MANILA, Philippines — Telecom magnate Manuel V. Pangilinan has agreed to support the Lopez family’s bid to retain control of power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) in a deal that has seen his group’s entry into Meralco, an industry source said Wednesday.

The Lopez family, which has controlled Meralco for generations except during the martial-law era when Ferdinand Marcos’ brother-in-law took the blue-chip company over, is believed to be trying to fortify its hold on the country’s biggest power retailer against the diversifying beverage and food group San Miguel Corp.

Meralco is scheduled to have its annual meeting of stockholders in May.

Pangilinan “has promised to support the Lopezes,” said the source, who asked not to be named because his company is involved in other deals with Pangilinan.

Pangilinan was asked by reporters on Wednesday about the entry of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., of which he is chief executive, into Meralco.

First Pacific, whose interests Pangilinan represents in dominant telecom firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), last week made an initial acquisition of three percent of Meralco originally owned by the Meralco retirement fund.

“There are no disclosures required,” Pangilinan replied. “Wala pa naman.” [None yet].

He said his group was seeking to “raise the shareholder value” of any company it would invest in.

“We would like to work with existing shareholders, the existing board and the existing management,” Pangilinan said, stressing he was speaking in general terms rather than in reference to Meralco.

He said PLDT, of which he is chairman, had an existing relationship with Meralco on an operational level, citing that some of its telephone cables are laid along Meralco electric posts.

“Objectively speaking, there are synergies,” he said of PLDT and Meralco. “And they [Meralco] have a significant fiber optic [network] in Greater Metro Manila.”

Several market sources maintained that Pangilinan’s interest in Meralco did not stop at buttressing the position of the Lopez family against a potentially hostile San Miguel takeover, which San Miguel president Ramon Ang has denied.

One source said Pangilinan had expressed interest in a block of shares representing 27 percent of Meralco that San Miguel eventually acquired from the state-run pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) last year.

The source said Pangilinan offered a superior bid for the GSIS-held shares, payable in cash, compared with that of San Miguel, which will pay P90 per share for the GSIS stake, staggered over a three-year period.

“Despite that, the stake still went to San Miguel,” the source pointed out, repeating market speculation that San Miguel and Pangilinan had hammered out a “modus vivendi” ahead of the deal — which Ang has also denied.

At present, San Miguel holds 38 percent of Meralco, including 11 percent it acquired from other government financial institutions last year.

The Lopez group holds 31 percent of Meralco stock.

Pangilinan has reportedly been offered access to “close to 20 percent” of Meralco’s shares by the Lopez family from various sources. If combined, the two groups would hold a 51-percent stake.

On the other hand, if Pangilinan chooses to ally himself with San Miguel’s Ang, the combination would result in an “unassailable” stake in the firm of almost 60 percent, the source said.

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