MANILA GOVERNMENT TO TAKE OVER SAN MIGUEL BOARD

  A government commission that controls 51
  pct of &lt;San Miguel Corp> (SMC) stock will increase its nominees
  on the firm's 15-member board to nine from six.
      "We want to correct business practices," Ramon Diaz, chairman
  of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), told
  Reuters.
      "Right now there are a lot of companies that keep so many
  things from their shareholders and one of them is San Miguel,"
  he said.
      A San Miguel spokesman declined comment.
      Diaz said New York investment bank Allen and Co Inc told
  the PCGG it was interested in tendering for all outstanding SMC
  stock, with the subsequent dispersal of 60 pct of the stock to
  Filipino investors to comply with investment laws.
      He said Australian businessman and brewer Alan Bond and the
  brewing company Elders IXL Ltd &lt;ELXA.S> were interested in
  buying 40 pct each of SMC stock.
      He added that the PCGG wanted some foreign input but would
  not allow foreign control of the brewing and food conglomerate,
  the Philippines' biggest manufacturing concern.
      Diaz said the PCGG did not plan to remove SMC president
  Andres Soriano from his family company.
      "He has tremendous prestige to run the company," Diaz said.
  "We appreciate his management, but certainly some practices have
  to be corrected."
  

