Maynilad Water Services Inc. is set to cap off a banner year with its earnings seen soaring to an all-time high, its top official said.
After a 53.4-percent increase in net income last year, Maynilad CEO and president Ramoncito Fernandez said the group was “poised to achieve record highs in terms of revenue and core income.”
For the first nine months of 2024, the group’s core profit climbed by 44.6 percent to P9.66 billion. Its top line likewise improved by 23 percent to P24.9 billion.
“We will generate billions of core income—historically, higher than the P9 billion that we made last year,” he told Inquirer in an interview on Wednesday.
READ: Maynilad, SEA’s largest water concessionaire, continues forward march to sustainable growth
Driving this growth momentum is the sustained high demand from consumers, coupled with tariff increases and streamlined operations, Fernandez said.
Maynilad is the water and wastewater services provider for the West Zone, covering 17 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila and Cavite.
Fernandez said the earnings would beef up Maynilad’s financial muscle as it embarks on an aggressive network infrastructure buildup.
“We’re pouring it back to the company because … we have committed P160 billion of investments just in this business plan,” the executive said, noting the figure covers 2023 to 2027 operations.
Maynilad has been heavily investing in its infrastructure, which includes more water sources, pumping stations and reservoirs, wastewater facilities and water treatment plants.
For 2025 alone, he said the group was targeting to earmark up to P39 billion in capital expenditures.
“It’s still a combination of water [projects], both in preparation for the future demand and also improving our resiliency to climate change, and then also for wastewater,” he said.
These developments, Fernandez said, would build Maynilad’s capacity amid the increasing population in Metro Manila as well as the threat of climate change, which could affect water supply.
Asked about Maynilad’s plan to go public, Fernandez showed confidence that its stock market debut eyed for next year could receive warm support from investors.
“Maynilad is the largest private concessionary in Southeast Asia. We have 1.7 million connections. We are the biggest and we are a defined concession area, which there’s still a lot of opportunities to improve and invest,” he said.
The valuation of the planned initial public offering (IPO), however, has yet to be determined. But a Bloomberg report earlier quoted sources that the group may raise up to $1 billion.
The concession agreement of Maynilad with the Philippine government, through the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, requires it to offer at least 30 percent of its shares to the public.
It needs to launch its IPO before January 2027.
Maynilad is jointly owned by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. of tycoon Manuel Pangilinan, Consunji family-led DMCI Holdings Inc. and Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corp.