For investments, capex MPIC secures P16.5-B funding

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) has obtained a total of P16.5 billion in loans from two banks to fund its general requirements.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) yesterday, MPIC said it secured a 10-year fixed rate term loan of P10 billion from BDO Unibank Inc. and a 10-year fixed rate term loan of P6.5 billion from China Banking Corp.

“Proceeds of which will be used by MPIC to finance its investment in various projects and for other general corporate purposes,” MPIC said.

The listed infrastructure and services group is setting aside P478 billion for capital expenditures from 2015 to 2020. 

In particular, P170 billion will be used to fund power pro-jects, P106 billion for water, P65 billion for roads, P44 billion for rail projects, and P16 billion for hospitals.

The remaining P78 billion will go to new projects – P67 billion for roads and P11 billion for water.

“This is the level of investment that we are aspiring to make in the Philippines between now and 2020. These are long-term investments and they take a lot of funding up-front. Our capex spending plan amounts to P401 billion and if we add to that the other projects in our radar, that would add another P78 billion so total aspiration over the period is P478 billion which is a pretty hefty sum of money,” Nicol said.

He said one of the biggest challenges the company is facing is the regulatory hurdle surrounding its tariff hike petitions.

MPIC’s tollway arm Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. is awaiting the approval of inflation adjustments for the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and six years for the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex), equivalent to 19 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

MPTC operates NLEx and Cavitex via Manila North Tollways Corp. and Cavitex Infrastructure Corp., respectively.

For its water utility business Maynilad Water Services Inc., MPIC is claiming P3.44 billion  after the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Regulatory Office (MWSS-RO) failed to implement a water rate increase in favor of the company.

MPIC’s investments in power distribution are under Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc., which in turn holds the group’s  investments in Meralco.

It also has investments in healthcare through hospitals nationwide and in rail through the operations and maintenance of the Light Rail Transit and ticketing services by the Automated Fare Collection Services Inc. (AFCS).