reuters/test/14888

ANHEUSER-BUSCH JOINS BID FOR SAN MIGUEL
  Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc <BUD.N> has
  joined several other foreign bidders for sequestered shares of
  the Philippines' largest food and beverage maker San Miguel
  Corp <SANM.MN>, the head of a government panel which controls
  the shares told Reuters.
      Ramon Diaz, Secretary of the Presidential Commission on
  Good Government (PCGG), said Anheuser-Busch had told the
  government it was interested in buying 14 mln "B" shares of San
  Miguel. He did not disclose the offered price.
      Diaz said Australian brewer Alan Bond's Bond Corp Holdings
  Ltd had offered 150 pesos per share for the "B" shares.
      Diaz said New York investment bank Allen and Co Inc had
  earlier said it was interested in buying all 38.1 mln
  sequestered shares. He told Reuters last month Elders IXL Ltd
  <ELXA.S>, the Melbourne-based brewing company, had also bid for
  the "B" shares.
      The Hong Kong Economic Journal last month quoted a
  spokesman of Australian stock broker Jacksons Ltd as saying
  that <Barwon Farmlands Ltd>, an Australian firm owned 30 pct by
  <Ariadne Australia Ltd>, was planning a Filipino branch in
  order to buy the entire block of 38.1 mln shares.
      Anheuser-Busch last year made a 150 mln dlr bid to buy <San
  Miguel Brewery Ltd>, a Hong Kong listed company which is 69.65
  pct owned by <Neptunia Corp Ltd>, a San Miguel Corp subsidiary.
      The talks broke down last June after the two sides said
  they could not agree on the terms of the sale.