	australian offer for san miguel shares diversified investment company ariadne australia ltd has offered billion pesos for mln shares in the philippine brewing firm 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 mln shares consist of mln class a stock and 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 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 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 barwon farmlands ltd a listed australian firm in which it has 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 reuter 
