Maynilad mulls going public by 2025

MANILA, Philippines — Maynilad Water Services Inc. plan to go public is slowly taking shape with its initial public offering (IPO) happening as early as after the 2025 midterm elections.

Maynilad president Ramoncito Fernandez said the water firm is progressing well with the necessary paperwork required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) for its maiden offering.

“We are looking at anywhere between after the (2025) elections or early 2026. The paperwork has started,” Fernandez told reporters on the sidelines of a recent event at Ipo Dam.

The West Zone concessionaire is still “crunching” the numbers with regards to the amount of shares that it will offer during its IPO, Fernandez said.

“(Maynilad) is already in talks with the banks. The process has started. The earliest is 2025, most likely is 2026,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, the water utility firm’s chairman, in a recent interview with reporters on the sidelines of the PLDT annual stockholders meeting

Under its legislative franchise, Maynilad must become a publicly listed firm on or before 2027 and offer at least 30 percent of its outstanding capital stocks five years from the grant of the franchise.

Signed into law on Dec. 10, 2021, Republic Act 11600 grants Maynilad a 25-year franchise to establish, operate, and maintain a waterworks system and sewerage and sanitation services in the west zone service area of Metro Manila and the province of Cavite.

Maynilad is jointly owned by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), DMCI Holdings of the Consunji family and Marubeni Corp. of Japan.

MPIC owns about 53 percent of the water utility firm while DMCI has a 25 percent stake. Marubeni holds a 20 percent stake in Maynilad.

Maynilad has earmarked P31 billion for its capital expenditures (capex) this year, the biggest investment since the 1997 privatization of water services in Metro Manila.

The water utility firm’s capex this year is 19 percent higher than the previous year’s P26 billion.

The company’s record-high investment this year will be funded by a combination of internally generated funds and new debt, according to Maynilad.

Recently, the company secured a P10-billion loan from Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. to finance its capital requirements this year.

Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base.