Philippines-San Miguel Corp. is pushing ahead with plans to brave an initial public offering for its packaging business next year.

San Miguel vice chairman and president Ramon Ang said he remained optimistic about an IPO next year despite the current weakness in the market since their packaging business offers good value to prospective shareholders and is supported by the San Miguel brand.

"SMC is a good name," Ang said.

Ang earlier said San Miguel might sell 20 percent of its packaging business to the public.

"This is raising more capital to pay down debt and raise money to go into profitable businesses," he said.

In the first quarter, San Miguel Packaging Group's financial performance improved significantly with revenue growing 8 percent to P4.96 billion. This reflected the recovery in demand for glass in the beer, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Operating income of P347 million was a record turnaround from last year's P25 million.