Japan’s Marubeni buys stake in Maynilad

MANILA, Philippines – Japanese trading firm Marubeni Corp. will enter the water distribution business by acquiring a fifth of Philippine utility Maynilad Water Services Inc.

In a joint disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, February 14, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and DMCI Holdings Inc. said they signed an agreement to sell 21.54% of DMCI-MPIC Water Co. Inc. to Marubeni. DMCI-MPIC Water is the joint venture owning 92.85% of Maynilad.

Marubeni’s investment will give it 20% direct stake in Maynilad, and reduce MPIC’s interest in the utility by 4 percentage points to 52.8%, and DMCI’s by 16 percentage points to 25.24%.

The companies did not disclose the acquisition price, but earlier reports said the transaction could be valued at $400 million.

“This minor reduction in our economic interest in Maynilad allows us to expand the shareholder roster as we take Maynilad to the next stage of development through significantly increased investment in sewage and waste water management. I believe Marubeni will be a valuable addition to the MPIC/DMCI partnership which has been so successful to date in delivering expanded and improved clean water provision to millions of people in our concession area,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of Metro Pacific and Maynilad.

Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base.  It is a concessionaire of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System for the west zone of Metro Manila, including the cities of Manila, Quezon City, Makati, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon and Cavite. – Rappler.com