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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
THE Lopez Group will not likely bid for
government’s shares in giant utility firm Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)
once this is put in the auction bloc, Oscar Lopez, First Philippine
Holdings Corp. (FPHC) chairman, said.
In an interview with the media yesterday, Lopez
said FPHC is no longer interested in increasing its 33.4-percent
stake in Meralco. “We are not going to buy additional shares right
now, but we will continue to do what we have been doing, [which is]
operating the company to the best of our ability,” he said.
FPHC previously said the company may tap a
foreign partner to buy the government’s stake in the power
distribution utility.
The government, which holds a 33-percent stake
in Meralco through various state financial institutions, wants to
unload its shares in the company to raise funds for its coffers.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves earlier said
the government would push through with the disposal of its Meralco
shares this year and will be open to any interested bidder,
including the Lopez group.
Bulk of the government’s shares in the
utility, however, is held by state pension fund Government Service
Insurance System, which has increased its shareholdings from 8
percent to 23 percent when it bought the government’s 10-percent
stake in the company early in the year and through the stock market.
The pension fund’s president, Winston Garcia,
who also sits in the Meralco board, is said to be at loggerheads
with Lopez officials on a number of issues pertaining to management
and transactions of the utility firm.
Meanwhile, First Gen Corp., the power generation
arm of FPHC, is looking to unload part of its shareholdings in Red
Vulcan Holdings Corp., which acquired the government’s 60-percent
stake in PNOC-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC), Elpidio Ibañez,
FPHC president, said.
Ibañez said the company targets to sell a
number of its shares in PNOC-EDC by the third quarter of this year.
He said several groups have already expressed
interest in the FPHC’s proposed move and will be conducting
“their own due diligence process.”
PNOC-EDC is the Philippines’ largest
geothermal energy producer and largest provider of onshore drilling
services.
Meralco’s shares at the Philippine Stock
Exchange closed yesterday at P81.0, higher than P80 on Monday.
PNOC-EDC’s shares, on the other hand, closed
lower at P5.2 from P5.4.
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