Ashmore unit buys majority stake in Manila's Petron

MANILA, July 22 (Reuters) - The Ashmore Group (ASHM.L) will acquire a 50.57 percent majority stake in Philippine oil refiner Petron (PCOR.PS) after its tender offer closed on July 14, an Ashmore unit said on Tuesday.

But the London-based investment group failed to achieve 100 percent ownership of the Philippines' biggest refiner after the government, through Philippine National Oil Co., opted to hold onto its 40 percent stake.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the government would maintain the chairmanship of the company.

"Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) will always assume the position of chairman. The president will come from Ashmore. The position of CEO is rotated every year and it will be PNOC this year, and next year Ashmore," Reyes told reporters.

State-run PNOC did not participate in the tender offer as the government has said it wants to sell its Petron holdings at a higher price. Ashmore's tender valued Petron at 6.531 pesos a share.

Petron finished up 1.69 percent at 6.0 pesos on Tuesday in a index .PSI down 0.27 percent.

In May, local business clan the Gokongwei's offered to buy PNOC's stake in Petron at 6.55 pesos per share.

The government hopes to sell its Petron stake in the fourth quarter to help fund its budget deficit expected to reach as much as 75 billion pesos ($1 billion) this year.

Last year, the government raised around 90 billion pesos, a record, via asset sales, narrowing its budget deficit to 12.4 billion pesos.

SEA Refinery Holdings B.V., owned by Ashmore Investment Management Limited, agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in Petron from Saudi Aramco for $550 million earlier this year.

Last month, it offered to buy the remaining 60 percent stake, or 5.63 billion common shares, in Petron at 6.531 pesos per share or $0.146.

Under Philippine corporate laws, an entity buying 30 percent stake in any company must undertake a tender offer.

At the end of the tender offer last week, SEA Refinery received tenders for a total of 990.98 million common shares, or a total of 6.5 billion pesos, from minority shareholders, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange.

($1=44.61 Philippine peso) (Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Kim Coghill)