Metro Pacific charts stronger growth path

February 28, 2024 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is charting a stronger growth path on its first year back as a private company following its delisting from the stock market late last year.

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan told The STAR the re-privatized company expects earnings for 2024 to surpass last year’s performance.

“I think we’ll report good numbers (for) last year,” Pangilinan said.

“This year probably we’ll show an increase in profitability as well,” he said.

MPIC previously indicated that the company is on track to exceed its P16.1 billion core net income target for 2023 due to the strong performance of its core businesses.

Consolidated core net income of the company in the first nine months of 2023 reached P16.2 billion, up 37 percent year-on-year.

For 2024, Pangilinan said investments of MPIC would be focused on agribusiness and supporting tollways expansion.

“They mentioned Trans-Java, which will probably require funding from us, from MPIC,” he said.

MPIC’s toll road arm Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. earlier said it may need to allocate $600 million if it successfully secures its bid to invest in Indonesian toll road operator PT Jasa Marga Tbk’s Transjawa Tol.

State-owned PT Jasa Marga is Indonesia’s largest toll road operator, with its subsidiary Jasamarga Transjawa Tol operating 676 kilometers or 56 percent of the Trans Java Toll Road.

MPIC also has ongoing discussions with San Miguel Corp. relating to a possible joint venture for the respective toll road businesses or projects of both parties.

The corporation will be jointly organized, established and possibly listed by both parties in the Philippine Stock Exchange, subject to the requirements of applicable laws and regulations.

For the agri business, MPIC made its entry into the sector in 2022 through a partnership with the Carmen’s Best Group, which was followed by another agri venture last year with the acquisition of 34.76 percent ownership in Axelum Resources Corp., a manufacturer and exporter globally of high-quality coconut products.

Pangilinan said MPIC’s strategy for acquisition would remain the same moving forward despite being a private company.

MPIC voluntarily delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange and successfully re-privatized last year.

Aside from toll roads and agri business, MPIC is also into power, water and hospitals, and has also been expanding into tourism.