Conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said Thursday wholly-owned logistics arm Metropac Movers Inc. acquired a 12-percent stake in Air21 of the Lina Group.
Metropac Movers president and chief executive Marilyn Aquino said in a news briefing the company completed the acquisition last month. She did not disclose the cost of the acquisition.
Aquino said while the initial acquisition was only 12 percent, Metropac Movers was given an option to acquire an additional stake in the logistics company.
“We thought it is an entry point to allow us to know the business more because currently, we need to understand first the business. So 12 percent is a starting point until we know the complexity of the business and challenges. We decided to stay at 12 percent,” Aquino said.
Aquino said Metropac Movers was also focusing on expanding its warehousing business as it aimed to more than double its warehousing capacity over the next two years.
The company recently acquired a 20-hectare property in Cavite province owned by Property Company of Friends Inc. for P2 billion.
It is now in the process of acquiring another 30-hectare property in Bulacan and is studying plans to purchase a 10-hectare lot in Davao City.
Metropac Movers is also expanding its service offerings to include cross docking and cold-chain services.
Meanwhile, Metro Pacific said core net income rose 10 percent in the first half to P8.6 billion from P7.8 billion a year ago, lifted mainly by an expanded power portfolio, continuing traffic growth on its toll roads and steady volume growth coupled with inflationary tariff increase at Maynilad Water Service Inc.
Power accounted for P5.8 billion or 55 percent of net operating income, while toll roads contributed P2.3 billion or 21 percent. Water contributed P2.1 billion, the hospitals' group provided P338 million, while rail, logistics and systems group delivered P60 million.
“Our operating and financial performance have been strong, and we expect the full-year numbers to be similar. Strong volume growth in recent years is due to billions of pesos of investments in our road and water businesses,” said Metro Pacific president and chief executive Jose Ma. Lim.
“Our financial performance should be better with a resolution of our long pending tariff increases. On toll roads, we have the broad shape of the settlement agreed in principle. On the water, we expect arbitration proceedings to conclude within the year,” he said.