SYDNEY, Australia—Metropac Water Investments Corp., the water unit of conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. for operations outside Metro Manila, may take over or partner with number of water districts all over the country as it expands its operations.
Metropac Water President Laurence Rogero told reporters here the company has 26 projects in its expansion pipeline, 11 of which are for bulk water projects and eight are for full concession.
“There are 500 water districts all over the country, and they are classified according to size, credit standing and opportunities for growth,” Rogero said. “We are not looking to take over all 500, but we are looking at well-placed opportunities. There are a couple of dozen that are good targets.”
A bulk-water project involves the production of clean water to be bought by distribution companies, while a full concession is a combination of bulk-water treatment and distribution to end users.
“We try to follow the LWUA [Local Water Utilities Administration] guidelines on which water districts are the Class-A water districts, and these are basically water districts that have good credit standings but are unable to tap into funding sources, not necessarily because of their performance, but because of their inexperience,” Rogero added.
The 26 expansion projects identified by the company are expected to serve some 19.14 million people—more than the concession of sister company Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI)—with potential volume of 3,214 million liters per day.
Of the 26, Rogero said two are considered as “very high- and high-probability projects,” while 10 and 14 belong to medium- and low-probability projects, respectively.
Metropac Water parent Metro Pacific Investments Corp. also owns a chunk of MWSI, the concessionaire of the west zone of Metro Manila, where the company started its experience in running a water utility.
“When we say ‘very high probability projects,’ these are those that already declared original proponent, but we can’t disclose yet,” Rogero said. “High-probability projects are projects where we’ve finalized negotiations, but we haven’t been declared original proponent yet.”
Rogero explained that “medium-probability projects are those where we received an official letter for continuing negotiations already.”
“Low-probability is not probably low in that sense,” he added. “These are projects we received indications that the water-distribution [entities] are interested, but we have not received official documentation yet to show that the water district is in fact willing to enter stage of negotiation.”
Metropac Water has existing bulk water-supply projects in Iloilo, Cagayan De Oro and Cavite.
The company has an 80-percent ownership in Metro Iloilo Bulk Water Supply Corp., 95-percent ownership in Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water Inc. and a 49-percent stake in the Maragondon Bulk Water Supply project for Cavite in partnership with MacroAsia Corp., a company led by tycoon Lucio Tan.
Meanwhile, the firm has a joint venture with Equi-Parco Construction Co. for the full concession of the Laguna Water District.