MVP denies asset swap talks with Ang

MANILA - Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) said Friday it did not offer to swap its interests in water distribution and toll road for the stake of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

"MPIC denies offering to swap its interests in Maynilad Water Services Inc. and NLEX (North Luzon Expressway) in exchange for the Meralco shares owned by San Miguel," it told the Philippine Stock Exchange in a disclosure.

MPIC was clarifying news reports that came out Friday that said its chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan approached San Miguel president Ramon Ang to negotiate the asset swap.

In a separate disclosure, Pangilinan himself noted that "both Maynilad and NLEX are key strategic investments for MPIC. They are not available for sale or trade with other assets."

Pangilinan said that they intend to grow and keep the assets for the long term.

MPIC last year bought 67.1 percent of the firm which operates the NLEX for P12.3 billion. It owns 56.8 percent of Maynilad, which serves 12 million customers in the west zone of Metro Manila.

On Thursday, Ang sat down with a group of business journalists and shared that he and Pangilinan were discussing the supposed swap of assets since "we are friendly with each other, we can still talk."

Ang said that if this were to push through, they would go for the best deal.

He also said that they would only sell their Meralco holdings for a "spectacular" price of say, P500 per share.

San Miguel and Pangilinan's Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), an affiliate of MPIC, have amassed shares in Meralco, fueling speculations that the two were in battle for control of the country's largest power distributor.

In October 2008, San Miguel bought a 27 percent direct stake in Meralco and claimed that the company and its allies now hold about 43 percent.

PLDT, on the other hand, aligned itself with the Lopez Group and bought the latter's 20 percent Meralco stake, bringing its holdings to 30 percent. The PLDT-Lopez camp also holds about 43 percent of Meralco.

With a report from Liza Reyes, ABS-CBN News