San Miguel Corp. and SEA Refinery Holdings B.V. have signed an agreement giving the country?s largest food and beverage company Miguel an option to purchase the entire stake of SEA Refinery Corp., the major shareholder of Petron Corp.

San Miguel said in a disclosure to the stock exchange that it signed the option agreement on Dec. 24.

SEA Refinery is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SEA Refinery Holdings, which owns 50.17 percent of the outstanding shares of Petron.

San Miguel under the agreement may exercise the option within two years.

SEA Refinery Holdings also agreed to give San Miguel a representation in the board and management of Petron.

No further details were provided.

San Miguel, by acquiring SEA Refinery directly, could be exempted from conducting a tender offer for the remaining shares of Petron.

The option agreement, once completed, will make San Miguel the majority shareholder of Petron, abd realize its goal to diversify into new businesses.

London-based Ashmore group, through its unit SEA Refinery Holdings, earlier paid the national government P25.7 billion for the purchase of the government?s 40-percent stake in Petron Corp.

The payment will further increase SEA Refinery Holdings? stake in Petron to 90.1 percent after acquiring Saudi Aramco?s 40 percent stake for $550 million and the rest via tender offer.

San Miguel earlier announced that it wa diversifying into new businesses, especially in the areas of power distribution, telecommunications, mining and infrastructure.

San Miguel made significant strides toward its diversification plans last year as it is set to acquire a 27 percent interest in Manila Electric Co. It also disclosed plans to venture into local telecommunications industry in joint venture with Qatar Telecom.

San Miguel, awash with cash after selling its Australian assets, namely National Foods Ltd and J. Boad $ Sons Ltd, has a war chest of nearly P100 billion as of end September 2008. It is also reportedly planning to raise at least $1 billion via a preferred share offering this year. Jennffer B. Austria