5 groups offer to manage sale of 27% SMC shares

Five investment banks have offered to underwrite the sale of government’s 27-percent stake in food and drink giant San Miguel Corp. (SMC), estimated to be worth P50 billion.

This developed as the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) filed yesterday a motion with the Sandiganbayan to withdraw the government case seeking the sequestration of the disputed 27-percent SMC shares, Department of Finance (DOF) spokesperson Noel Bonoan said.

Bonoan said the DOF is trying to come up with a compromise agreement with the other parties contesting the SMC shares before the government pursues the lifting of the sequestered shares which it needs prior to selling the shares to interested investors.

"We want to be able to speed up the process and make the parties to initially agree to convert the contested but idle shares into another form of asset and get the proceeds needed for the intended beneficiaries," Bonoan said.

DOF Undersecretary Joel Banares and other officials of the department yesterday also discussed the presentations of top investment banks that included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ING Barings, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston.

Banares added that DOF will still have to deliberate or discuss the presentations of each one of the investment houses before a final decision is made. He explained the government will have to ensure the underwriter for government’s stake in SMC will be able to fetch the best possible price for the shares and maximize revenues to be generated from the sale. – Rocel Felix