By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
The Filipino conglomerate San Miguel Corporation is poised to wade into the £2bn auction of United Biscuits, owner of some of Britain's biggest food brands.
Sky News has learnt that San Miguel Pure Foods, a division of the south-east Asian group best-known for its eponymous beer brand, is one of approximately a handful of parties which are examining a formal bid for UB even as it pursues a listing on the stock market.
UB owns Jaffa Cakes, Penguin, Twiglets and other big-selling snack brands, and is attracting takeover interest from around the world.
Sources said on Tuesday that the Savola Group, a Saudi Arabian food producer, was also potentially interested.
News of the prospective Saudi and Filipino bids comes a month after Sky News revealed that Kellogg had appointed bankers at Barclays to assess an offer for UB.
The Italian confectionery group Ferrero, Ulker of Turkey and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, which owns rival biscuit-maker Burton's, have also held talks with UB's owners in recent days.
Blackstone and PAI Partners, the private equity groups, have hired Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to prepare a sale or stock market flotation of UB, whose other leading brands include Mini Cheddars.
A public listing is viewed as the likelier option, with an announcement possible in mid-October, although a final decision will depend upon the state of stock markets at the time as well as the value of any formal offers received from bidders.
UB's board has engaged Centerview Partners, a leading independent advisory firm, to steer it through the process.
Martin Glenn, the former Pepsico and Iglo Birds Eye executive who was appointed to run UB last year, has been meeting analysts and prospective institutional investors, from whom feedback is said to have been positive.
Mr Glenn has a strong reputation in the consumer goods industry and has focused in recent months on revitalising the core McVitie's brand with new advertising and products.
In 2012, Kellogg was linked to a possible bid for UB's snacks arm, which included Skips and Hula Hoops, but a formal offer failed to materialise before it was sold to Germany's Intersnack.
If UB does get sold, it would be the second industry deal in less than a year involving North American and British companies.
Last year, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan bought Burton's Biscuits, the owner of Jammie Dodgers and Wagon Wheels, in a deal worth £350m.
Since then, Burton's has been in talks about a merger with Fox's, another major UK-based producer.
UB declined to comment.
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