San Miguel Brewery Inc., the biggest Philippine beer maker, hired a group of five banks to help it sell about $500 million of bonds that will fund asset purchases from parent company San Miguel Corp.

Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG will help the brewer sell five-year, dollar-denominated notes next month, according to a banker and company official involved in the deal, who declined to be identified because the plan is private. The company aims to sell about P15 billion of bonds this month, people familiar with the matter said on Jan. 29.

?We?re hearing that they will offer an attractive yield of at least 200 basis points over prevailing yields for the peso bonds, and if the dollar bonds are priced as aggressively, then there could be demand as well,? said Yvette Marquez, who helps manage P230 billion as a senior trader at BPI Asset Management.

Debt-free San Miguel Brewery on Monday said its board approved borrowing as much as P38.8 billion in the local currency or dollars to help the company buy land and beer brands from San Miguel Corp., which has said it expects to complete the asset sales by April. The brewer, whose profit last year jumped 25 percent to P10 billion, will be buying brands that control 95 percent of the Philippines? beer market.

San Miguel Brewery plans to meet investors in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, New York and Los Angeles next month before the dollar bond sale, the people said yesterday. President Ramon Ang couldn?t immediately be reached for comment on his mobile phone. Bloomberg