Manila Water pours P600 M for Vietnam operations

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala-led Manila Water Co. Inc. is pouring in P600 million in fresh capital into two of its units to fund operations and finance additional investments in Vietnam.

In a filing with securities regulators yesterday, Manila Water said its executive committee approved the additional investment of P418 million in its wholly-owned domestic subsidiary Manila Water Philippine Ventures Inc. (MWPV).

The committee also approved the additional investment of $4.26 million or about P198.4 million in Singapore-based subsidiary Manila Water Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (MWAP).

“The additional equity infusion in MWAP shall be used to fund further investments in Vietnam,”  Manila Water said.

MWPV – formerly AAA Water Corp. – holds shares of various units of Manila Water including Clark Water Corp., Boracay Island Water Co. Inc., Manila Water Consortium Inc. and Total Solutions.

MWAP, on the other hand, is the holding firm of Manila Water’s overseas operations which incluce Manila Manila Water South Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd., Thu Duc Water Holdings Pte. Ltd., and Kenh Dong Water Holdings Pte. Ltd

Manila Water still derives most of its income from its Metro Manila east zone concession area that covers parts of Quezon City and Makati, the southeastern parts of Manila, Taguig, Pateros, Marikina, Pasig, San Juan, Mandaluyong, and Rizal province.

Metro Manila water concessionaires are forced to cut down water production this year until the second quarter of 2016 because of the prevailing dry spell.

The National Water Resources Board  last week further reduced the water allocation for Metro Manila to 36 cubic meters per second (cms) for the month of October from 38 cms in September.

Manila Water said it would maintain the current seven-hour water pressure reduction during non-peak usage hours of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily after the announcement of the new water supply allocation.