MVP Group optimistic businesses to remain strong

MANILA, Philippines — The MVP Group expects its water, telecommunications and power businesses to remain strong amid the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic, but needs to reexamine its other businesses to enable the group to remain strong despite the health crisis.

In an interview with The Chiefs on One News Friday night, Pangilinan said the group’s water, telecommunications and power businesses remain strong as these provide essential needs even with the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.

The MVP Group is behind the country’s largest power distributor Manila Electric Co., while power firm Global Business Power is a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC). The west zone water concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. is also a subsidiary of MPIC.

Pangilinan said the other businesses would have to be reexamined, taking into consideration the negative impact of the pandemic. Some infrastructure projects, for instance, would have to be shelved until things normalize again.

The group will also be expanding its hospital portfolio and will be opportunistic or on the look out for other hospitals or medical facilities to acquire as it continues to help the government battle COVID-19. It can also get into the pharmaceutical business.

“In this pandemic from a business perspective, we realize that hospitals should also get into the production of pharmaceuticals,” Pangilinan said.

At the same time, Pangilinan said there is a need for the private sector, including his group to look at new business models that could help the country respond to similar health pandemics in the future.

These include those related in the food supply chain, the agriculture industry, e-commerce and telemedicine.

“We have to look at the supply chain in agriculture for instance. We need to understand our situation.  The logistics requirement of a pandemic would be easier to understand if we have a blueprint,” he said.

The group’s MPIC is already bearing the brunt of COVID-19’s effect on the economy. Its first quarter income already took a hit with core net income down by six percent to P3.4 billion from P3.7 billion previously.

It expects a reduction in capex of up to P80 billion from P160 billion originally.

MPIC’s consolidated reported net income attributable to owners of the parent company was  P1.9 billion for the period, down from P3.5 billion a year earlier due to  the provisioning in full of the carrying value of Meralco’s investment in Pacific Light Power (PLP), a gas-fired power plant in Singapore.