Stock News 2013: First Pacific keen on Angat plant

Photo of Manny (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., headed by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, confirmed that it was in talks with Korea Water Resources Corp. on a potential partnership involving the 246-megawatt (MW) Angat hydropower plant in Bulacan.

Pangilinan, who serves as managing director of First Pacific, said his group had spoken with officials of Korea Water.

“We visited Daejeon in Korea,” Pangilinan said on Friday, referring to the South Korean company’s headquarters. “They have not made a decision on which group to partner with.”

First Pacific is an investment holding firm controlled by Indonesia’s Salim family and whose investments are mainly located in the Philippines. Through local units, it has a controlling stake in Maynilad Water Services Inc., which supplies water to the west zone of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, and a 48-percent stake in Manila Electric Co., the country’s biggest electricity retailer.

First Pacific was among the interested groups when the Angat hydroelectric plant was auctioned in 2010.

At the time, it had partnered with rival Ayala Corp., which owns the Philippine capital’s east zone concessionaire Manila Water Corp., as well as the Lopez group in a joint bid against other players like San Miguel Corp., Consunji-led DMCI and the Aboitiz Group.

The state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) eventually announced that Korea Water submitted the highest bid of $440.8 million.

In May 2010, however, the Supreme Court issued a “status quo ante order” effectively blocking the planned privatization of Angat Dam’s hydroelectric power plant.

The high court only last year rendered as valid and legal the sale of the Angat power plant to Korea Water. But the plant has yet to be turned over as the government and Korea Water finalize certain details under a so-called water protocol.

http://business.inquirer.net/127479/first-pacific-keen-on-angat-plant

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Stock News 2012: Maynilad spends P10.4B to bring down NRW

MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
West Zone water concessionaire Maynilad Water Services has spent P10.4 billion since 2007 to reduce water loss due to leaking pipes and illegal connections, enabling it to recover supply for 374,980 new customers.

In a statement, the firm said that it has reduced water supply loss from 67 percent in 2007 to 43 percent as of June this year.

“We have spent P10.4 billion so far to reduce the so-called non-revenue water (NRW) and allowed us as a result to recover an average of 551 million liters per day (MLD) which we now pipe to 374,980 new consumers. In effect, this program gave us more water to serve more customers,” Maynilad president Ricky Vargas said.

Maynilad now has a total of more than one million consumers, up from only 667,000 in December 2006.

Vargas said Maynilad would continue to work on reducing water loss in its concession area.

“When you see us digging up roads, we are laying new pipes to reach heretofore unserved consumers and/or replacing old pipes. Either way, we are doing this to allow everybody the convenience of potable water supply throughout the day now and decades into the future,” he said.

Vargas said Maynilad is pushing farther into the south, particularly Cavite, while it continues to further connect consumers within its area in Metro Manila.

“We are doing all these at the same time. They require a lot of funds and we have been using our own money, borrowed funds, and collections from connected consumers to continue our expansion and rehabilitation programs. So far, we are ahead of our targets.

“We are actually supplying to more consumers than projected,” he said.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?publicationSubCategoryId=66&articleId=841849

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Stock News 2012: DMCI net profit hits P5.78 B in H1

English: Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Consunji-led DMCI Holdings, Inc. saw its first half net profit rise nine percent to P5.78 billion on the back of higher real estate sales and construction revenues.

In a financial report submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), DMCI said consolidated revenues went up by 4.81 percent to P27.47 billion with coal sales accounting for the lion’s share with P9.42 billion.

The coal mining business suffered 12 percent drop in contribution to total revenues due to lower coal prices. Nickel ore sales dipped by 13.6 percent to P1.52 billion.

Semirara Mining Corp. the country’s largest coal producer, reported a 20.7 percent drop in income in the first semester due to the decline in its coal and power revenues.

The power segment, coming mainly from the Calaca power units, also dropped in contributions due to the reduced capacity coming from the rehabilitation of its unit 1.

The construction business under D.M. Consunji posted better operations, pumping in P601 million to the group’s total earnings, up 23.7 percent year-on-year. The growth was due mainly to billable works done for the building projects. Significant accomplishments in the Entertainment City and the Raffles Hotel provided most of the boost in revenues.

Construction activity from the Tarlac-Pangasinan-LaUnion Expressway (TPLEX) also helped contribute notable revenues for DMCI.

Moving forward, newly awarded power plant-civil works projects in Calaca and Balayan, Batangas are also expected to contribute not just construction revenues but higher margins as well.

DMCI’s orderbook as of June 2012 reached P17 billion. The bulk of the balance of work is coming from the Entertainment City and the power plant contracts in Batangas. However, the orderbook does not include the MRT-7 railway project, which was conditionally awarded to DMCI upon financial closing.

The housing segment under the brand DMCI Homes logged a 38 percent increase in net contributions from P845 million last year to P1.2 billion. Revenues grew 40 percent to P4.5 billion due to the completion of sold units in the Cedar Crest project in Taguig City.

Reservation sales, on the other hand, declined six percent to P9.4 billion. The group hopes to at least reach the same levels of full year sales and reservations in 2011 as it launches new projects in the second half.

Most of the group’s housing units have a selling price around P3 million per unit. With the current increase of VAT-free housing price threshold to around P3.3 million, the company has leveraged on the tax advantage to become more competitive in terms of price in the market.

DMCI said its water business through Maynilad Water Services Inc., continued to post better results with net earnings rising 22 percent to P3.3 billion due to improved operating efficiencies.

The group owns 44.59 percent of the consortium company which in turn owns 91.9 percent of the west zone concessionaire.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?publicationSubCategoryId=66&articleId=839742

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Stock News 2012: Maynilad allots P300 million for repair of leaking pipes

West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc. has allocated P300 million for the repair of pipe leaks this year.

Maynilad said in a statement yesterday that the P300 million would be spent for its active leakage control program which involves the repair of pipe leaks as well as the maintenance of accessories.

Maynilad has also allotted P20 million for the purchase of a new leak detection equipment.

The firm uses state-of-the-art leak detection technologies to control pipe leaks.

“We inherited a lot of old and deteriorated pipes. Instead of implementing total pipe replacements which are very costly and disruptive to the public, we’re actively searching for underground leaks so we can repair them using more cost-efficient means,” Ricky Vargas, president and chief executive officer of Maynilad said.

Maynilad said that for the first quarter, it has already repaired nearly 12,000 leaks, which is approximately 17 percent higher compared to the same period last year.

Most of the leaks were found on primary and secondary lines in Caloocan, Manila and Quezon City.

Maynilad has set its capital expenditures for this year at P8.4 billion to improve and expand its water and wastewater services.

The firm said earlier it was looking to raise P2 billion in the latter part of the year to fund development projects.

Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the country in terms of customer base.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=798672&publicationSubCategoryId=66