San Miguel gets okay to buy part of Petron owner

The management of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has been given the greenlight to proceed with a plan to buy by Friday 40 percent of a unit of British investment house the Ashmore Group that owns majority of oil refiner Petron Corp. Its executive committee had also allowed the diversifying food and beverage giant to buy out Petron common shares held by the public at an offer price of P6.85 apiece, the listed company told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday. San Miguel earlier signed a so-called option deal with Ashmore unit SEA Refinery Holdings BV, which gave San Miguel the chance to buy up to 100 percent of SEA Refinery Corp., which owns majority of Petron shares. The mandatory tender offer rule mandates a buyer of 35% or more of a listed company to bid for the rest of the company’s shares. Ashmore owns some 91 percent of Petron after it bought the government’s 40-percent interest in the oil refiner for P25.6 billion in December 2008. SEA Refinery holds 50.1 percent of Ashmore’s total interest in Petron. The British group, however, agreed to hand over control of Petron to San Miguel. The option to purchase SEA Refinery was supposed to be valid for two years from December 24, 2008. In January last year, the Philippine Stock Exchange fined San Miguel for allegedly violating disclosure rules regarding its agreement with the Ashmore Group. At that time, San Miguel failed to provide additional details regarding the venture, saying it was bound by a confidentiality clause. It also said it was under no obligation to provide more details about its deal with SEA Refinery Holdings B.V. The bourse later withdrew its threat to penalize the food giant. San Miguel A shares closed 50 centavos higher at P74, while its B shares were steady at P74. Petron, the tenth most actively traded stock on Monday, gained 60 centavos to finish at P6.60. — N.P. Aquino, GMANews.TV