By Sheldeen Joy Talavera, Reporter
METRO PACIFIC WATER (MPW), the water infrastructure investment arm of Metro Pacific Infrastructure Corp. (MPIC), is keen on acquiring Villar-owned PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp.
“We still have interest but this will depend on the data they can provide,” MPW President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew B. Pangilinan told BusinessWorld on Wednesday.
The development follows former Senator Cynthia A. Villar’s comment that her husband, billionaire Manuel B. Villar, Jr., wants to dispose of PrimeWater, saying the company is “being used against us in our politics” amid mounting criticism of its services.
PrimeWater, a subsidiary of Prime Asset Ventures, Inc., serves over 1.7 million households and supplies about 500 million liters of water per day across more than 100 partnered water districts nationwide. It operates in multiple provinces, including Bulacan, Batangas, and Laguna. The company is owned by Manuel Paolo A. Villar, the eldest of the Villar siblings.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. earlier directed the Local Water Utilities Administration, which supervises more than 500 water districts nationwide, to investigate consumer complaints against PrimeWater. The probe covers the company’s 73 joint venture agreements with local water districts.
MPW is a developer, owner, and operator of water infrastructure projects and technologies. It is currently building a P5-billion desalination plant in Iloilo City in partnership with France-based water and wastewater management solutions provider Suez.
The company also holds a 25-year joint venture with Metro Iloilo Water District for the rehabilitation, expansion, and improvement of the water distribution system and wastewater management facilities.
MPW has investments in bulk water supply projects in Cebu and Pampanga.
MPIC is one of the three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., along with Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., holds a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
