Manila, May 5 - The initial public offering of San Miguel's Corp's flagship domestic beer unit has attracted substantial interest, with the local tranche oversubscribed a day before the close of subscriptions, one of two domestic underwriters said on Monday.
The local tranche accounts for 30 percent of the offering, with the rest available to international investors. The overseas offer, which closed on April 24, was around 1-½ times covered after being priced at the bottom of the range, sources said.
"It's oversubscribed already, that is why we at BDO have to cut down some of our customers already," Ed Francisco, executive vice-president at BDO Capital Investment Corp told Reuters.
"The fact that you are cutting down, it is a good sign. That means the issue is really doing well even if the market is not doing well."
San Miguel Brewery, considered the food and beverage giant's crown jewel, has priced the offer at 8.0 pesos per share, the low end of an 8.0-11.0 peso range. The shares will be listed on May 12.
Only 5 percent of the company's stock is being put on sale, giving the company 6.16 billion pesos ($145.6 million) in proceeds.
At the start of the year, San Miguel Brewery was gearing up to be the Philippines' biggest-ever IPO with maximum proceeds of $600 million plus, overshadowing conglomerate SM Investments' record $530 million offer in 2005.
But turbulent market conditions and investor complaints that the offer was too expensive forced San Miguel to twice shrink the price range from an original 9.50-16.30 pesos per share and halve size of the offer.
The beer business accounts for around 40 percent of group operating profit. In the first quarter of this year, it posted a 37 percent increase in net profit to 2.5 billion pesos on net sales up 13 percent.
The bulk of the IPO proceeds will be used to pay off San Miguel's debts.
Citigroup and ATR Kim-Eng Capital Partners are joint global coordinators in the San Miguel Brewery IPO. ATR Kim-Eng Capital and BDO Capital are joint domestic underwriters.
San Miguel's B shares, open to all investors, closed unchanged at 49 pesos on Monday while its A shares, reserved for locals, were up 50 centavos at 46.50 pesos.
The overall index was up 1.1 percent.