San Miguel Corporation (Tagalog pronunciation: [sɐn mɪˈɡɛl]), abbreviated as SMC, is a Philippine multinational conglomerate with headquarters in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila.

Originally founded in 1890 as a brewery, San Miguel has ventured beyond its core business, with investments in various sectors such as food and drink, finance, infrastructure, oil and energy, transportation, and real estate.

San Miguel's manufacturing operations have extended beyond its home market to areas such as Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

In 1889, a Manila businessman, Enrique María Barretto de Ycaza y Esteban, applied for a royal grant from Spain to establish a brewery in the Philippines.

On September 29, 1890 (Michaelmas, or the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel), La Fábrica de Cerveza San Miguel was opened.

Demand for beer increased, so San Miguel, still under Róxas' leadership, commenced modernization of their operations including installation of electric conveyors and automatic machines.

Soon after, Benito Legarda and Gonzalo Tuasón made it advisable to change the form of the company from a firm of co-participants to a corporation (San Miguel Brewery, Inc.).

When the First World War broke out, exports came to a temporary halt due to difficulties such as shortage of raw materials and the consequent rise in manufacturing costs.

Before World War II broke out, San Miguel built a glass factory in Paco and the Cebu Royal plant, its first installation outside Luzon.

In 1953, Soriano signed the Manila Agreement which allowed the Spanish company La Segarra S.A. to brew and sell San Miguel Beer in Spain.

At the time of his death, Soriano had parlayed his family's vast San Miguel fortune into mining, dairies, factories, a newspaper and a radio station.

He had investments in Philippine Airlines, held the largest Coca-Cola franchise, and owned five insurance agency distributorships, a Kansas City brewery that made Lone Star and Colt 45, gold mines in British East Africa and a development company in Spain.

Soriano Jr. continued to diversify the food business, building an ice cream plant in 1970 and expanding into poultry production in 1973 (it later added shrimp processing and freezing in 1984).

It was a creative counter to SMC's notoriously aggressive and sometimes cutthroat competitive strategy, which had reportedly included "attempts to sabotage Asia Brewery's sales network and smash its empty bottles."

Unable to oust Soriano, Zóbel sold his group's 19.5% stake to businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., an associate of then President Ferdinand Marcos.

Soriano launched a campaign to reclaim the family legacy, but when he tried to buy back the abandoned shares, he was blocked by the Aquino administration's Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

The PCGG continued to tend its SMC stake into the early 1990s, but it acceded de facto control of the conglomerate to Soriano via a management contract with ANSCOR.

He also wanted to head off encroaching competition from the world's biggest breweries, namely Anheuser-Busch and Miller of the United States, Kirin of Japan, and BSN of France.

Once the core brand was established in a particular market, SMC would begin to create production facilities, sometimes on an independent basis and sometimes in concert with an indigenous joint-venture partner.

[citation needed] Following the assumption of Joseph Estrada as President of the Philippines on June 30, 1998, Andrés Soriano III resigned in July 1998 and Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr. was elected chairman of SMC.

Confronted by greater competitive pressures as a result of the 1997 financial crisis, the pace of change quickened for San Miguel upon Cojuangco's return.

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.

[7] On September 15, 2014, SMC sold its stake in PAL holdings for approximately $1.3 billion and relinquished management control back to the group of Lucio Tan.

[12] By 2017, Iñigo Zóbel, son of Enrique J. Zóbel, became the largest common stock shareholder of SMC owning 66.1% through his holding company, Top Frontier Investment Holdings, Inc.[13] On November 6, 2017, SMC announced the consolidation of its beverage businesses into San Miguel Pure Foods Company, Inc. through a $6.6-billion share swap deal.

[16][17] On April 15, 2021, ten months following the death of Cojuangco, SMC amended its by-laws to unify the role, functions and duties of chief executive officer (CEO) to that of the president.

[18][19] Based on the PSE disclosure following the 2021 annual stockholders' meeting of SMC, Ang remains as vice-chairman, president (CEO) and COO of the company.

The entire food division of SMC was consolidated under San Miguel Pure Foods Company, Inc. Its integrated operations range from breeding, contract growing, processing and marketing of chicken, pork and beef to the manufacture of refrigerated, canned and ready-to-cook meat products, ice cream, butter, cheese, margarine, oils and fats, as well as animal and aquatic feeds.

Furthermore, the corporation also manufactures corrugated cartons, flexible packaging, plastic crates and pallets, metal closures and two-piece aluminium cans.

In Malaysia, it operates four facilities that produce flexible packaging, plastic films, woven products and radiant barriers for higher-value and high-tech industries such as electronics, health care and logistics firms.

In the summer of 2019 the Knights joined the PBA D-League as Petron-Letran to prepare for the upcoming NCAA Season 95 tournament and on November 19, 2019, they took home the school's 18th Men's Basketball championship by beating the defending champions San Beda Red Lions.