MPIC steps up water, health care business expansion

Infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) Friday sealed a water joint venture deal in Iloilo.

The company also revealed a new hospital acquisition target, the Marikina Valley Medical Center.

MPIC, led by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, has been actively seeking new water and healthcare opportunities.

The agreement it signed with the Metro Iloilo Water District paved the way for the formation of a joint venture that would spend P2.8 billion to rehabilitate, expand, operate and maintain the district’s water production facilities.

The venture will provide up to 170 million liters per day of bulk water to MIWD over the next 25 years. MPIC’s water unit will own 80 percent of the venture, with Iloilo Water District to hold the rest.

In a separate stock exchange filing, MPIC said it was in talks to acquire a controlling interest in the Marikina Valley Medical Center but “no definitive agreements” had been signed thus far.

MPIC, through Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc., earlier said it had wanted a hospital portfolio with a total of 5,000 beds. It said, however, that reaching this goal had been challenging and that negotiations with hospital operators turned out to be a lengthy process.

MPIC now has 2,700 beds across 11 hospitals.

If the deal would be closed, the addition of Marikina Valley Medical Center would  boost the company’s portfolio by another 100 beds, before expansion.

The healthcare center sits on a 2,000 square meter property along Sumulong Highway corner Aguinaldo St., Barangay Sto. Nino, information posted on the hospital’s website showed.

The main medical facility is a seven-story twin building, with the “features and ambiance of a luxury hotel.” It has a floor area of approximately 6,000 sq m.

It likewise has complete laboratory and diagnostic facilities, six operating rooms, two delivery rooms, neonatal intensive-care unit, an intensive care unit, a rehabilitation unit and dialysis section.

Metro Pacific’s hospital, despite its fast growth, remains a small earnings contributor for Metro Pacific. Its total core profit in the first quarter of 2016 was up 39 percent to P408 million.

At present, it has six hospitals in Metro Manila: Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Asian Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, and Manila Doctors Hospital.

Outside the capital district, it has Davao Doctors Hospital, Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod, Central Luzon Doctors Hospital in Tarlac, West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga, and Sacred Heart Hospital of Malolos in Bulacan.

Moreover, the group has also invested in a mall-based diagnostic and surgical center MegaClinic in SM Megamall, and has indirect ownership in two healthcare colleges, Davao Doctors College and Riverside College Inc. in Bacolod.