 12 May. Speaking to Dow Jones yesterday (5 May), an underwriter for the offering said: "The domestic issue is oversubscribed, although it's not in multiples."

Late last month, San Miguel Corp. trimmed back the IPO, from the initial 1.78bn-share stake to 770.5m shares. As well as reducing the size of the IPO, San Miguel also cut back the initial offer price late month, from PHP11.00 each to PHP8.00. "We don't expect the share price to shoot up come listing date, but we're expecting a successful debut," the underwriter told Dow Jones. "The decision (to trim the size and price of the IPO) created scarcity and we expect strong demand."

Around 70% of the shares were offered to international investors, with the remainder being made available locally.

San Miguel intends to use funds raised through the IPO - estimated at reaching up to PHP6.16bn (US$147m) - to pay down debt and finance its expansion into heavy industries.

Sectors: Beer & cider

Companies: San Miguel Corp