San Miguel stockholders and the public in general gets an assurance from San Miguel Corporation or SMC that it will remain a publicly listed company in the Philippine Stock Market. The Philippines’ largest listed company said that “San Miguel shall remain listed, owing to its iconic status in the country.”

SMC made this statement Thursday after its President Ramon Ang said that it was thinking of making the company private because compliance with the Philippine Stock Exchange’s requirements on disclosures has sometimes made it difficult for San Miguel to make purchases.

“If your balance sheet is strong like San Miguel, you don’t need to be publicly listed,” Ang said at the company’s headquarters in Manila. “If I have my way, I will privatize it next year,” he said. He also said that if he has his “way,” SMC will buy back its shares and become privately held by next year. Buying back the shares may cost about $800 million he said. SMC had a public float of 14 percent as of May 5, it said at the time. That’s worth about P40 billion ($943 million) based on today’s share price.

He also said in an interview that “Listed companies are more prone to “leakage” of information, and disclosures sometimes work to the advantage of competitors.”

San Miguel had P127 billion in cash and near-cash items as of June and has a total of P186 billion of bonds and loans due by 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.