Metro Pacific open to increasing stake in LRT1 operator

Pangilinan-led conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is interested in further increasing its stake in Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC), the private operator of Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT1).

“We are looking at it… but it will depend on the outcome of the elections actually, [as] we need to understand what the new president might expect from LRT1 because we have pending applications for tariff adjustments,” MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan said at a virtual briefing on Wednesday.

“We have spent quite a bit of money to rehabilitate the existing system of LRT1. I think starting today, the generation-4 train sets will be deployed… and we have started the construction of the extension of the LRT1,” he added.

LRMC is a joint venture between MPIC, Ayala Corp., and Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Investments Holdings (Philippines) PTE Ltd.

MPIC, through its Metro Pacific Light Rail Corporation (MPLRC), currently owns 35.8% in LRMC after Sumitomo Corp. acquired 19.2% interest in the LRT1 operator in 2020.

The company previously held a 55% stake in LRMC.

Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. owns 35% while the remaining 10% is owned by Macquarie.

Last week, the Ayala group announced that “to realize the remainder of our target, we are working on divesting our remaining thermal assets, our interest in the LRT1, and some of our non-core businesses.”

As of the first three months of 2022, MPIC saw a net income of P5.7 billion, down 19% year-on-year due to the absence of one-off gains resulting from the sale of its shares in Global Business Power Corp. and Thai toll road operator Don Muang Tollway Public Co. Ltd. (DMT) in the first quarter of 2021.

Its core net income, however, grew 23% to P3.1 billion from P2.5 billion a year earlier as "the company benefited from continued recovery and intensified election-related activities in the country," MPIC said.

“Economic recovery continues to be this year’s story. It is MPIC’s story as well, but one that is inextricably linked to everyone else’s. Understanding this interconnectedness is a crucial lesson we have learned from the pandemic: that we need to come together to work out how we can progress from a crisis; that our development as a business is tied to the advancement of others,” Pangilinan said.

“Such progress is as significant as profit and is therefore linked to creating value for all. In other words, our progress is yours as well,” he added. —VBL, GMA News