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By Katrina Mennen A. Valdez, Reporter
SOUTHEAST Asia’s largest food and beverage
conglomerate said Thursday that its stockholders gave the green
light to a corporate-wide restructuring program that would allow its
major subsidiaries to list at the local bourse on their own, sell
more shares to the public, and strike strategic partnerships.
“This will enable each of [our] operating
business to focus more fully on optimizing the underlying potential
of each business, which investors could more easily appreciate,”
Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., San Miguel Corp. chairman and chief executive
officer, said in a statement released during the company’s annual
stockholders’ meeting.
At present, SMC is laying the groundwork for the
listing of its packaging division and a secondary offering for its
food division. The conglomerate spun off earlier this year its beer
division, San Miguel Brewery Inc. (see related story on page B3).
Cojuangco said that in any of these
undertakings, SMC would retain controlling interest of at least 51
percent.
In the first five
months of the year, SMC said its net income surged by more than 200
percent to P17 billion from last year’s P5 billion.
The company said it ended last year with P155
billion, or 10 percent more revenues than in 2006. Its earnings from
continuing operations stood at P8.21 billion, marginally higher than
the previous year.
“[We] achieved these results amid a headwind
of inflation but while still fundamentally reshaping [our]
company,” Cojuangco said, adding the company had coped with the
cost pressures.
“[We] used our scale to drive business
efficiency. That’s why [we] are confident that San Miguel’s
portfolio of well-known, quality food and beverage brands will stand
it in good stead during this economic slowdown,” he added.
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