AUSTRALIAN OFFER FOR SAN MIGUEL SHARES

  Diversified investment company, &lt;Ariadne
  Australia Ltd>, has offered 3.8 billion pesos for 38 mln shares
  in the Philippine brewing firm &lt;San Miguel>, a Manila newspaper
  reported.
      The Sunday Times quoted a letter sent yesterday to
  President Corazon Aquino from Ariadne's chairman, New Zealander
  Bruce Judge, that he was offering cash equivalent to five pct
  of the nation's yearly budget to buy the shares from the
  government.
      The presidential office and Ariadne representatives in
  Manila were not available for comment on the report.
      The shares are the entire block seized by the government
  from the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) on suspicion that
  the real owner was Eduardo Cojuangco, the former chairman of
  San Miguel and UCPB and a close associate of deposed president
  Ferdinand Marcos.
      The 38 mln shares consist of 24 mln class A stock and 14
  mln class B shares.
      Government officials have said earlier that the more
  valuable class A shares would not be sold to foreigners.
      The offer values each share at 100 pesos -- the price at
  which the Philippine Social Security System suggested it might
  buy eight mln class A shares last week.
      "Judge's offer of 3.8 billion pesos is about five pct of the
  Philippines' yearly budget," Ariadne's Philippine agent Domingo
  Panganiban was quoted as telling reporters yesterday.
      "Mr Judge's objective in this investment is to make his
  corporation's management expertise available to San Miguel so
  that the company's assets can be fully utilised."
      San Miguel, the country's largest brewer, is also one of
  the major manufacturers of grocery lines.
      Panganiban is quoted as saying that San Miguel could tap
  food and liquor distribution lines in Australia, Britain, the
  U.S., New Zealand and Hong Kong through &lt;Barwon Farmlands Ltd>,
  a listed Australian firm in which it has 30 pct equity.
      Ariadne, with about one billion dlrs in assets and turnover
  of about two billion, has interests also in mining, real estate
  and agricultural products.
  

