September 9, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The stock market debut of Maynilad Water Services Inc. is not yet locked in to take place next year, according to one of the company’s stockholders.
DMCI Holdings chief finance officer Herbert Consunji said an initial public offering (IPO) for Maynilad by 2025 is still unsure as it will still depend on market conditions.
“Because if the market conditions are not good (by then), why would you go out there?” Consunji said.
Maynilad is the concessionaire of the government in providing water services in the West Zone of Metro Manila, while Manila Water of tycoon Enrique Razon serves the East Zone.
Maynilad is jointly owned by Metro Pacific Investments Corp., DMCI Holdings of the Consunji family and Marubeni Corp. of Japan.
MPIC owns about 53 percent of the water utility firm while DMCI and Marubeni hold 25-percent and 20-percent stake, respectively.
Under Maynilad’s legislative franchise, the company must become a publicly listed firm on or before 2027 and offer at least 30 percent of its outstanding capital stocks five years from the grant of the franchise.
“We have a franchise that requires us to list on or before January of 2027. A lot of requirements have been processed, including sustainability, including SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) permits and approvals. So more or less, we have been starting. The momentum is building toward an IPO,” Maynilad president Ramoncito Fernandez said.
On his end, Fernandez said Maynilad’s IPO could take place after the 2025 elections at the earliest.
“If not, 2026 is still the open period for you to finally launch. So it’s between the second half of 2025 and the whole of 2026. Hopefully, not toward the second half of 2026,” he said.
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