MVP-led firms eye water, infra investments outside PH

MANILA, Philippines – Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan is steering some of the firms he leads toward opportunities in Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar.

Pangilinan, whose business empire stretches from tollways to electricity to telecommunications, is primarily eyeing water investments.

“For now it’s being led principally by First Pacific, of course we are leaning on the expertise of the Maynilad Water Folks and Metro Pacific as well,” said Pangilinan at a press briefing on Wednesday, November 7.

His Metro Pacific Investments Corp already confirmed in October that it was eyeing Vietnam for infrastructure, water, energy and hospital and consumer products deals.

“Vietnam is not the only place where there are water opportunities. There are water opportunities in Indonesia,” said Maynilad president and CEO Victorico Vargas at the same briefing.

“There are sewage, sanitation, and treatment plant opportunities also in Myanmar. So we’re looking at that,” he added.

In terms of the stage of the potential investments, Vargas explained that in Vietnam the move towards a deal is “advanced… meaning we’re almost at the stage of a [Memorandum of Understanding].”

In Myanmar, he said the group is still “scouting” out opportunities. He added that while there are “no existing relationships with Myanmar at the moment,” an MPIC official has been assigned to find the right projects there.

“In indonesia, its purely discussion at the moment,” said Vargas. He explained that they had started talking to Indonesian regulators who recently visited the Philippines for a benchmarking discussion.

Outside of water, MPTC is eyeing a roughly 90 kilometer road project in Vietnam. “There are opportunities that we are also looking at, one such opportunity is a road, a PPP project being supervised by the world bank. We’re interested in being a private equity partner of that project,” said MPTC President Ramoncito Fernandez. – Rappler.com