President orders sell-off of stake in San Miguel

MANILA - The Philippine Government plans to sell its 40 per cent stake in beer brewer San Miguel and use the proceeds to develop the coconut industry.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper as ordering incoming Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima to sell the Government-held shares.

A statement posted on the website of the President's office confirmed some of the details in the newspaper report.

"My instruction to Secretary Purisima is to place the San Miguel shares ... in one block and we will sell everything to fund the development of the coconut industry," Arroyo said.

The Government is the biggest shareholder in San Miguel - Southeast Asia's largest food-and-beverage company.

The Supreme Court awarded the Government a 27 per cent stake in San Miguel that coconut industry groups had claimed as their own since it was collected from them as a levy during the regime of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.

The 27 per cent stake was worth an estimated 47 billion pesos ($1.2 billion), the Inquirer reported.

The Government seized the 27 per cent stake in 1986 after Marcos was removed from power in a people's revolt, along with a separate 20 per cent stake that was held by San Miguel chairman Eduardo Cojuangco, on suspicion that the stakes were acquired using illegally collected funds.

Aside from the 27 per cent stake the Government intends to unload, Arroyo said San Miguel shares held by state pension funds Social Security System and Government Service Insurance System would also be included in the share sale.

Together, the two pension funds hold 11.9 per cent of the shares.

Japanese brewer Kirin has stake of about 20 per cent.

- REUTERS