Maynilad eyes IPO in next 2 quarters

March 17, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Maynilad Water Services Inc. sees the next two quarters of the year as crucial in undertaking its planned P49-billion initial public offering (IPO).

“It’s a very difficult question to answer categorically, but it should be in the next two quarters,” Maynilad president and CEO Ramoncito Fernandez said in a recent briefing when asked on when he sees the window opening for the company to do its IPO.

Fernandez earlier told The STAR that the company is looking at proceeding with the IPO by the third quarter.

“I reiterate that the franchise of Maynilad calls for it to offer up to 30 percent to the Philippine Stock Exchange on or before January of 2027. That said, the company is preparing so that it can be push-button within this year depending on different factors, macro-economic and geopolitical. So that’s where we are today,” he said.

Fernandez said that doing the IPO next year might be too tight already for the company.

“If you also understand our predicament, if we push it next year, we might be running out of options already,” he said.

According to Fernandez, Maynilad has enlisted the help of banks such as HSBC, Morgan Stanley, UBS and BPI for the process.

A report by InsiderPH yesterday said that Maynilad has approved a P49 billion IPO based on a regulatory filing by the company.

The report said that Maynilad plans to sell up to 2.46 billion shares at P20 apiece. The offer will consist of a base offer of 1.81 billion shares, an overallotment option of 266.3 million shares as well as a 379.29 million upsize option in case of excess demand.

Maynilad is the concessionaire of the government in providing water services in the West Zone of Metro Manila.

The company is jointly owned by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), DMCI Holdings of the Consunji family and Marubeni Corp. of Japan.

MPIC owns about 53 percent of the water utility firm, while DMCI and Marubeni hold a 25 percent and a 20 percent stake, respectively.