AUSTRALIAN OFFER FOR SAN MIGUEL SHARES
Diversified investment company, <Ariadne
Australia Ltd>, has offered 3.8 billion pesos for 38 mln shares
in the Philippine brewing firm <San Miguel>, a Manila newspaper
reported.
    The Sunday Times quoted a letter sent yesterday to
President Corazon Aquino from Ariadne's chairman, New Zealander
Bruce Judge, that he was offering cash equivalent to five pct
of the nation's yearly budget to buy the shares from the
government.
    The presidential office and Ariadne representatives in
Manila were not available for comment on the report.
    The shares are the entire block seized by the government
from the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) on suspicion that
the real owner was Eduardo Cojuangco, the former chairman of
San Miguel and UCPB and a close associate of deposed president
Ferdinand Marcos.
    The 38 mln shares consist of 24 mln class A stock and 14
mln class B shares.
    Government officials have said earlier that the more
valuable class A shares would not be sold to foreigners.
    The offer values each share at 100 pesos -- the price at
which the Philippine Social Security System suggested it might
buy eight mln class A shares last week.
    "Judge's offer of 3.8 billion pesos is about five pct of the
Philippines' yearly budget," Ariadne's Philippine agent Domingo
Panganiban was quoted as telling reporters yesterday.
    "Mr Judge's objective in this investment is to make his
corporation's management expertise available to San Miguel so
that the company's assets can be fully utilised."
    San Miguel, the country's largest brewer, is also one of
the major manufacturers of grocery lines.
    Panganiban is quoted as saying that San Miguel could tap
food and liquor distribution lines in Australia, Britain, the
U.S., New Zealand and Hong Kong through <Barwon Farmlands Ltd>,
a listed Australian firm in which it has 30 pct equity.
    Ariadne, with about one billion dlrs in assets and turnover
of about two billion, has interests also in mining, real estate
and agricultural products.
 REUTER
