Conglomerate Ayala Corp. sold P4.84 billion worth of preferred shares in Manila Water Company Inc. to Trident Water Co. Holdings Inc. of businessman Enrique Razon.
Ayala said in a disclosure to the stock exchange unit Philwater Holdings Co. Inc. signed an agreement to sell 2.69 billion preferred shares to Trident Water.
The purchase of the preferred shares represents a 39.09-percent voting stake and an 8.19-percent economic stake in Manila Water. The preferred shares were priced at P1.80 apiece.
Trident Water plans to pay P100 million on or before three business days from the signing of the agreement and P2.37 billion payable on or before four years from the execution of the share purchase agreement.
The balance of P2.37 billion will be payable on or before five years from the execution of the SPA.
The rights and title to the shares, except the voting rights covered by the proxies, to be executed upon the execution of the shareholders’ agreement, should not be transferred until all payments were made, the company said.
Dividends earned by the preferred shares would continue to be for the account of Philwater until the full payment was made.
Razon signed an agreement to acquire 25-percent stake in Manila Water for P10.7 billion in February 2020.
Ayala earlier said its executive committee approved the grant of proxy rights to Trident Water for preferred shares to give Razon’s firm the 51-percent voting rights in Manila Water.
The conglomerate’s voting interest in Manila Water would drop to 31.6 percent from 65.95 percent.
Manila Water said it would use the fresh funding from Razon to improve the water and wastewater distribution system in its concession area, the east zone of Metro Manila.
The share price of Ayala rose 1.34 percent Tuesday to close at P793.
The trading of Manila Water shares was suspended by the PSE pending further evaluation on the materiality of the new information.
Manila Water posted a net income of P3.20 billion in the first three quarters of 2020, down by 24 percent from a year ago.
It said the higher water revenue contribution from the East zone concession and Laguna Water was offset by lower revenues from other domestic subsidiaries and lower other operating income which decreased by 43 percent as a result of lower supervision fees from Estate Water.
The company said operating revenues increased slightly by 0.4 percent to P16.07 billion in the nine-month period from the P16 billion a year earlier.
Aside from its various units in the Philippines, Manila Water has businesses in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.