San Miguel Brewery Inc., a joint venture between San Miguel Corp. and Japan’s Kirin Holding Co., is acquiring the non-alcoholic beverage assets of Ginebra San Miguel Inc. for nearly P400 million.
Ginebra said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it signed a deed of sale in favor of SMB to sell finished goods and other inventories comprising of containers on hand, packaging materials, and goods in process and raw materials used by the company in non-alcoholic beverage business for P214.97 million.
Ginebra also sold last month the property, plant and equipment used for its non-alcoholic beverage business, including machinery and equipment, vehicles, coolers, chillers and other equipment.
“With the foregoing, total purchase price paid for the non-alcoholic beverage assets of the company is P397.89 million, exclusive of VAT, net of adjustments to the price of the property, plant and equipment that SMB purchased from the company on April 1, 2015, after subsequent validation and confirmation by the parties,” Ginebra said.
SMB’s acquisition of Ginebra’s non-alcoholic beverage business is in line with the company’s diversification strategy to capitalize on the opportunities in the rapidly growing non-alcoholic beverage industry.
The beer company said the non-alcoholic beverage category had a larger share of the whole beverage industry and was growing at a faster pace than the alcoholic category.
Ginebra’s non-alcoholic beverage reported sales of P590 million in 2014, down from P722 million in 2013. It also incurred a net loss of P133 million last year.
SMB and GSMI are sister companies and are both controlled by San Miguel.
Ginebra is the largest gin producer by volume in the world. It also produces bottled purified water, carbonated energy drinks, non-carbonated tea and fruit juices in ready-to-drink bottled and powdered formats in the Philippines.