MVP to sell Rockwell stake to Lopezes

BUSINESSMAN MANUEL V. Pangilinan’s camp will be selling its stake in Rockwell Land Corp. to the Lopezes to allow it to focus on power investments, which could include a future factory for electric vehicles.

“We are selling it to the Lopezes,” Mr. Pangilinan told reporters on Friday after a stockholders meeting, referring to a 23.1% stake in the property developer, which is largely held by the Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings Corp.

“We will disclose the [price after the transaction] is finished,” he added.

The Pangilinan group controls 23.1% in the property developer, through Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., the controlling shareholder of Meralco.

This, as Mr. Pangilinan said that his group might set up a unit intended for its investments in e-vehicles.

“First Pacific Co. Ltd. will have to establish separate vehicle for the e-vehicle investments,” he said, clarifying that the locally based Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) will not be the investment vehicle.

“If we [Filipino] people don’t look at it as an opportunity, it would be a pity for us, because we will give a lot of livelihood to China, Korea and Taiwan, which were heavily represented in the summit [on Thursday],” he said during the stockholders’ meeting, referring to the Electric Vehicle Summit.

Mr. Panglinan said that his group “should seriously consider if they have the capability to manufacture” the country’s jeepneys and tricycles.

Mr. Pangilinan went on to note that MPIC’s connector road project, the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx), could be “completed by December of 2015” if government greenlights it within this year.

Christopher Daniel C. Lizo, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.’s chief finance officer, said that the company would conduct fund raising activities in 2013 to finance the connector road project.

“We will have a fund raising next year, but we don’t now yet how much it would be,” he told reporters on Friday.

He said that the company’s budget for the right of way acquisition is P7 billion, which is excluded in the P23-billion budget for the connector road.

Shares of MPIC fell by 0.50% to P4 apiece while Meralco dropped by 0.52% to P227.80 apiece when the stock market closed on Friday.

First Pacific partly owns Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Mediaquest Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of the Beneficial Trust Fund of PLDT, has a minority stake inBusinessWorld. -- CHCV

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