Ang consolidates SMC stake in Privado Holdings

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Ramon S. Ang has consolidated his shares in diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) into a private company.

“We advise that Privado Holdings Corp. a corporation owned by Messrs. Ang and Thomas A. Tan, acquired 368.14 million shares of stock of SMC from Master Year Ltd,” the company said in a disclosure.

“The shares were crossed through the Philippine Stock Exchange [on Monday] at P75 per share,” SMC added.

Privado Holdings, which is not one of SMC’s Top 100 stockholders as of end-June, is controlled by SMC president and chief operating officer Ang with a 62.5-percent stake. The remaining 37.5 percent of Privado Holdings is owned by Tan, a board director of SMC.

The P27.6 billion worth of shares represent were previously held by Master Year Ltd. The shares were bought by Ang from SMC chairman Eduardo ”Danding” Cojuangco Jr. in June 2012.

The shares sold to Ang originally formed part of the block of shares to be divested to Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc. under a 2009 share option agreement. Top Frontier, whose key players include former Trade Minister Roberto V. Ongpin, condiments king Joselito Campos and businessman Iñigo Zobel, decided to partially exercise the option with the purchase of around 3.7-percent stake in SMC.

For its part, Privado Holdings recently grabbed the spotlight given its buying spree of SMC shares.

In July and August, the Ang-led private firm bought P471 million worth of SMC shares from the open market amid speculation that SMC is in danger of defaulting on its debts.

The move was seen as the SMC executive’s vote of confidence on the conglomerate despite negative market sentiments. SMC earlier clarified that it was not the company referred to by the International Monetary Fund, which warned that a ”highly leveraged conglomerate” is in danger of default, although that risk is currently ”low.”

In 2007, the SMC started selling parts of key businesses to fund diversification from the mature food and beverage businesses into high-growth and capital-intensive sectors like power generation, mining, infrastructure and telecommunications.

From its core brewery and food business, SMC has expanded into power production (SMC Global Power Corp.), downstream oil sector (Petron Corp.), packaging (San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp.), airline (Philippine Airlines) and several infrastructure projects like the Caticlan Airport, Skyway and the NAIA Expressway. So far, around 70 percent of the company’s revenues are already coming from new businesses.