RSA secures full ownership of Privado Holdings

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Ramon S. Ang has secured full ownership of one of the major shareholders in San Miguel Corp. (SMC), a move that further cements Ang’s hold in the diversifying conglomerate.

In a disclosure, the conglomerate said SMC president and chief operating officer Ang “acquired the 37.5-percent equity interest of Thomas A. Tan in Privado Holdings Corp.” The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Prior to the transaction, Ang controlled a 62.5-percent stake in Privado Holdings, with the remaining 37.5 percent owned by Tan, a board director of SMC.

In October, Ang consolidated his shares in SMC into a private company. Privado Holdings acquired 368.14 million shares or 11 percent of SMC from Master Year Ltd.

The P27.6 billion worth of 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.

In a separate disclosure, SMC majority shareholder Top Frontier said it also received a notice of the transaction.

“As a result of the aforesaid acquisition, Ang indirectly acquired Tan’s indirect beneficial ownership of 13.821 million Top Frontier common shares through Privado Holdings,” the firm said.

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.

Consolidated net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company climbed 42 percent to P38.1 billion driven by a P40-billion gain from the SMC’s sale of Manila Electric Co. shares that offset the foreign exchange losses. Without the unrealized forex losses, net income should have surged 210 percent to P53.6 billion.