Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. said Tuesday its board of directors approved the acquisition of an 85.5-percent interest in Eagle Cement Corp. owned by Ramon Ang’s family.
The deal could amount to P97 billion based on the approved acquisition price of P22.02 per share. The price represents a 43-percent premium over Eagle Cement’s closing price of P15.40 on Tuesday, when the deal was announced.
The acquisition will enable Ang to consolidate his cement business under San Miguel where he is also the president and chief executive.
San Miguel said in a disclosure to the stock exchange late Tuesday its board of directors authorized the management to sign a share purchase agreement with major shareholders of Eagle Cement.
San Miguel said both Ramon Ang and John Paul Ang, who is the president of Eagle Cement and a director of San Miguel, “did not did not participate in the approval by the board of directors of the corporation of the proposed acquisition.”
The proposed transaction will trigger notification and clearance from the Philippine Competition Commission.
San Miguel said it would conduct a tender offer to acquire the remaining shares in Eagle Cement owned by minority shareholders.
The planned acquisition comes amid the rapid expansion of San Miguel group into infrastructure sector.
The conglomerate is building the P740-billion New Manila International Airport in Bulacan and the Metro Rail Transit Line 7.
It is also constructing the South Luzon Expressway TR4 project, which will extend the South Luzon Expresway from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Lucena City in Quezon province and the upcoming SLEX TR5 project from Lucena to Matnog, Sorsogon.
Eagle Cement managed to remain profitable with a net income of P3 billion in the first half on P13.7-billion sales.
Eagle Cement, the country’s third largest cement player based on revenues, owns the single largest integrated plant in terms of annual cement output in Bulacan. The facility has a production capacity of 8.6 million metric tons.