Manila, April 11 - Southeast Asian food and drinks group San Miguel has cut the maximum it hoped to raise from an IPO of its domestic beer by 29 percent, its second pullback in as many months, one of the underwriters said on Friday, confirming a Reuters report.
"Demand is strong. We are just tightening the range," Ed Francisco, executive vice-president of BDO Capital Investment Corp., one of the domestic underwriters for the May 12 listing, told reporters.
A source familiar with the listing had earlier told Reuters that the company had decided on a price range of 8.0-11.0 pesos a share on Thursday compared to a previous band of 8.0-15.40 pesos after large investors said it was too pricy.
"It's due to feedback from pre-marketing," said the source, who declined to be identified due to securities regulations.
At the top of the new range, the San Miguel Brewery listing would raise a maximum of $409 million, down from around $606 million based on an original price range of 9.50-16.30 pesos a share, which was cut in March due to turbulent market conditions.
The group, in which Japan's Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. holds around 20 percent, kickstarted its domestic roadshow for the listing in Manila on Friday.
At the top of the new range, the IPO values San Miguel Brewery, the company's flagship division, at around $4 billion, down from an original valuation of around $6 billion.
San Miguel is selling between 5 and 10 percent of San Miguel Brewery and most of the proceeds will be channelled into its planned move into heavy industry in the Philippines.
San Miguel wants to remould itself as a conglomerate amid rising input costs for food and beverages and a sluggish home market, which it dominates for beer, liquor, processed meat, poultry and dairy products.
But despite announcing its new strategy in 2007, it has yet to start a major move into mining, power and utilities.
CROWN JEWEL
Investors said reducing the top of the beer IPO price range was a necessity.
"If it was listed a year ago it probably wouldn't have been viewed as so expensive," said one Manila-based fund manager, who declined to be named. "San Miguel (Brewery) is the crown jewel."
"I would say at this point, the company realises that it's a difficult market to do an IPO in."
San Miguel Brewery contributes around 40 percent of group operating profit and posted a 9 percent increase in net profit last year to 8 billion pesos.
Its listing would be the biggest market debut since conglomerate SM Investments' $530 million offer in 2005 and is the only major IPO scheduled for this year. A successful launch would be a shot in the arm for Manila's stock market.
The local index has lost nearly 19 percent so far this year and in January, Cebu Pacific, the Philippines' top budget airline, shelved plans for a $309 million IPO.
San Miguel's A shares, open only to local investors, are down around 26 percent so far this year and its B shares, open to all, are around 24 percent weaker.
The A stock finished flat at 45 pesos and the B shares closed 1.11 percent up at 45.4 pesos in a market down 0.48 percent.
San Miguel is selling 70 percent of the beer offering to foreign investors. Kirin is expected to take up a large portion.
The group plans a separate IPO for its regional packaging unit later this year.
Citigroup and ATR Kim-Eng Capital Partners are joint global coordinators for the brewery unit's listing. ATR Kim-Eng Capital and BDO Capital are joint domestic underwriters.
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