San Miguel Food preps Philippines' largest-ever equity raise

One of the biggest conglomerates in the Philippines, San Miguel Corporation, is on course to conduct the country's biggest ever equity offering after it received board approval on Wednesday to sell a 20% interest in its newly-established unit San Miguel Food Beverage.

San Miguel’s sale of 1.2 billion shares in the food and beverage unit could raise Ps89.4 billion $1.7 billion based on the stock’s Ps74.5 Wednesday close. The largest equity deal in the country was BDO Unibank’s $1.2 billion rights offering, completed in January last year.

The conglomerate is required to sell shares to the public to meet the 15% minimum free-float requirement for constituents...