Posted on December 12, 2011 10:31:55 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
DISTRIBUTION UTILITY Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is divesting its stake in Rockwell Land Corp. in line with plans for the property firm to debut onto the local bourse, a disclosure yesterday showed.
Meralco, which controls 51% of Rockwell Land according to the latest annual report, will accomplish the divestment by declaring its shares in the property firm as property dividends.
“The company’s board of directors approved… Meralco’s plan to divest its investment in Rockwell Land through declaration of all of Meralco’s shares in Rockwell Land as property dividends and subsequent listing by way of introduction,” the utility said in the disclosure.
The remaining shares in Rockwell Land are held by First Philippine Holdings Corp.
The property firm accounted for P444 million or 4%, of Meralco’s 2010 net income of P10.12 billion.
Rockwell Land’s 2010 revenues amounted to P3.375 billion up 17% from P2.877 billion in the year previous.
The revenues were generated from the firm’s residential developments and from Rockwell Power Plant Mall.
Meralco and Rockwell Land officials could not be immediately reached for further details on the divestment and the public listing.
Rockwell Land had earlier said it plans to list on the bourse “in the next five years.”
The company was formed in 1995 and is behind the 15.5-hectare Rockwell Center in Makati along with several residential developments.
Rockwell Land counts The Grove along C-5 Road and The Rockwell Business Center in Meralco’s Ortigas compound as among its projects.
Meralco went on to disclose that its board also gave the “authority for the company to enter several power supply agreements for the distribution utility and local retail electricity supplier wit South Premiere Power Corp., Masinloc Power Partners Co., Ltd. and SEM-Calaca Power Corp.”
It also authorized Meralco “to negotiate a financing facility with one or more financial institutions.”
Meralco has so far posted a core net income growth of 27.4% to P11.66 billion as of September from P9.15 billion the previous year.
Its consolidated reported net income rose 24.9% to P9.95 billion from P7.97 billion.
Shares of Meralco closed at P236, down 0.84% from its previous close of P238 a piece. -- ENJD
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