Metro Pacific Investments Corp. of Indonesian tycon Anthoni Salim may be preparing itself for a bigger alliance in the Philippines. After swapping shares with GT Capital Holdings Inc. of Filipino tycoon George Ty, Metro Pacific has given itself an opportunity to pry into the bigger assets of Ty’s holding company, including Metropolitan Bank &Trust Co., the nation’s second biggest lender.
It may be too early to talk about a larger Metro Pacific-GT Capital partnership or merger, but last week’s swap of shares between the two conglomerates opened the possbility of a similar transaction in the local parent level.
The two honchos of Metro Pacific and GT Capital were both pleased with the transaction. Metro Pacific chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, or MVP, said the deal strengthened his conglomerate and spoke of working together “to accelerate our investment in, and development of, the infrastructure of our country.”
GT Capital vice chairman Alfred Ty said the company would become a strategic investor of Metro Pacific, which is into power, water, toll roads, railways and healthcare.
“This is a significant milestone for GT Capital since it expands and strengthens our core sector coverage with an infrastructure platform ensuring sustainable growth,” Ty said.
The share swap essentially expanded Metro Pacific’s footprint in the power sector through majority control of GT Capital’s generation unit, Global Business Power Corp. The same transaction allowed GT Capital to buy into Metro Pacific and expanded the former’s business portfolio that now includes toll roads, water distribution, hospitals and infrastructure.
The deal, meanwhile, provided the springboard for the generation unit of Manila Electric Co., Meralco PowerGen Corp., to expand to Mindanao and Visayas. Taking a majority stake in Global Business Power, according to MVP, would ensure the long-term growth of the power generation business.
“[Long-term vision] is to focus on Visayas and hopefully make our entry into Mindanao in the power sector because the incoming president is from that particular area,” Pangilinan said, referring to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
“We hope we could expand our presence in the Visayas and Mindanao as well,” Pangilinan said.
Metro Pacific unit Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc., through wholly-owned subsidiary Beacon PowerGen Holdings Inc., last week purchased 56 percent of Global Business Power from GT Capital for P22.6 billion. GT Capital shares in Global Business would be reduced to 22 percent and while those of Meralco would be trimmed to 22 percent.
GT Capital, in turn, would hold 11.4 percent of the enlarged common share capital base of Metro Pacific. In addition, GT Capital will acquire 1.3 billion shares from Metro Pacific’s majority shareholder, Metro Pacific Holdings Inc., bringing its stake in MPIC’s common share capital to 15.6 percent.
Tempting assets
Metro Pacific and its mother company, First Pacific Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong, could be tempted to look at a bigger picture after the share swap, if Ty becomes a willing partner.
Ty’s GT Capital owns a 25.4-percent interest in Metrobank, the second largest lender in the Philippines. Metrobank
along with its subsidiaries and associates, collectively the Metrobank Group, as of March 31, 2016 had total assets of P1.7 trillion and total deposits of P1.2 trillion. It is also the largest Philippine bank by book capitalization and controls 11.4 percent of the Philippine banking system’s total asset base as of December 2014.
The group partially owns Toyota Motor Philippines Corp., the biggest automotive manufacturing company in the Philippines. It is a joint venture between GT Capital and Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. and Mitsui & Company Ltd.
GT Capital is also into the real estate development business through its 100-percent interest in Federal Land Inc. which develops residential and commercial projects. Fed Land registered reservation sales of P13.4 billion in 2014.
Ty’s holding company owns 25.3 percent of Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp., which offers personal and group insurance products in the Philippines, including life insurance and investment-linked insurance products.
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]