Meralco board nominees almost intact ahead of May 25 meeting

MANILA, Philippines - There will be no major revamp in the composition of the board of directors of power utility giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) during its annual stockholders’ meeting on May 25.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Meralco said its final list of candidates for the 11-man board are: Ramon Ang, Elpi Cuna, Jose de Jesus, Ray Espinosa, Elenita Go, Manuel Lopez, Estelito Mendoza, Manuel Pangilinan and Napoleon Nazareno. Former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and businessman Pedro Roxas were also nominated as independent directors.

The proposed new board is basically intact from the present board with only Roxas, chairman and CEO of Roxas Holdings, replacing Mario Panlilio as independent director. In fact, Roxas was nominated for the post in last year’s stockholders meeting but withdrew his nomination “due to pressing requirements” which he said required his attention.

Representing the Metro Pacific — Lopez alliance are current Meralco chairman Lopez; Meralco president De Jesus; Cuna; Nazareno, president of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Smart Communications; Espinosa, PLDT director; and Pangilinan, PLDT, Smart and Metro Pacific Corp. chairman.

On the other hand, the nominees of diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp are Ang, current Meralco vice-chairman and San Miguel president; Mendoza, San Miguel board director; and Go, a San Miguel vice president.

Metro Pacific, the local unit of Hong Kong-based conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Piltel, a unit of telecommunications giant PLDT, hold a combined 34.7-percent stake in Meralco.

Metro Pacific has an option to acquire another 6.6-percent stake in Meralco owned by Lopez-controlled First Philippine Holdings Corp. The deadline for the call option is on March 31.

First Holdings currently owns 13.4 percent of Meralco, bringing the Metro Pacific-PLDT-Lopez block to 48.1 percent.

San Miguel and its allies own about 43 percent of the country’s biggest power distribution firm.

Meanwhile, the Meralco board also approved yesterday the declaration of cash dividend equivalent to P3.15 per share to all common stockholders on record as of April 21, payable on May 11, 2010.

The board also approved the payment of cash dividends equivalent to 10 percent of par value on the company’s 10- percent cumulative preferred stock, Series B, for the first calendar quarter of 2010 on April 30, to shareholders of record date as of March 31, 2010.