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METRO Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) said it has
expanded its health service portfolio with the acquisition of Davao
Doctors Hospital (Clinica Hilario) Inc. (DDH).
In a disclosure to the Philippine
Stock Exchange, MPIC said it would purchase the shares of existing
stockholders as well as treasury shares held by DDH.
The local unit of Hong
Kong-listed First Pacific Holdings Ltd. said it signed a share
purchase agreement with several shareholders of DDH to buy about 34
percent or 310,000 shares of the total issued shares for P1,600 each
or for a total of P498 million. This makes the company the principal
shareholder of the DDH, which owns 100 percent of Davao Doctors
College, 30 percent of Davao Doctors Oncology Center Inc. and 82.5
percent of Allied Professional and Development Corp.
MPIC, which owns Medical Doctors
Inc. (MDI), said the acquisition will be paid through cash using
shareholder advances and will be closed by May 31. MDI in turn owns
and operates the Makati Medical Center.
Under the share purchase
agreement, MPIC said it wishes to “acquire significant equity”
in the hospital and is in the process of buying these from existing
shareholders while at the same time offering to buy 22,856 treasury
shares of the hospital. This would be equivalent to 34 percent of
the total capital stock of DDH.
The purchase of the treasury
shares will be concluded not later than June 6.
DDH’s current
director-shareholders include Dr. Alfonso T. Lopez, Dr. Herminio A.
Villano Sr., Dr. Carmer I. Guanlao and Dr. Pelagio V. Iriarte. They
will be replaced by Manuel V. Pangilinan, Edward A. Tortorici, Jose
Ma. K. Lim and Augusto O. Palisoc Jr. “to serve unexpired
terms…until their successors shall have been duly elected and
qualified.”
Earlier, MPIC said that it will
“be keen on pursuing opportunities to expand investments in the
health-care and infrastructure sector, as well as new segments such
as agriculture, biofuels, hospitality, and mining.”
At end-March, its net income,
including the non-recurring gains of P79.1 million, dropped from
P1.52 billion last year to P138.5 million this year. Last year’s
numbers were restated to reflect mainly the recognition of the final
amount of the excess of the net fair value of Maynilad Water
Services Inc. over its acquisition cost as income.
Excluding these gains, MPIC’s
core net income rose from P1 million the same period last year to
P59.4 million on the back of “the strong showing” of Maynilad
and Landco Pacific Corp. In May last year, MPIC started recording
its equity earnings in MDI.
 --Likha
C. Cuevas-Miel
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