Co-founder’s stake in Megawide consolidated

Megawide founders Edgar Saavedra and Michael Cosiquien

The co-founder and president of engineering and construction firm Megawide Construction Corp. has consolidated interest in the company by acquiring an additional 14.67 percent stake for about P5.68 billion.

Megawide’s parent company Citicore Holdings Investment Inc. (CHII) transferred 313.79 million shares in Megawide to Megacore Holdings Inc., a newly-incorporated holdings company formed to consolidate Megawide president Edgar Saavedra’s economic stake in Megawide.

Post-transaction, Saavedra, thru Megacore and CHII combined, will effectively own 40.17 percent of Megawide. In the meantime, CHII will reduce its stake from 66.67 percent to 51 percent.

Saavedra’s partner, Michael Cosiquien who is Megawide chair, holds his stake in Megawide through CHII. The two engineers founded Megawide in 1997 after graduating from De La Salle University, since then growing the company to be among the country’s leading contractors and infrastructure developers.

“The transaction is strong proof of my confidence in Megawide. Twenty years ago, my former classmate, Michael Cosiquien, and I crafted the vision for Megawide to become one of the leading construction companies in the Philippines. After realizing this vision, we continue to challenge ourselves to transform the company into a diversified infrastructure and engineering conglomerate,” Saavedra said in a press statement on Wednesday.

“This restructuring enables us to maximize our resources and skill sets enabling us to focus on areas where they are best utilized. There is much that Edgar and I have yet to explore and
accomplish and this transaction is part of our innovation towards bigger and better things,” said Cosiquien.

“In the beginning, very few people believed in us. We were perceived as young, even naïve for investing in construction methodologies that were less known here. We needed to find a way to set ourselves apart from the competition. We had nothing to lose. In that sense, there was no better option than to innovate and this continues to drive us today. Innovation is at the core of Megawide,” added Saavedra.

Cosiquien and Saavedra aim to use Megawide’s core expertise in engineering procurement construction (EPC) to leverage its continuing diversification. “In 20 years, we have managed to diversify our project portfolio to include not just private sector EPC projects but also public infrastructure. We’re even looking into projects abroad. There are numerous opportunities for synergy with other sectors and we want to maximize that,” said Saavedra.