Pangilinan camp buys 6.6% more of Meralco from Lopez group

Manuel Pangilinan-led Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc. on Tuesday completed its acquisition of an additional 6.6 percent of power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) from the Lopez group, bringing its total shareholding to 238 million or 21.1 percent. In a disclosure to the Philippines Stock Exchange, Beacon Electric parent Metro Pacific Holdings Inc. (MPIC) said it acquired 238,302,961 common shares of the power distributor through special block sales on Tuesday. It bought 74.7 million common shares from Lopez-owned First Philippine Holdings Corporation at P300 apiece, bringing the purchase price to P22.41 billion. The remaining 163,602,961 shares were transferred by MPIC to Beacon Electric for P24.54 billion or P150 per share. Pangilinan-led Pilipino Telephone Corp. also owns 6 percent of the utility. Tuesday’s transaction brought the Lopezes’ Meralco stake down to 6.8 percent. Beacon Electric earlier borrowed P18 billion from various banks to complete the share acquisition. The MPIC also reported the completion of the issuance of P6.6 billion convertible bonds to Metro Pacific Holdings, Inc. Meanwhile, Lopez-owned First Philippine Utilities Corp. also announced the full payment of its P11.21-billion loan to the MPIC. Meralco’s share price added P2 to P182 apiece on Tuesday. — Nikka Corsino/NPA, GMANews.TV