Maynilad Water Services Inc., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., is raising P18.5 billion through the issuance of a long-term notes facility to refinance debt and other corporate requirements.
Metro Pacific said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Monday Maynilad signed P18.5 billion in notes facility with several banks. The term loan will have a tenor of 7, 10 and 15 years.
“The proceeds of the facility will be used to refinance its existing peso-denominated loans it issued in 2013 and fund other general corporate requirements,” Metro Pacific said.
BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp. and China Bank Capital Corp. will serve as lead arrangers and book runners of the fund-raising activity.
Maynilad, the water concessionaire in the west zone of Metro Manila, earlier reported that it allotted ₱9 billion in capital expenditure this year, with ₱6.5 billion earmarked for water infrastructure investments that include pipe-laying projects to connect still-unserved areas.
The water utility said it would also continue to implement projects to further improve its water loss recovery or non-revenue water management program.
It will also allot P1.7 billion for wastewater management projects to increase sewerage coverage and maintain network reliability.
Funding for Maynilad’s infrastructure investments will come from local and international bank loans, as well as from internally generated funds. The water company expects to generate over 26,000 jobs from the P9-billion capex program this year.
Maynilad remains aggressive with its capital spending plan, even as the government contested an arbitral ruling awarding the company P3.4 billion as payment over alleged losses due to a rate dispute.
Maynilad earlier reported that the Philippine government asked Singapore’s High Court to set aside an arbitration panel’s ruling in favor of the water utility firm.
Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base. It is the agent and contractor of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System for the west zone of the Greater Manila Area.
