Exceeding market expectations, diversified Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp. has raised $900 million in new capital from a public offering of common shares and convertible bonds to foreign investors, the company said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Of the amount, $600 million was from sales of bonds convertible to common shares and $300 million from common shares that the company raised during road shows and book-building in Southeast Asia and United Kingdom, the company said.

Another $100 million worth of shares will be offered to local investors on Monday.

The public offering, which early this month was expected to generate $850 million, aims to raise capital to finance San Miguel's forays into infrastructure investment and operations.

The common shares were priced at 110 pesos (US$2.55) each, which was significantly lower than its last traded price of 153 pesos when trading on the stock was suspended on April 12. When the planned share offer was first announced in January, a price of 250 pesos was mentioned by company officials.

Included in the shares sale are holdings of Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc., which has a 67.2 percent interest in San Miguel. On the other hand, San Miguel owns 49 percent of Top Frontier.

The exchangeable bonds, which will be listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange, have a maturity of three years, a coupon of 2 percent per annum and a conversion premium of 25 percent of the offer price, the company said.

During the fund raising, San Miguel tapped Credit Suisse; Standard Chartered Bank; Goldman Sachs; UBS AG; DBP Daiwa Securities, Inc.; ATR KimEng Capital Partners, Inc.; BDO Capital and Investment Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp.