San Miguel Corporation is planning to raise P75 billion from the sale of treasury and unissued common shares to finance its massive investments and acquisitions program.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Tuesday, SMC chief finance officer Ferdinand Constantino said the SMC board of directors approved the offer of approximately one billion common shares at a price of not less than P75 per share.

“The Board has authorized Management to determine the issue price and other terms of the offer,” Constantino said.

The move comes after delays in the sale of a minority stake in food and beverage unit San Miguel Pure Foods Company from which SMC had hoped to raise around $1 billion.

SMC has so far shortlisted its prospective buyers of a minority stake in Pure Foods five to just two bidders, reported to be Universal Robina Corporation and a consortium led by the Campos group’s NutriAsia.

The two bidders will proceed to do further due diligence prior to final negotiations, SMC president Ramon S. Ang said.

SMC had said that it may opt to do a public offer of its shares in Pure Foods as an alternative divestment route if it does not get an acceptable offer for a substantial stake in the 97 percent-owned unit.

Ang had earlier said that San Miguel might sell up to 49 percent of Pure Foods to help finance the conglomerate's expansion plans.

He said the firm is worth around $1.8 billion although recent estimates put the bid price at around $2 billion. Pure Foods has a market capitalization of P57.5 billion ($1.24 billion).

Ang said the original plan for SMPFC was to sell a 49 percent stake via a follow-on offering of secondary shares.

However, Ang said there were offers for a direct acquisitions so SMC has to consider these offers since it is much faster and cheaper to sell the stake directly to one buyer instead of undergoing a public offer.

While SMC is willing to sell a controlling stake in SMPFC, Ang said it will have to be a “spectacular” offer since their plan is really just to sell a 49 percent interest in the subsidiary.

SMPFC president Francisco Alejo III said the sale will not be based purely on financial considerations since the buyer will have to be a strategic investor that will be able to steer the company to greater growth.