Bottler Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. said that major shareholder San Miguel Corp. has not made a proposal to buy back CCA“s Philippines operations.
“There is no proposal from San Miguel before the company,…
Bottler Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. said that major shareholder San Miguel Corp. has not made a proposal to buy back CCA“s Philippines operations. “There is no proposal from San Miguel before the company,” a CCA spokesman said. The Philippines brewing giant had reportedly proposed buying back the operations it sold to CCA in 1997. San Miguel exchanged its soft-drink assets for a 21.5% stake in CCA, but the Philippines purchase has not been a happy one for either company. CCA has suffered as the weak Philippines economy has hampered efforts to squeeze acceptable returns from the business, which has harmed its share price and the value of San Miguel“s stake. On 4 May, CCA said Philippines“ first quarter 2000 sales volumes had dropped 4.6% compared to a year ago and it was planning a further review of the operations in a bid to find savings. San Miguel has flagged it is a seller of its 219.06 million shares, 192.5 million of which are subject to sale restrictions until July 2000, although CCA shares are trading well below a level San Miguel would likely consider fair value. The Philippines company rejected A$ 5.00 a share for its stake in 1999, saying the result of a global book build did not reflect CCA“s long term value. CCA shares have fallen from the 1999 high of A$ 7.85 to a seven-year low of A$ 3.06 on 27 June 2000. CCA“s largest shareholder is The Coca-Cola Co.