Metro Pacific considers delisting from PSE

The infrastructure conglomerate behind some of country’s biggest utilities such as Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and Maynilad Water Services Inc. said on Friday it was considering going private amid speculation that sent its share price surging as much as 20 percent since the start of the year.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), led by tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, said it was open to a voluntary delisting of its shares from Philippine Stock Exchange, an exercise that would involve a buyout of stockholders.

“MPIC discusses several options available to it for the benefit of the company and its stakeholders, and among the options considered is the delisting of MPIC’s shares,” said the infrastructure giant that is owned by Indonesia’s Salim family and the Ty family’s GT Capital Holdings.

The company was reacting to an article published by a news website.

“While delisting as an option is being discussed, no final decision has been made. Furthermore, as stated in our disclosure dated Jan 12, 2023, MPIC has not entered into any definitive agreement relating to the acquisition of its shares by an investor,” it added.

April Lynn Tan, chief equity strategist at stockbrokerage house COL Financial Group Inc., earlier said privatization rumors at Metro Pacific were partly fueled by the company’s “cheap” share price.

This was despite the efforts by the blue chip index company to boost shareholders’ value through share buybacks.

“[S]tock is super cheap, trading below the value of [Meralco] shares that it owns (implying all other subsidiaries are free,” she said on Twitter.

Meralco, which is 47 percent-owned by Metro Pacific, is the country’s largest electricity distributor.

Tan told the Inquirer COL has a fair value estimate of P8.79 per share.

She said this was based on a so-called sum of parts valuation that is useful in appraising large conglomerates and various subsidiaries.

Apart from Meralco and Maynilad, Metro Pacific owns a stake in the Light Rail Transit Line 1, tollroads such as North Luzon Expressway and Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway and the country’s largest chain of private hospitals.

Metro Pacific shares rose 4.22 percent to P3.95 apiece as the Philippine Stock Exchange Index climbed 1.73 percent on Friday.

Rumors of Metro Pacific’s delisting last surfaced shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in 2020.

It also came after the group indicated its waning appetite for risky investments after the Duterte government rewrote the concession agreements of Maynilad and Manila Water Co. Inc. in 2019 to remove provisions it deemed were unfair.

More recently, the company started investing in the agriculture sector, acquiring a controlling stake in the Carmen’s Best dairy group and partnering with Israel’s LR Group to build a P2 billion modern dairy farm in Laguna.