San Miguel Corp, Southeast Asia's biggest food and beverage firm, announced on June 11 its beer sales rose 12% in its Philippine home market in April, according to Reuters. San Miguel, 15 % owned by Japan's Kirin Brewery Co Ltd, said that domestic beer sales grew about 10 % in January to April from a year earlier. Beer comprises about a fifth of its consolidated sales. "We confirm that San Miguel's domestic beer volumes for April and the first four months increased by 12 % and 10 %, respectively," it said in a statement to the stock exchange.

San Miguel dominates the Philippine beer market with a share of about 90%. San Miguel posted 10 % volume growth in local beer sales in the first quarter, fuelling a 12 % climb in revenue and a 21 % jump in net income in the period. "If the trend continues for the rest of the year then beer volume sales should easily reach 147 million cases for 2003," CLSA Securities said. "This would be a major improvement from the 134.3 million cases sold last year and the first time in recent years that the company would have posted two years of continued growth."

San Miguel's A shares, open only to local investors, closed unchanged at 54.50 pesos on June 11. Its B shares, open to all investors, were steady at 64 pesos.

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