• A man orders San Miguel Beer in an event in Hong Kong.

A man orders San Miguel Beer in an event in Hong Kong. (Photo : Getty Images)

The Philippines' largest company by sales, San Miguel Corp., is "evaluating and may bid" for Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp., according to company president Ramon Ang.

San Miguel Corp. sells 90 percent of beers consumed in the Philippines.

Among seven other foreign companies that will bid for stakes in Saigon Beer are Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., Heineken NV and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV.

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Vietnam is boosting its brewery business as consumption is growing annually at a rate of at least 10 percent, which is five times more than in the Philippines. The Chinese market, which accounts for half of the beer industry's global volume increase in 2015, could be a potential target for the two beer brands.

Vietnam's largest brewer, Saigon Beer, has been given government approval to engage the services of consultants in its planned stake sale.

Meanwhile, San Miguel Corp. plans to invest $34 billion in an ocean-tide power plant, an integrated steel complex and an oil refinery, amid forecasts for robust economic growth in the country.

Ang revealed that San Miguel Corp. nearly increased fourfold in assets since 2008 after its diversification from food and drinks into other industries such as toll roads and resources.

He added that excluding one-off items, the company's profit will increase by at least 20 percent to around $1.2 billion in 2017.

The oil refinery complex that San Miguel intends to build will have a capacity of 250,000 barrels a day and will entail investments of $15 billion.

The steel plant will require another $15 billion in investments while the 1,200 megawatts ocean-tide energy project will cost $3.6 billion.

Profit rose 80 percent to 52.2 billion pesos last year due to higher sales at its oil, beer and food units.

It also gained 11.8 billion pesos from the sale of its telecommunication assets that helped offset a 9 billion peso loss in foreign exchange.