Manila Water confirms plans to 'maximize' international portfolio

Manila Water [MWC 27.10, down 1.4%; 59% avgVol] [link] confirmed a recent report that it is “paying attention to [its] portfolio and how [MWC] can maximize the portfolio”, saying that it is continuing to review “current business performance and new business opportunities”, but that “none have reached a substantive level of development at this time.” In the original article, MWC’s President and CEO, Jocot de Dios, was quoted as saying that MWC is looking into Southeast Asia, South America, and the Asia Pacific regions for expansion. As noted in the article, MWC is currently present in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.

MB bottom-line: This feels like a huge nothingburger. Every single company can say that it’s in the process of evaluating its current investments and considering future investments. MWC’s domestic growth options are relatively limited; it’s already bagged one of the two biggest concessions available, and there’s no chance the Philippine Competition Commission would allow it to obtain the other concession through any kind of purchase or merger with Maynilad. So to grow it has to go abroad. And that’s not even a new phenomenon, as the article points out, since MWC has been operating in several foreign jurisdictions for years. The stock has been on a +46% YTD rip, and is now trading in line with its pre-COVID price.

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