The Lopez group will remain at the helm of Manila Electric Co.’s management with Manuel Lopez as chairman, San Miguel Corp. president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said yesterday, in an apparent effort to quell speculations over a looming battle for control of the country’s largest power utlity.

“Manolo will continue to head Meralco for a long, long time,” Ang said at the sidelines of San Miguel Properties Inc.’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday.

Oscar Lopez, the patriarch of the Lopez family, added that he also expects his younger brother to remain chairman of Meralco, although he revealed Manolo may dispense with his CEO functions in the near term.

“My brother will continue, maybe for a year or two, although he will step down as CEO sometime after the election,” he said.

Meralco will hold its annual stockholders’ meeting and board election on May 26, with industry observers anticipating a boardroom showdown between the San Miguel group and the Lopez group in partnership with the PLDT group of Manuel V. Pangilinan.

Ang, who is also San Miguel’s vice chairman, said his group now owns 43 percent of Meralco, but declined to say how it acquired an additional nine percent on top of the 34 percent stake it declared earlier.

San Miguel directly owns 27 percent of Meralco after acquiring the shares of state pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in the utility firm for P90 each share or around P26 billion last year.

An ally, Global 5000 Investment Inc., holds another 10 percent stake in Meralco also through the purchase of shares held by government financial institutions (SSS, Landbank and DBP).

On the other hand, the PLDT and Lopez groups have a combined 44.17 percent, entitling them to five board seats on the 11-man Meralco board. The San Miguel/Global 5000 group will take up four slots while the two remaining seats are reserved for independent directors.

The Lopez family’s First Philippine Holdings Corp. said it would vote jointly with PLDT to “enable PLDT to actively support in the management of Meralco.”

The Lopez family’s interest in Meralco has been reduced to only 13.4 percent after selling 20 percent of its shareholdings to the PLDT group. This brings the PLDT group’s total shareholdings in Meralco to 30.17 percent. A 10.17-percent stake was earlier acquired through the open market.

Ang said there would be no fireworks at Meralco’s annual shareholders’ meeting, pointing out that both the Lopez group and the camp of PLDT chairman Pangilinan are “friendly.”

He also stressed that the group is no longer acquiring additional Meralco shares, contrary to news reports.

Pangilinan, joined by allies Ray Espinosa (president and chief executive of ePLDT Inc.) and Napoleon Nazareno (president and chief executive of PLDT), were nominated to the Meralco board to represent the PLDT group.

Meanwhile, Manuel Lopez and Meralco president Jose de Jesus are expected to represent the Lopez bloc.

The San Miguel group has nominated Ang, legal counsel Estelito Mendoza, Mario Surio and Alan Ortiz to Meralco’s board.

Nominated as independent directors are Artemio Panganiban, Vicente Panlilio and Pedro Roxas.

The decision of the Lopez family to unload its holdings in Meralco is a strategic move aimed at ensuring the growth of the family business.