San Miguel Corp last night sold a 5.7% stake in Manila Electric Co Meralco through a block trade, raising Ps17.37 billion $400 million.
The Philippine conglomerate has earlier said that it was looking at alternatives for selling its entire stake in the power producer and it was widely expected that part of that sale would happen through the capital markets. Hence the deal didn’t come as a surprise.
Before this transaction, San Miguel owned about 21.5% of Meralco directly, while two of its subsidiaries SMC Global Power Holdings and San Miguel Pure Foods own another 11.3%.
The block trade was launched at a...