Several weeks back, I wrote about the interest of Japanese beer giant Kirin to increase its stake in San Miguel Brewery and gain control of the San Miguel subsidiary. At the time, San Miguel Corporation president Ramon Ang denied that the food and beverage giant was looking to give up control of its beer operation, saying that the company seeks to retain control of its main businesses, which include San Miguel Brewery Inc., Ginebra San Miguel Inc., and San Miguel Pure Foods Corporation.

Ang has since changed his tune, as two weeks ago, the company sought board approval to sell majority stakes in its food and beverage holdings. The company aims to raise additional capital to fund its expansion into high-growth industries.

Apart from interest from Kirin in SMB, Ang himself confirmed that the mother company is in talks to sell Ginebra to the brewery. He also said that there are already interested buyers in San Miguel Pure Foods.

It should be noted that while most of San Miguel’s traditional food brands such as Magnolia, Monterey, and B-MEG have been folded into San Miguel Pure Foods, the company is still headed by Butch Alejo, a professional manager who was part of Purefoods before the sale of the company by the Ayala Corporation to San Miguel. In previous years, San Miguel has shown few qualms about letting go of brands associated with the company: it sold its dairy business (including Magnolia ice cream) in 1998 to Nestle and its stake in Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc. (including Royal Tru-Orange) to the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company. San Miguel Pure Foods is currently in a joint venture with American meat company Hormel in its canned and processed meats business.

Further making matters interesting are the murmurs about the possibility of San Miguel chairman Danding Cojuangco cashing out of the company. The former Marcos crony has been reported to be battling an illness.

These giant moves, if and when they happen, would cause ripples beyond the business world, and it would be felt especially in the Philippine Basketball Association. The San Miguel PBA teams – San Miguel Beer, Ginebra, and Derby Ace (nee Purefoods) – provide enough marketing value apart from boosting corporate morale, so whoever controls the companies will most probably keep them around.

But there will also be changes. For one, there will be realignment, because while San Miguel and Ginebra will most likely still be sister teams, Purefoods might be under different umbrella. Also, if Cojuangco, a big-time basketball fan who once served as project director of the Philippine national basketball program, leaves San Miguel, the teams may not have a patron who will allow the carefree spending for the ball clubs’ operations.

If all these things go down, we might wake up one day to realize that the PBA is no longer an SMC league. I would not mind that at all.