Megawide parent sells P5.7-B stake to new affiliate

MANILA, Philippines -  Citicore Holdings Investment Inc. (CHII), the parent company of Megawide Construction Corp., has sold its 313.8 million shares in the listed construction firm to newly-formed company Megacore Holdings for P5.7 billion.

Megacore is a new holding company formed to consolidate the economic stake of Megawide co-founder Edgar Saavedra in Megawide.

Post-transaction, Saavedra, thru Megacore and CHII combined, will effectively own 40.17 percent of Megawide.

The move is in line with Megawide’s expansion efforts to bid for more construction deals and infrastructure projects.

Under the arrangement, CHII will reduce its stake in Megawide to 51 percent from 66.67 percent.

Megawide co-founder and chairman Michael Cosiquien’s interest in Megawide remains consolidated thru CHII.

Engineers Saavedra and Cosiquien, classmates at the De La Salle University, founded Megawide in 1997 and the company is now one of the leading contractors and infrastructure developers in the country. From its roots in the construction of residential and commercial structures, the company has successfully transitioned toward the development and management of large-scale infrastructure projects.

“The transaction is strong proof of my confidence in Megawide. Twenty years ago, my former classmate, Michael Cosiquien, and I crafted the vision for Megawide to become one of the leading construction companies in the Philippines. After realizing this vision, we continue to challenge ourselves to transform the company into a diversified infrastructure and engineering conglomerate,” Megawide president Saavedra said.

“This restructuring enables us to maximize our resources and skillsets enabling us to focus on areas where they are best utilized. There is much that Edgar and I have yet to explore and accomplish and this transaction is part of our innovation towards bigger and better things,” Cosiquien said.

The company in partnership with GMR of India, won the concession to expand and operate the country’s second-busiest international gateway, Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

It also earlier bagged other government projects such as the country’s first intermodal land-based transport hub, the Southwest Integrated Transport System located in Parañaque City.

Megawide also built close to 10,000 classrooms across Luzon under the national government’s public school PPP project.

Moving forward, the company would continue to diversify, the two founders said.

“In 20 years, we have managed to diversify our project portfolio to include not just private sector EPC projects but also public infrastructure. We’re even looking into projects abroad. There are numerous opportunities for synergy with other sectors and we want to maximize that,” Saavedra said.