San Miguel Corp. plans to list all its operating companies to make them efficient and transparent according to its president Ramon Ang.

Next to be listed after San Miguel Brewery’s IPO yesterday, are the packaging and food groups.

Ang said that as much as 49 percent of the conglomerate’s food group whose sales reached P85 billion last year, will be folded under listed unit San Miguel PureFoods Co. Inc. The other food units operating independent of Purefoods are Montery Corp. and Magnolia Corp. which will be included in the follow-through listing by the first quarter of next year.

Ang said that listing will unlock the value of these units.

The last conglomerate to engage in chain listing was RFM of the Concepcion family. Unfortunately these chain-listed companies did not perform to par.

Ang said the listing documents of the packaging unit has been prepared as early as last year.

He added that the company is "preparing the groundwork for the listing of the food group.

Ang said San Miguel intends to sell "at least 20 percent" of the packaging group, whose IPO had been twice rescheduled.

Ang said the company would now focus on the Philippine market.

Southeast Asia’s biggest food and drinks conglomerate is planning to list its packaging business and conduct a follow-on offer after consolidating its food assets under Pure Foods Corp in the first quarter of 2009, Ang said.

"We hope to sell at least 20 percent of our packaging group when we go public," San Miguel’s first quarter-performance was strong, Ang said, adding there was double-digit earnings growth in the quarter over a year ago, when it posted net income of P4.33 billion.

San Miguel remained open to new non-core business ventures domestically, shunning overseas purchases for now, but was waiting for stock prices to stabilize before aggressively going for an acquisition, Ang said.

"We are interested to look at anything that will give San Miguel a good return and that can give the company growth," he said.

"We will be concentrating our energies now in the Philippines because we believe there is opportunity now in this crisis.

"I think it has not yet bottomed. And we believe there is a long way to go and the valuation of most of these companies will still go down tremendously. I think it is not yet the time to go and grab something," Ang said.

Ang also said San Miguel was not in advanced talks on any acquisition, adding there were no interesting power assets up for sale after it failed to acquire a 25-year licence to operate the national power grid at an auction in December.

San Miguel Brewery, the only big listing scheduled for this year, contributes around 40 percent of group operating profit and posted a 37 percent increase in net profit in the first quarter to 2.5 billion pesos on net sales up 13 percent.

Japan’s Kirin holds about 20 percent of San Miguel stock.

Ang also said that San Miguel may look to offer more shares of its companies given the right opportunity in order to raise capital for debt servicing and future investments.

"If there is opportunity, we will sell more and raise capital to pay more debt and get into more profitable business," Ang said.

Ang meanwhile said San Miguel is looking for new investments that will give them "at least 15 percent return on equity" and will remain prudent in venturing with their next investments, which will focus more into the local setting.

"The world is changing... I think the investment in the Philippines gives San Miguel more return. But we will never overpay. We will buy new businesses and give investors the best return but we will not overpay. We have joined six biddings in the past. And we have the discipline to make sure that it will give San Miguel at least a 15 percent return on equity," he added.

"The shareholders are very happy we did not overbid. A lot of companies are suffering now because of overbidding," he added.

Ang also added that the Philippine environment is more conducive for San Miguel Business.

" Look if you invest in China, if the administration changes, Hong Kong was taxing beer so much. Hong Kong beer operations almost folded. When we shut down one brewery, they removed the tax. Look Hong Kong operations are now earning.

If that happened in the Philippines, you can negotiate with the politicians, government.

"When you are abroad can you do that? Can you reason out?" he asked.