Manila Water setting up international expansion

Water concessionaire Manila Water Co. Inc. is looking at marking more territories abroad to further expand its international footprint, building on the Razon Group’s global reach to scale up the business.

But before that, Manila Water will first “pay attention” to growing its presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

“The plan is really to consolidate and grow and expand within this territory that we know very closely and it’s very close to our home,” said Manila Water president and CEO Jose Victor Emmanuel de Dios during the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday.

De Dios said Manila Water was “ranging far and wide” to seize opportunities beyond its existing markets, particularly Latin America and Africa.

He said this would be possible through the port operations business of tycoon Enrique Razon Jr., who holds a controlling interest in Manila Water.

“I suppose we are able to do this because the scope, reach and breadth of the port business of the Razon Group enable us to generate very keen insights about the markets that we wish to enter and obviously, with boots on the ground so to speak, we are able to generate a lot of feedback immediately about regulatory environment, opportunities, low-hanging fruit and even potential partners,” De Dios said.

Regional presence

Manila Water is already present in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia through subsidiary Manila Water Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., which holds investments in various companies throughout the region.

The water service provider also has businesses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after bagging two water contracts alongside consortium partners France-based Saur Group and local firm Miahona Co. “The idea is to grow that [Saudi Arabia business] quickly and rapidly and hopefully win the concession in either or both of those areas,” added De Dios.

Back home, Manila Water caters to the east zone of Metro Manila, including parts of Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig, Pateros, San Juan, Taguig, Marikina, Quezon City, portions of Manila and some towns in Rizal.

Manila Water earlier signed a revised concession agreement with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System that would allow the company to serve portions of Metro Manila and Rizal until 2037.

Pandemic-hit

Still reeling from the impact of the pandemic, the water concessionaire reported a 2021 net income of P3.7 billion, down 18 percent year-on-year.

Revenues dropped by 4 percent to P20.3 billion, which the firm blamed on lower billed volume across all segments in the East Zone concession and in several domestic subsidiaries. The restrictions in place significantly affected consumption in the past year.

“[Commercial] business and operations for customers declined significantly because of the lockdowns. That accounts for a lot, [that’s] a significant portion of our billed volume numbers and a lot of that transferred to the domestic side of the business. [As] 2021 dawned upon us, we felt the full force of the pandemic,” De Dios said.

With the reopening of the economy and the easing of restrictions, De Dios is expecting a resurgence in water demand across the country.

“Hopefully we’re moving in the right path to generating numbers that will again bring us back to prepandemic levels. We will see healthy growth in our billed volume numbers,” he added.