San Miguel president Ramon Ang was elected as the new chairman of Petron replacing Nicasio Alcantara who will continue to serve as one of the directors, Petron said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The statement said the election of a new set of officers took effect on Jan 8 during a special meeting with other San Miguel officials who will be joining the Petron board.

On Wednesday, San Miguel said it had signed an agreement to acquire a holding company that has a 50.1 per cent stake in Petron Corp.

San Miguel has two years to buy 100 percent of SEA Refinery Holdings BV's interest in SEA Refinery Corp.

SEA Refinery Holdings is a unit of London-listed Ashmore Group.

Ashmore acquired a 40 per cent stake in Manila-based Petron from Saudi Arabia's Aramco Overseas Co. last year and acquired a further 10.1 per cent from smaller investors on the open market.

Shortly afterwards, the Philippine government announced it would sell its 40 per cent stake in Petron to Ashmore, although the sale has yet to go through.

SEA Refinery Corp, a unit of SEA Refinery Holdings, holds all 50.1 per cent of Ashmore's stake in Petron.

San Miguel said it plans to use its own funds plus external borrowings, 'if necessary,' to pay for the acquisition.

The company said it has engaged Swiss bank UBS as its financial adviser in the transaction, the value of which is yet to be determined.

San Miguel has been looking to invest outside its core businesses of beer, beverages, dairy products and food processing. -- AFP