NGCP sees listing of shares within 2 to 3 years

MANILA, Philippines - The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), controlled by the SM Group of Companies, sees the listing of its shares in the country’s stock market within two to three years.

“As of the moment, its a little bit too early. But probably we will consider an initial public offering (IPO) of NGCP shares around those times (two to three years),” NGCP president and CEO Henry Sy Jr. said.

According to him, NGCP is mandated to go public and they will definitely comply with the law. “Rest assured that it is part of our plan in the near future,” he added.

But as of now, Sy said the company is more focused on making a good track record, adding that they would like to carry out their priority projects first.

NGCP earlier committed to spend about P10 billion for the completion of its priority transmission line projects lined up for the year.

NGCP is a consortium made up of Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp. (now owned by the Sy Jr. Group of One Taipan Holdings),

Calaca High Power Corp. led by Robert Coyuito and State Grid Corp of China. The consortium won the bidding for the 25-year lease agreement of the country’s transmission highway.

It took over the operations and maintenance of the country’s transmission network, which consists of 20,236 circuit kilometers (combined length of transmission and sub-transmission) and a total capacity of 24,607 mega-volt amperes, from the government last Jan. 15, 2009.

Under its franchise, NGCP should undertake an initial public offering (IPO) of at least 10 to 20 percent of its stake.

NGCP was granted a franchise by Congress to operate and maintain TransCo for 25-year period and it can renew the lease contract for another 25 years.

The consortium won the concession to operate and manage the system run by TransCo in a public bidding conducted by the government, specifically PSALM, in December 2007. The consortium offered $3.95 billion for the concession contract.

Monte Oro Grid Corp. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Monte Oro Resources & Energy, Inc. It was incorporated in the Philippines on August 29, 2006 to invest and hold interest in shares of companies engaged or proposing to engage in infrastructure projects.

Calaca High Power, meanwhile, formed in 2006 is engaged in the business of operating, managing, maintaining and rehabilitating energy systems and services for gas, steam and electricity.

State Grid Corp. of Hongkong Ltd. is a subsidiary of the State Grid Corp. of China, one of the world’s largest power utility companies in the business of power transmission, distribution and sale.

State Grid of China is expected to provide the technical support and knowhow in NGCP which serves 88 percent of China’s territories covering more than one billion customers.