Philippines' San Miguel halves food unit share sale, seeks $920 million

By Neil Jerome Morales and Anshuman Daga

MANILA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp said it is looking to raise about $920 million through a sale of shares in its food unit, slashing the size of the offering by almost half due to weakness in the stock market.

The sale of a minority stake in San Miguel Food and Beverage is part of the parent firm's restructuring plan that was announced in August 2017.

In a regulatory filing to the stock exchange, the food unit said San Miguel is seeking to sell a total of 523 million shares in a price range of 85 to 95 pesos per share.

This excludes an over-allotment option of up to 15 percent of the offering.

The price range compares with regulatory filing figures of up to 1.02 billion shares on offer and of up to 140 pesos per share, a premium of about 75 percent to the unit's trading price at the time of the announcement of the plan

While regulatory filing prices are often set far above expected bookbuilding ranges in the Philippines, it is not common for the number of shares on offer to be cut.

Earlier on Thursday, San Miguel President Ramon Ang offered varying statements to reporters about potential pricing, saying both that the shares could be priced at 90 to 100 pesos and that they could be priced between 85 and 100 pesos.

"Weakness in stock markets has put further pressure on the pricing," said one source, who did not wish to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

San Miguel plans to use proceeds from the share sale to invest in its business, but it did not provide details. The conglomerate is pursuing an aggressive expansion plan that involves venturing into infrastructure, mining, petroleum and power generation to boost revenues.

($1 = 54.0000 Philippine pesos)

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Julia Fioretti in Hong Kong; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)