The government, through sovereign wealth fund Maharlika Investment Corp., is looking to acquire at least one board seat in the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, operator of the country’s national electricity transmission highway, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said.
Romualdez told the open forum of the Manila Overseas Press Club conference Tuesday night that one of the investment recommendations when the House was crafting the Maharlika soverign wealth fund bill was “to buy into the National Grid” for developmental purposes.
He said the idea is to acquire between 8 percent and 10 percent of the privately-held power transmission firm and have enough shares for Maharlika to have “at least one board seat” in NGCP.
State Grid Corp. of China owns 40 percent of NGCP, while Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr. control 60 percent of the company. When the consortium bought state-owned National Transmission Corp. it needed to pay the Power Sector Asset Liability Management Corp. a total of $3.95 billion for the concession rights, with the remaining $1 billion to be paid between 2024 and 2034.
Based on this amount, Maharlika will have to shell out at least $400 million, around P22.5 billion at current exchange rate, to secure 10 percent of NGCP.
NGCP is a privately owned corporation in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s state-owned power grid, an interconnected system that transmits gigawatts of power at thousands of volts from where it is made to where it is needed.
The company performs its mandate as transmission service provider with the full awareness of its nature as a public utility.
