December 31, 2012
 

Underwriter acquires San Miguel Pure Foods shares
 

A portion of shares of Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Pure Foods Co., Inc. that were offered in line with the minimum public float rule has been bought by one of its underwriters in a bid to stabilize the share price, the firm said in a disclosure on Friday (December 28).

UBS AG, the underwriter, exercised the overallotment option on Dec. 26.

"As of Dec. 26, UBS AG has purchased 752,780 shares pursuant to the price stabilization for the said offer," the disclosure said.

The overallotment totalled 2.5 million common shares. The remaining shares could still be purchased in future transactions.

San Miguel Pure Foods concluded a secondary offering of 25 million common shares owned by parent firm San Miguel Corp. on Nov. 26 to raise its public float to 15.08% from 0.08%, surpassing the minimum requirement of 10%. The offer price was PHP240 (US$5.85) per share.

Proceeds from the offer would be used by the parent firm for general corporate purposes, according to a Nov. 12 preliminary offering circular.

Maybank ATR Kim Eng Capital Partners, Inc., Standard Chartered Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. and UBS AG, Hong Kong Branch were tapped to serve as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the deal.

The Philippine Stock Exchange said last year that all listed firms must have a public float level of at least 10% by the end of a mandated one-year curing period ending Jan 1, 2013, or else face penalties leading to eventual delisting.
 

As of Friday (December 28), only 10 firms have not complied with the requirement. These are Alphaland Corp., Southeast Asia Cement Holdings, Inc., PAL Holdings, Inc., Allied Banking Corp., San Miguel Brewery, Inc., Philippine National Oil Co.- Exploration Corp., San Miguel Properties, Inc., Philcomsat Holdings Corp., Cosmos Bottling Corp. and Nextstage, Inc.

San Miguel Pure Foods, the company behind brands Monterey, Star, Dari-Crëme and B-Meg, was incorporated in 1956 to engage in the manufacturing and marketing of processed meat products.

It diversified into poultry and livestock operations, feeds and flour milling, dairy and coffee operations, franchise operations, and young animal ration manufacturing and distribution.

Shares of San Miguel Pure Foods closed at PHP244 (US$5.94) in the last trading day of the year, up 0.99% from its previous close of PHP241.60 (US$5.89) a piece.