Beverage and food conglomerate San Miguel Corp. disclosed last Monday, Jan. 19 that it was negotiating sale of 43.25 percent of domestic beer unit San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) to Japan’s second-biggest brewery, Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd., which currently owns about 20 percent of San Miguel.
At SMB’s current market capitalization, San Miguel could raise at least P54.2 billion from the sale, which it could use for its diversification ventures into mining, power and infrastructure.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, San Miguel spokesperson Ferdinand Constantino said the company had signed a memorandum of understanding to enter into exclusive negotiations with Kirin on Kirin’s potential investment in SMB.
The sale will cut San Miguel.’s stake in SMB from about 94 percent to 50.75 percent. About six percent represents the SMB public float.
SMB has a market capitalization of about P135.5 billion based on its closing price Monday of P8.80 a share. Its share price rose 3.5 percent ahead of the announcement of the talks with Kirin in the afternoon.
Analysts said Kirin’s possible entry into SMB did not come as a surprise.
Jose Mari Lacson, head of research at stockbrokerage Campos, Lanuza & Co., noted that San Miguel had earlier announced that it was bringing in a foreign strategic partner into SMB.
Kirin bought into San Miguel early this decade, long before San Miguel decided to embark on businesses outside of beverage and food. San Miguel spun off SMB in 2007.
Lacson said Kirin’s entry plan was likely in line with its drive to expand further as a regional player. In 2007 it bought San Miguel’s Australian dairy and juice manufacturer National Foods for $2.6 billion.
If Kirin succeeds in a buy-in, it may have to make a tender offer to SMB minority shareholders, said Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc.
Under local securities regulations, a company buying at least 35 percent of a listed company must offer the same deal to minority shareholders.
A question among some analysts is whether Kirin would keep its stake in San Miguel. In the past, a key San Miguel stockholder, the retail tycoon Henry Sy, unloaded his stake in San Miguel and invested in SMB.

“I’m also very happy about the low price of this student musician program, which is offering so much in this small and safe city,” said Vladimir. The program provides 16 nights lodging, two meals a day, four private coachings with in-residence instructors, four private chamber music ensemble coachings, ten orchestra coashings, plus Master Classes with festival performers including the Endellion String Quartet from London, the Miro, Calder and Haven String Quartets and Vladimir Lande’s Poulenc Trio, among others. Students also attend professional concerts during the festival. Mr. Lande will invite and direct a group of advanced music
students and graduate musicians to join him and world-renowned instructors from acclaimed U.S. schools
of music in San Miguel. Sands reports that U.S. music students will enjoy mixing with many top music students
from the university of Mexico (UNAM) and other music academies in Mexico. As San Miguel de Allende is
consistently listed in Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Magazines as a highly rated vacation destination, friends and families may also want to attend all or part of the festival. Special rates will be offered by the San Miguel Hotel Association to these special guests.

According to some of the finest music groups performing today, such as the Ying, the Miami and Turtle Island Quartets, this UNESCO World Heritage town is an ideal setting for students to stretch and perfect their musical capabilities – not to mention, have fun. Located in central Mexico, San Miguel de Allende looks and feels more like an ancient Spanish hill-town with its cobblestone streets, 18th century colonial architecture,lively town square, and beautiful churches and theaters all adding to the creative atmosphere for the student program. “I have taken many students to Europe to participate in music festivals there,” said Vladimir Lande. “When I saw what San Miguel de Allende has to offer, I immediately realized it was a great opportunity for U.S. advanced music students to participate in an internationally respected music festival. From the wonderful learning environment to the appreciative audiences, it is an exceptional cultural center.”

“The Board of the San Miguel Music Festival is pleased to appoint Mr. Lande as Director of the U.S. Advanced Student Music Program for 2010. He brings a wealth of experience in working with students and leading student musicians and graduate musicians in music festival programs in the U.S. and Europe,” said Camilla Sands, Director of the San Miguel Music Festival.

My teacher for the day, Chef Paco Cardenas, appears. It seems I’ve fallen behind the rest of the class, and he’s worked his way back through the market to retrieve me. He lures me with a sack of fresh chickpeas, marinated with lime and chile, possibly the most seductive snack I’ve ever eaten.

We’re students today at Sazón, a cooking school owned by the Orient Express’ luxurious Hotel Casa de Sierra Nevada (participants are not required to be hotel guests, though the hotel offers cooking packages). Indulging in the first part of a morning cooking class, we visit the market with Cardenas, a local chef, who teaches us how to navigate its stalls and teaches us about its exotic offerings.

We sniff cilantro and epazote, rub our fingers over dried peppers and taste dishes made from scratch. Cardenas shops for what looks fresh today — it all does to us — and buys sacks of pipiano, nopales (cactus pads), herbs, even chunks of pink pork.

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Guanajuato — If it weren’t for the fervor created by the rapid movement of Doña Lolita’s dry, brown hands, I might think her a wooden effigy, an extant wooden statue survived from another time. Except for those spurts of energy, she sits still and almost expressionless.

Hunched over on a stool in the crowded, aromatic fruit and vegetable market, just steps from the historic main plaza here, she furrows her brow just a bit. Clad in black, she rubs doughy balls between her palms, then sets each perfectly formed piece on a plate, before pinching more from a bucket and beginning the process again. Only when each ball is finished does her expression soften, yielding to triumph at a job well done.

“¿Que hace Usted? (What are you making?)” I ask, wondering what she makes with such
intensity.

She grins a toothless smile.

“Pipiano,” she says, handing me a spicy smelling clump of dough. Then, she gestures and shows me how to form the ball. While I attempt to do what she makes look easy, she tells me about the ingredients.

“Ground ancho chile and pumpkin seeds. It’s for making mole.”

Member of Mexico’s Board of Directors, Marcela Laguna Morales led an interactive dialogue on gender issues in which men and women of San Miguel and the Sammamish group participated. The discussion covered unique yet equally valuable qualities of the male and female.

The Agros staff has entered into an informal partnership with governmental doctors and nutritionists in order to provide nutrition guidance and infant health checks for the community.

The collaboration amongst the schools of San Miguel is opening new opportunities for a stronger presence in the community. The schools would like to share and hopefully inspire new visions for the future of education, health, and natural and economic resource stewardship.

Sustainable Economic Growth
Health measures continue to be taken for the well-being of the animals and birds of the community. During recent months sixty-three cows were vaccinated and deparasited and the birds, hens and roosters will soon be as well. These precautions are especially necessary as temperatures are dropping with the start of the autumn season.
Other productive activities include the cultivation of lilies. This group hopes to make the first cutting and bring the flowers to sell in November.
The women of San Miguel have made the last payments on the enterprise loans taken out for an embroidery project and their bird-raising project on time. With this proud accomplishment, the women feel prepared to take out another loan to continue to grow these projects. The women continue to show their cooperation with the ideological guidelines of Agros and hope to be granted a larger loan in the future.

Community Organization
The President of the Agros Mexico Board of Directors, Eduardo Rodríguez Mendoza, is giving two training workshops in San Miguel—one for the community leaders and one on conflict transformation.

Housing and Infrastructure
The efficient cook stove project continues forward as the eight families participating in the past three months have completed their stoves. These efficient cook stoves use less firewood, funnel smoke out of the house to prevent respiratory problems and cook food faster. There are now a total of seventeen stoves built of the thirty scheduled for the community

In April, Cox Media began airing a commercial advertising campaign on a number of their television networks. This interactive campaign allowed viewers to use their remote controls to request more information about San Miguel’s Corporate Internship Program. Nearly two hundred requests were received during the campaign’s three-month run.

In June, San Miguel received a very generous in-kind donation from Clear Channel Radio that will enable us to run a year-long advertising campaign on any of Clear Channel’s seven radio stations. Clear Channel has given us the support of its production team which has created a series of 30-second “spots” featuring testimonials from many of our corporate partners.

These campaigns also present us with the opportunity to put our business partners in the community spotlight and let the people of Tucson know that these organizations are champions of both education and workforce development.