By the end of 1998, shuffling assets to find the ideal portfolio and looking to restructure our operations and

focus on our core competencies, Cojuangco sold San Miguel's stake in Coca-Cola Beverages, CocaCola Amatils bottler in Europe, along with SMC's 45% stake in Nestl Philippines. The sale of both CocaCola Beverages and Nestle was part of the new managements effort to restructure the San Miguel Group and focus its technological, managerial and financial strengths to ventures where it believed it could add the most value. A number of management changes were made in conjunction with a rightsizing program. Management layers were flattened to restore the company to fighting trim. In May, the San Miguel Brewing International regional headquarters was transferred from Hong Kong to Manila and to reduce overhead expenses, the employees of SMBIL were repatriated. The organisational streamlining was meant to configure San Miguel to enable it to better respond to the competitive climate. The goal was to speed up decision-making and have a flatter and more dynamic organisation, one that was more efficient and more responsive to the market. The group-wide logistics and purchasing functions were realigned at the corporate level. The Food Group, La Tondea Distillers and the international operations were recapitalized. Metro Bottled Water Corp., manufacturers of Wilkins Distilled Water, was acquired. In February 2001, San Miguel once again regained control of Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. Shortly after, San Miguel acquired the Ayala Company's PureFoods, becoming the undisputed market leader in the Philippines fast growing food industry, owning two-thirds of the refrigerated/processed meat market, and over a third of the poultry and feeds industries. Cojuangco and Ang have also been on an international shopping spree. In the past three years, San Miguel has bought six companies in four nearby countries. In 2004, it boosted international sales to 13 percent of total revenues from 10 percent the previous year. San Miguel's first major acquisition under Cojuangco and Ang was Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. San Miguel paid $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd. and $35.5 million for food processor TTC (Vietnam) Co. in 2003. In 2004,it bought 51 percent of Berri Ltd., Australia's top juicemaker, for $97.9 million. To shore up its war chest, San Miguel took in Japanese brewer Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd., which bought a 15-percent stake in San Miguel, for $540 million in 2002. In 2005, the company made its biggest overseas acquisition with the takeover of National Foods Ltd., Australia's largest publicly traded dairy, which it bought for P80.38 billion. That was followed later in the year with its $420-million purchase of Singapore-based Del Monte Pacific Ltd., the region's largest pineapple canner. San Miguel has merged National Foods' operation with Berri.

In 2006, San Miguel has sold its 65% stake at its Coca-Cola Philippine venture (including its subsidiaries Cosmos Bottling and Philippine Beverage Partners) to The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) for $590 million. In November 2007, SMC sold Boag's to Lion Nathan for A$325 million. The same month, SMC also sold National Foods to Kirin for 294 billion.
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While the global financial meltdown of 2008-2009 sent many companies into full retreat, San Miguel Corporation powered ahead, investing mightily in a strategy to reaccelerate growth and improve margins.