In 1996 SMC purchased full control of its Hong Kong arm, San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Ltd. In April of the following year, SMC's domestic soft-drink bottling unit, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc., was merged into the Australia-based Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. (CCA). In effect, SMC exchanged its 70-percent interest in a Philippine-only operation for a 25-percent stake in CCA, which had operations in 17 countries. CCA soon demerged the latter operations into a UK-based firm called Coca-Cola Beverages plc (resulting in a reduction of SMC's stake in CCA to 22 percent).