MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), led by tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, is acquiring a ₱12.4-billion stake in Manila Electric Company (Meralco) from Ramon S. Ang’s San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corporation (SMGP).
In a regulatory filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, October 2, San Miguel Corporation announced that SMGP agreed to sell a 1.9% equity block in Meralco to MPIC via a special block sale priced at ₱580.99 per share.
Under the agreement, SMGP will transfer approximately 21.4 million common shares to the MVP Group, contingent upon meeting specified contractual conditions.
This buyback follows SMGP’s acquisition of a 3.93% stake in Meralco the previous year, which finalized a December 2008 share deal delayed for 17 years by legal battles.
In August 2025, SMGP secured 43.23 million Meralco shares and later acquired an additional 1.03 million shares from state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines for ₱93.1 million at ₱90 per share.
Combined with its prior holdings, those transactions raised SMGP’s total position to roughly 46.6 million common shares, which the company’s board subsequently cleared for potential sale.
The corporate shift comes amid regulatory uncertainty for power distributors following President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s call during his fifth State of the Nation Address in July to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA). The proposed amendment aims to prevent distribution utilities from passing system loss fees and the associated 12% value-added tax on to retail consumers.
Meralco operates as the Philippines’ largest private distribution utility, servicing roughly 8.18 million customers across Luzon.
Meanwhile, SMGP maintains a total installed capacity of 5,710 megawatts across natural gas, coal, and renewable energy assets.