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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo Reporter
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)
is one tempting apple that a supposedly disinterested conglomerate
is not ready to bite.
At least not yet, the Aboitiz
Group said Wednesday as it denied coveting the Lopez-controlled
Meralco. It admitted, though, that the embattled utility is an
inviting prospect.
Erramon Aboitiz, the chief
operating officer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., said no one has
approached the group over a possible takeover of the country’s
largest power distribution utility.
“No one has approached us yet.
We don’t know what the deal is,” he added.
Aboitiz Equity is the holding
firm of the Cebu-based Aboitiz Group, which has interests in power,
transportation, food and banking, among others.
Various groups have warned that
the apparent crusade against the Lopezes of Winston Garcia, the
president of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), may
involve the Aboitizes as well as the Alcantaras who both are closely
associated with President Gloria Arroyo.
Garcia’s tiff with the Lopez
Group, which owns a controlling 33.4-percent stake in Meralco,
started in the company’s boardroom, where the government pension
fund is represented with its 23-percent stake.
Amid allegations of mismanagement
and lack of transparency, Garcia has gone public to call for a
change in Meralco’s management.
Bayani Santos Jr. called on the
GSIS president to disclose details of his alleged takeover plan to
allay fears that his move “stands to favor several business
interests.” Santos is spokesman for the nongovernment Tanglaw ng
Bayan and a professor at Manuel Luis Quezon University in Manila.
He said Garcia is closely
identified with the Visayan Electric Co. (VECO), the country’s
second-largest power distributor. The firm is owned by the Aboitiz
and Garcia families of Cebu who expanded their stake in VECO through
a “buyout” of the stake of the Texas-based East Asia Power
Utilities Corp.
“The Garcia law firm in Cebu
allegedly engineered the buyout,” Santos said.
Aboitiz said his group has yet to
seriously consider the prospect of acquiring a stake in Meralco.
“We haven’t even looked at
it. I think we’re quite busy on our investment program right now,
so I guess we will focus on that first,” he added.
But should the opportunity
present itself, Aboitiz said, Meralco “should be an attractive
investment.”
The giant utility firm serves the
power needs of Metro Manila and its outlying provinces, which
represent bulk of the electricity demand in the Luzon Grid.
“It depends on the terms, what
happens, frankly it’s too early to make a comment, since we
don’t know exactly what’s happening,” Aboitiz said.
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