BIZ BUZZ: ‘Acceptable’ final MPIC offer

The planned privatization of infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), one of the blue-chip index stocks, has a real chance of pushing through after the consortium of buyers upped their bid to minority stockholders by P6 billion.

The tender offer price was raised from P4.63 share to P5.20 per share after the third-party valuation provider was switched to Unicaptial.

Investment banker Eduardo Francisco, the vice chair of minority stockholders’ group Shareholders Association of the Philippines, was among those who welcomed the development.

“We’re glad the offer priced was improved [and] they responded to requests from the Fund Managers Association of the Philippines and other [stock brokers and traders],” he said on Wednesday.

Francisco said it was up to the individual stockholders to decide whether to sell their shares.

His personal opinion was that the final amount was already acceptable to the large minority blocs, which include the country’s state pension funds.

Assuming things fall into place, Metro Pacific chair and CEO Manuel Pangilinan will end up owning a significant stake in the company he helped build.

“I want to be identified as an owner as well,” Pangilinan previously said.

Based on the new price, Pangilinan is personally investing almost P15 billion to acquire 10 percent of Metro Pacific. He is the second biggest buyer in the tender offer after the Mitsui-led Group, which is investing close to P30 billion. Indonesian tycoon Anthoni Salim’s First Pacific Group and Ty-led GT Capital Holdings will buy the remaining shares.

—Miguel R. Camus

PPA proposal divides brokers

One of the major customs brokers groups in the country had become divided over the Philippine Port Authority’s (PPA) planned cargo container tracking and monitoring system, with the government agency losing crucial support from one of the few groups backing its implementation.

Henry Villa, the recently elected executive vice president of the Chamber of Customs Brokers Inc., said that their group’s previous position backing the Trusted Operator Program-Container Registry and Monitoring System has changed since the election of new officers last March.

“We have not come out with a new position. [But] the ones who are supporting its implementation lost the election last March,” Villa told Biz Buzz, explaining that their faction won nine of 16 board seats, making them the majority.

“Any additional cost is a cost,” he said, adding that the PPA itself could also not give a straight answer if it can compel shipping liners to drop collecting container deposits.

—Alden M. Monzon

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