San Miguel says no plans to take over Manila Electric

MANILA May 26 (Reuters) - San Miguel Corp (SMC.PS) SMCB.PS, Southeast Asia's largest food and drinks group, has no plans to take over control of power distributor Manila Electric Co (MER.PS), its president Ramon Ang said on Tuesday.

Ang, who was re-elected vice chairman of the utility firm after a shareholders' meeting on Tuesday, has steered San Miguel away from its traditional businesses and into heavy industry such as power to drive future growth.

"We are here investing in support of Meralco, not to take over," Ang told a news briefing.

San Miguel and the Philippines' largest listed firm, PLDT (TEL.PS), bought stakes in the power distributor to boost their own telecoms ventures using Meralco's fiber-optic network. (Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr. and Karen Lema; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)