San Miguel Corporation Chief Operating Officer, Ramon Ang said recently that Carlyle and the Gokongweis are the top two bidders for their hotdog unit, Purefoods.
The hotdog unit was said to be valued at 1.8 billion dollars, making it one of Philippines biggest food and drinks company. According to And, the decision has been made as they decide to put more focus and accelerate the expansion of faster growing business such as the energy,telecommunications, mining, and power.
Also the sale is a bid to raise assets to fund expansion into industries. Since 2008, San Miguel has raised about 3 billion dollars from asset sale that has led to triple returns in equity.
Among other bidders are the Aboitiz Group, owner of the Philippines biggest transportation system, and the majority shareholder of Unionbank; and the Campos family, who owns closely held United Laboratories Inc., the largest Philippine drugmaker, and Nutri Asia Group, which bought out San Miguel in Del Monte Pacific Ltd.
However, if offers would not meet eye to eye, the Philippine-based company may opt to publicly sell the shares, as Ang himself once said, he plans to sell a 49 percent stake.
San Miguel’s A shares, which are reserved for Filipinos, declined 0.7 percent to close at 67.50 pesos in Manila. The company’s B shares, which don’t have ownership restrictions, fell 1.5 percent to 67.50 pesos.