Lopez family eyes geothermal investments abroad; may sell Meralco stake
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/09/2009 6:42 PM
Printer-friendly version | 
Send to friend | 
Share your views
MANILA - The Philippines' powerful Lopez business clan will sell its remaining 13.4% stake in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) if it gets an attractive offer, or if it needs to make other investments or pay down debt, the family patriarch said on Friday.
Oscar Lopez, chairman of the Lopez family's power conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corp., also told Reuters the group plans to subscribe to its geothermal unit First Gen Corp.'s rights offer before the year ends even as it pursues more investments in renewable energy.
The group is also looking at possible geothermal investments in Indonesia, Latin America and Africa.
"We see ourselves selling Meralco shares only if the share price is attractive or when we require funding to address our other investments and/or service our own debt obligations," Lopez said in an emailed response to Reuters' questions.
"We certainly have to strengthen our expertise in geothermal and hope to be able to use this expertise to go global," he said.
"Over the next 5 years, we have to establish an international presence and we hope to have geothermal investments in other countries such as Indonesia and even Latin America and Africa."
To sell or not to sell
The Lopez group had been defending its 33% controlling stake in the power retailer after it was forcibly taken away from them during the Marcos administration more than 3 decades ago.
When the Philippine government sold its 10% stake in Meralco in January 2008, the Lopezes even incurred debts to accumulate more company shares. But a boardroom war erupted when the state-owned pension fund, which assumed the national government's stake, waged a war against the Lopezes for allegedly mismanaging Meralco, resulting in electricity rates that are second highest in Asia next to Japan.
The boardroom-turned-legal war came to a halt when the state-owned pension fund, GSIS, sold its Meralco stake to diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
Eventually, the Lopez group sold a portion of their Meralco stake to another large conglomerate, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).
PLDT and San Miguel have been battling for control of Meralco for over 6 months now.
The Lopez family currently votes with the PLDT group and any decision to sell will finally resolve the impasse.
Last May, Oscar Lopez said in a speech during the stockholders meeting of FPHC that they are willing to sell their Meralco stake "if there are better investment opportunities." - with Reuters
abs-cbnNEWS.com is the online arm of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. ABS-CBN and Meralco are part of the Lopez Group.
Comments