HONG KONG — Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) has began evaluating the potential acquisition of Villar-led PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp., because it reviews the corporate’s operations and financials.
“We signed the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with them. They’ve opened up the info room to us. We’re getting initial feedback from the preliminary evaluation on the numbers they’ve provided us,” MPIC Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said in the course of the company’s briefing in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Mr. Pangilinan said the corporate remains to be conducting first-stage evaluation and can likely need one other week to border a suggestion.
“Nothing is finalized yet. We’re at first of the method,” he added.
MPIC is taking a cautious approach, considering methods to structure a possible acquisition, he noted. “I believe they’ve about 70 to 80 properties everywhere in the Philippines, and a few are small, some are big. We have no idea the approach yet, whether we are going to bid for less than certain of the properties which are large enough to offer us profitability, or whether they may insist that we acquire your entire thing.”
MPIC already has a big presence within the water sector through Metro Pacific Water (MPW), its water infrastructure investment arm, and Maynilad Water Services, Inc., which serves the West Zone of Metro Manila under a government concession.
PrimeWater, a subsidiary of Prime Asset Ventures, Inc., serves over 1.7 million households and supplies about 500 million liters of water per day across greater than 100 partnered water districts nationwide. Its operations span multiple provinces, including Bulacan, Batangas, and Laguna. The corporate is owned by Manuel Paolo A. Villar, the eldest of the Villar siblings.
On PrimeWater’s debt level, Mr. Pangilinan said no valuations have been discussed yet. “We haven’t discussed methods to cope with those debts, so no valuations have been indicated by us to them. We’re looking, and I believe if it really works for us, if it’s commercially feasible, then obviously we are going to take a take a look at it more seriously,” he said.
Hunted for comment, China Bank Capital Corp. Managing Director Juan Paolo E. Colet said the acquisition could turn into a profitable water services business for MPIC. “Depending on the ultimate numbers and terms… identical to what they did for Maynilad, they may turn this right into a successful investment,” he said.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. earlier directed the Local Water Utilities Administration, which supervises greater than 500 water districts nationwide, to research consumer complaints against PrimeWater. The probe covers the corporate’s 73 three way partnership agreements with local water districts.
MPIC is considered one of the three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., together with Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Useful Trust Fund subsidiary Medi-aQuest Holdings, Inc., holds a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Ashley Erika O. Jose