Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) plans to join the bidding for the government's stake in PNOC-Exploration Corp., the oil and gas exploration arm of state-run Philippine National Oil Co.

At the sidelines of the Manila Electric Co.'s (Meralco) annual stockholders' meeting on Tuesday, SMC president and chief executive officer Ramon Ang told reporters that the company continues to look for potential business ventures in the energy industry.

"We will join and evaluate any opportunity available," he said, when asked if SMC is still interested to join the PNOC-EC bidding.

"We will always be interested in any investment as long as we think that it is a viable one and we have funds to support it," he added.

SMC has acquired a majority stake in oil giant Petron Corp., putting it in a strategic position to engage in business ventures in the downstream oil industry.

Aside from this, SMC bought a 43-percent stake in Meralco, the biggest power distributor in the Philippines.

Ang said SMC would also bid for generation assets of the National Power Corp.

"We are still interested in pursuing our genco (generation company) investment. If we are lucky to get one, we will offer a very good rate to Meralco so that it can bring down the cost of electricity," Ang said.

Earlier, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves confirmed plans of the government to pursue the sale of PNOC-EC on or before September this year. The government is hoping to generate P11 billion in revenues from the share sale.

Three financial advisors were hired to handle the privatization of PNOC-EC. These include the Development Bank of the Philippines, Citibank Group, and ATR KimEng Securities Corp.